PlayStation Home downloaded 19m times

By Ellie Gibson Published 1 March, 2011

But Sony quiet on figure for active users.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation Home client has been downloaded 19 million times since launch.

According to Home director Jack Buser, the average Home session lasts for 70 minutes. He reckons that's down to people playing the games you can access within the service, of which there are now around 230.

Virtual items are also proving popular, said Buser. Last year the number of items available grew by 110 per cent.

The 19 million figure refers to instances of Home being downloaded and booted up at least once. When asked how many active users the service has, Buser declined to comment - saying that figure is available, but only to developers who have signed a non-disclosure agreement.

However, he did say that as an indication, 1.6 million users played the racing game Sodium within six weeks of release, in North America alone.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Stomp224 #1 1 year ago

    19 million times? I wonder if that figure is being inflated by the fact you have to download each new area as you navigate to it...

  • George-Roper #2 1 year ago

    I think 19m is probably accurate, given that it will definitely include all the Beta downloads too.

    At the end of the day, its a free download. If Sony had tried to charge a base amount for this micro-transaction laden POS it would be a completely different story.

  • Darren #3 1 year ago

    They say that Home is where the heart is... not on my PS3, it ain't!!! Heap 'o shite! :p

  • rotmm #4 1 year ago

    @Stomp224,

    No, it's not counting instances of loading each area, otherwide I'm sure the number would be in the hundreds of millions ;)

    Still, the usual slimy PR trying to give (potentially) a false impression. All to happy to spoit the 19m figure, but how many are actually using it on a regular basis? Ahh, "we can't say, sorry"

    FFS.

  • Machiavellian #5 1 year ago

    Oh well, without actual active users, the stat means nothing. I know I slipped and download Home one time because I was trying to go to the playstation store and hit the button twice.

  • Yuroko #6 1 year ago

    "1.6 million users played the racing game Sodium within six weeks of release"

    Then they promptly went back to harassing female avatars like a gaggle of rapists. At least that's what I did after I tried Sodium.

  • Lunastra78 #7 1 year ago

    Well I accidentally started to DL it again as I was minding some other, totally unrelated business.

    It feels like its some kind of booby trap in my XMB.

  • Rodster #8 1 year ago

    PlayStation Home downloaded 19m times..But Sony quiet on figure for active users

    translation: "A free service no one wants to use". :p

  • super_monty #9 1 year ago

    I have downloaded it 3 times and deleted it 3 times.

  • Phishfood #10 1 year ago

    wow so lame "non-disclosure agreement"

  • captain_Carl #11 1 year ago

    Yeah you're right everyone. No one uses it. Every time i load it up (even at 2, 3, 4 or 5am) the hoards of people in there are figments of my imagination. When you go to the carnival spaces and see loads of people spending money on games? Yeah it's all imagined. No one uses it. Silly me. Silly sony for keeping it going when no one uses it. They're clearly having the same hallucinations as i am!

  • Retroid #12 1 year ago

    Downloaded it on my original 60gb launch PS3. I had such high hopes for it I get into the beta phase too.

    I've never even considered downloading it on my replacement Slim. I wish I could remove the icon from the XMB.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #13 1 year ago

    People don't really like it, me included - it's just really not my thing at all. But I still think sony should be applauded for trying something like this on a home console.

    For free, it's not like you wasted any of your own money. Horses for courses.

    It's hilarious that people are so scathing towards an OPTIONAL service that is offered totally FREE. You don't like it?! move on...it's no big deal is it?!
    Edited by TheEarlOfZinger at 01/03/11 @ 21:34

  • Retroid #14 1 year ago

    Speaking personally it's disappointment!

    I'd like to restrict my experience to friends only and be able to kick people out, stream video or at least watch the same streams together with friends. Integration with PS3 games like the Namco arcade games. Stuff like that.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #15 1 year ago

    That would be excellent, we may see it evolve into that eventually - hope so!

  • Lucodeath #16 1 year ago

    Ive visited it 3 times and one of those was accidental, since been deleted as hard drive space is tight. Downloaded 19m an deleted 19m times no doubt.

  • Mark1412 #17 1 year ago

    "It's hilarious that people are so scathing towards an OPTIONAL service that is offered totally FREE. You don't like it?! move on...it's no big deal is it?!"

    The issue is, probably, that while Sony were playing with Home they could have been improving some of the features people have been asking them to improve for some time now.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #18 1 year ago

    That was another factor, the actual download size, it's ridiculously big.

  • tiny_Eggy #19 1 year ago

    Thy have released numbers of active users on countless occasions.

  • Machiavellian #20 1 year ago

    Personally, I have no problems with home. I understand it's something that is not geared towards what I want to do or interact with my console. The problem I have is with Sony spending a lot of resources on Home but not mirroring the same efforts on the XMB.

    Case in point would be something like Party Chat on the 360. Party chat is perfect on how I like to interact with my console. I do not want to game with strangers, meet strangers, associate with strangers. I have a large friend list and those are the people I want to associate with. When I game, my time is limited. I do not want to load up an interface just to join up with my friends, then launch a game. I want something simple and quick that allow me to join up with my friends and stay connected no matter what we are doing.

