Ampere Games consumer research indicates that a lack of enjoyable games is the most common reason why users churn from PlayStation’s cloud gaming and download subscription service, PS Now. Other popular churn rationales include perceived poor value for money and friends being on other services.

An absence of enjoyable games can be a crucial issue for any subscription service. As a way of enhancing sustainability, new releases are typically not included for some time, and so service providers must rely on historic catalogues. Unlike Sony, who has focused on creating a more nostalgic library for PS Now, Microsoft has committed to bringing first-party exclusives to its Xbox Game Pass service on launch. This is something Sony claims is unsustainable for its PlayStation services.

PS Now boasts a huge library of 800+ PS4, PS3 and PS2 titles, with new games added monthly. Despite this, one in four churned subscribers in Japan and the USA left because they did not find the content enjoyable enough. This churn reason was also more common among ex-PS Now subscribers than prior users of Xbox Game Pass.

Users who churned for this reason enjoy genres such as board & card, survival and sandbox, and tend not to favour more mainstream categories such as sport and puzzle, while a preference for arcade and fighting games reflects the higher share of Japanese users.