Sony is pulling the plug on its PlayStation Stars rewards program

Three years ago, Sony launched PlayStation Stars, a rewards program that let PS5 players earn points through purchases and then redeem those points for games, DLC, microtransaction currency, and even PS Wallet credit. Today, the company has announced that the program is going the way of the dodo. 

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sony revealed that the PlayStation Stars rewards program is effectively shutting down this year. The shutdown comes in the form of three phases, starting today and finally finishing up at the end of 2026: 

• Today: New players can no longer join PS Stars, and those who quit the program won’t be allowed back in.
• July 23, 2025: After this date, PS Stars members will no longer earn any points from their purchases, or earn digital collectibles. There will be no new PS Stars campaigns. 
• November 2, 2026: PS Stars will be shut down entirely, and all accrued points will be lost. Players will be able to cash in their points up to this date. 

Sony says it “learned a lot from evaluating” player engagement with the program, and ultimately decided through this evaluation that it wasn’t worth continuing. The company says it will “continue to evaluate [its] key findings from this program,” and isn’t ruling out potential loyalty programs in the future. It just won’t be this one, anymore. 

The reaction from PlayStation fans has been… less than stellar, as you might expect. Responses to the tweet announcing the decision are almost universally negative, as are responses on Reddit, Resetera, and other internet forums. 

The decision comes after Nintendo similarly pulled the plug on its Switch rewards program, which had players earning points on their purchases, just like PS Stars, but acted more as a cashback scheme. Players on Switch would get 5% of the value back in Gold Points when buying digitally, or 1% of the value when buying digitally, which could then be applied at their equivalent value toward future purchases.