    Party Chat is something I feel should be within the XMB but instead it seems Sony is concentrating on those features in Home. If home is where all the features I enjoy on the 360 will be at, it just makes it easier to do those things within the 360 instead of having to go through hoops to do it on the PS3.

  • Machiavellian #21 1 year ago

    Thy have released numbers of active users on countless occasions.

    No they have not. I cannot remember any news on home that used or stated active users. I did a search before I made this post and could not find anything. If you have a link could you post it.

  • ZuluHero #22 1 year ago

    I quite like it and its always busy when i pop on. It quite nice to see some of the inventive stuff developers do for the games, the Uncharted, Forbidden Siren and Heavy Rain ones spring to mind.

    Im only a 'lite' user though and i've never bought anything through the service. There is something compelling about playing the mini-games and winning freebies though! :)

  • Restart #23 1 year ago

    Downloaded 19million times. Used 19million times.

  • Iain815 #24 1 year ago

    "According to Home director Jack Buser"

    I kept reading that over and over, until I realised it wasn't Jack Bauer.
    Edited by Iain815 at 02/03/11 @ 00:30

  • chessboxer #25 1 year ago

    @TheEarlOfZinger

    Actually, Home (the client that everyone downloads) is only about 200MB in size - hardly ridiculously big. Most areas are between 20-40MB. Even areas where they have recreated part of a game world like RE5 or inFamous fall within that capacity.

  • chessboxer #26 1 year ago

    @TheEarlOfZinger

    Actually, Home (the client that everyone downloads) is only about 200MB in size - hardly ridiculously big. Most areas are between 20-40MB. Even areas where they have recreated part of a game world like RE5 or inFamous fall within that capacity.

  • alcides #27 1 year ago

    HOT NEWS! PSHOME BEING TALKED ABOUT IN THE PRESS. CLICK FOR FURTHER INSIGHT.

  • aphexstwin #28 1 year ago

    @mark 1412

    what can be improved on the xmb tbh? do u not think if something as simple as cross game chat was possible they would have done it already? or would it not be possible due to microsoft patenting the idea on a console? either way, home wont be taking good people away from doing that particular job. if theres anything else wrong with a sleek gui, im not finding it tbh

  • TurboBailey #29 1 year ago

    18.5 million never to try it again

  • Ashcroft #30 1 year ago

    Is that Surround The Female Avatar' game still really popular? Everyone was playing it during the single time I tried Home.

  • SlackMaster #31 1 year ago

    While I know that some will like Home, it's not for me. Too time consuming and a bit pointless, plus don't get me started on how much HDD space it takes up, which having installed DCUO is now at a premium for me. :(

  • SlackMaster #32 1 year ago

    I wonder what the average age of people using Home is? I know that there is a lot of infantile behaviour on XBL but Home sounds equally as bad. Idiots on XBL are the main reason I only play with friends now-a-days.

  • aphex187 #33 1 year ago

    The main problem with Home is the constant delays of having to re-download areas that you have already downloaded in the past and having to load up each area as you mooch about.

    But! i did give Home another go around xmas time and was pleasantly surprised on how great it's becoming! Me and the lad spent a couple of afternoons strolling about and checking out the spaces and came away quite satisfied. That was over 2 months ago and i haven't been back since and the problem for that is i think what i was saying at the start of my post, load times!

  • Murton #34 1 year ago

    "70 minutes ? what are people doing on there ? there is nothing to do on Home."

    I suggest you try it for yourself before making such comments. There's a vast amount of content on there, I visit semi-occasionally to see what's new and that has lead to me spending hours wandering around looking at new spaces and playing new games. There's also Xi, Sodium and Novus Prime which offer a persistent gaming experience which people invest a lot of time in, missions in Novus Prime typically last 5-10 minutes depending on your level and the sense of progression makes you play again. There's a good half an hour's worth of video content at the cinema at any one time and games of bowling/pool with friends can eat up a good amount of time provided you can secure yourself a lane or table in the busy Bowling Alley space which is always packed.

    If anything, Home suffers from having too much content, so much that it is off putting to people who don't use the service on a regular basis, but once you get to grips with the throwaway experiences that it offers it becomes quite a compelling place to be. I had a little "let's see what's new in Home" visit on the weekend and spent nearly 3 hours in there looking at all the new spaces and trying out some of the games and discovered Novus Prime, a co-op multiplayer space shooter, I've since logged in three times solely to play that game in sessions ranging from 30 minutes to an hour. It's not great, there are quite a few improvements that can be made, but it's far from a waste of time and it's making a huge profit for Sony, profit that is being invested in first party studios to make some of the best games of this generation so whether you like it or not, Home is doing its job and doing it very well in my opinion.

  • spunkythefunkymunkey #35 1 year ago

    I hadn't been on it for a looong long time but then the KZ3 challenge for unlock points got me interested. While I was there I realised it had changed loads since I was last in it. And there is some very cool games to be played in there, I'll be visiting more often now.