Sony's PlayStation Network has been a tremendous success from a financial perspective, with PSN earning more than the entirety of Nintendo in the financial year ending March 2016. That year was not a one-off either, with Sony recently confirming some rather impressive figures in terms of PSN usage, with the network now topping 70 million monthly active users.

The reveal comes courtesy of Sony itself, with the company releasing its Corporate Strategy Meeting briefing today. Alongside a large chunk of other PlayStation-related news, Sony confirmed that PSN had a reached the milestone of 70 million active users, although it has yet to confirm exactly what it means by active.

This certainly puts Sony at the forefront of major console gaming networks. According to the most recent figures from April of this year, Microsoft confirmed that Xbox Live for Xbox One and PC had reached the figure of 52 million active users. Although these recent details from Sony do include users across PS4, PS3, and PS Vita, it's still a significant number.

playstation network active users

What's more, Sony was also able to deliver another hefty user base figure as part of this Corporate Strategy Meeting briefing. Within the realm of PlayStation Plus subscribers, Sony was willing to reveal that the number of paying members for the PS Plus service has now gone over the 26 million user mark. This means that around 37 percent of those using PSN services are paying to be PS Plus members.

With these figures in mind, it's easy to understand why Sony is perhaps feeling confident going into the next financial year. The PS4 has been a tremendous success, and the company's grasp of online networks certainly has given them a strong foothold in the market. It's no surprise, then, to see Sony offer up a strong prediction for the next financial year in the face of excellent PS4 sales figures.

Of course, this year will prove to be one filled with additional competition, with the Nintendo Switch lineup set to grow and Microsoft aiming to take back the number one spot through the launch of Project Scorpio. With that in mind, it will certainly be interesting to see what Sony plans to do to keep ahead of the game, with the company's E3 2017 presentation no doubt set to give a better understanding.

Source: Sony