PlayStation has just published its full top 20 lists of the most downloaded PS5 games from last year — and they make for an interesting read.
Outside of the usual suspects — Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, FC 25, and, of course, Grand Theft Auto 5 — the likes of Helldivers 2, Black Myth: Wukong, and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero did especially well for themselves.
Popular Game of the Year pick and PS5 exclusive Astro Bot puts in an appearance as well — although it's a bit of a shame that it didn't manage to break the top 10 in the US or Europe.
However, it's well worth noting that these lists do not take free-to-play titles into account. So juggernauts like Fortnite and the much more recent Marvel Rivals aren't included. We assume that the rankings would look very different had free games been featured.
Anyway, here are the complete top 20 rankings...
Most Downloaded PS5 Games of 2024 (US and Canada)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- EA Sports College Football 25
- Helldivers 2
- NBA 2K25
- Grand Theft Auto 5
- EA Sports Madden NFL 25
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- EA Sports FC 25
- NBA 2K24
- Madden NFL 24
- MLB The Show 24
- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2
- Astro Bot
- Sea of Thieves
Most Downloaded PS5 Games of 2024 (Europe)
- EA Sports FC 25
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Grand Theft Auto 5
- Helldivers 2
- EA Sports FC 24
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Sea of Thieves
- Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- It Takes Two
- UFC 5
- Astro Bot
- The Crew Motorfest
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2
- Elden Ring
- Phasmophobia
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
- Gran Turismo 7
What do you make of these rankings? Are there any obvious absentees from 2024? Await a time when these lists include both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto 6 in the comments section below.
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 27
I am not surprised by the top 20 lists because they match the monthly physical copies list somewhat similarly. You can also see that American & Canadian tastes are slightly different from European gamers.
Funny enough, this site aside, I barely have had anyone bring up Astrobot or recommend it. Even with all of its accolades.
FC25 most downloaded game on PS5 in 2024 in Europe and EA are disappointed with the sales.
Astro Bot being on these lists at all is incredible, especially when the competition is the usual suspects of Call of Duty, sports games, and cultural juggernauts like GTA V and Hogwarts Legacy.
Surprised no gachas made the list
@DualWielding no f2p titles are included
And people wonder why Sony wanted more Live Services... here's your answer, they are the most popular games. And this doesn't even include Free to Play titles like Fortnite, Roblox, COD: Warzone, Apex Legends, HSR etc. it would be a virtual whitewash if it did.
If you don't like live services that is fine, but don't delude yourself that they aren't the most popular titles, when they are.
Nice to see Helldivers 2 so high in the charts! Great game. My friends and I still play it weekly for its brilliant mix of white knuckle tension and big laughs.
Just goes to show the pretty stark difference between the US & Canada, and then Europe. They certainly love their annual sports titles when compared to Europe...
@Jayslow @DualWielding They have a separate list for Free to Play, with all the usual suspects on there, but no gacha. I think they are big on console but not close to PC or Mobile.
What i see is:
-Helldivers in number 3 just after two forever games and above a bunch of other forever games is great and deserved.
-Helldivers and Wukong saving the year filling the Concord disaster.
-MLB The Show 24 is still a great business for Sony, many don't think about it when thinking about "Sony services" but GT and MLB are the original services.
-Spider Man is still selling a lot one year after release, also good news.
-Astro Bot being in the top 20 in fantastic. The PS playerbase wasn't the place for games like Astro to be fully appreciated but that can change with time.
-Europe appreciated Astro more than America, it makes sense.
A shame that the blog didn't include the list of PSVR 1 most downloaded games, I'm pretty sure Astro would be on top.
Amazing how GTA5 is still top 5 after all these years
So… it’s an interesting metric — “most downloaded” as opposed to “best selling”. So it implies that these games weren’t necessarily purchased in 2024. So people could be just re-downloading their GTA 5 or It Takes Two games from prior years. I’m guessing some people delete the old NBA or Madden game and then redownload it when the next season starts or when they have friends over, as opposed to leaving it on their console.
A better metric is the PC concurrent players numbers, because just because a game is downloaded doesn’t mean that it’s being played. I can definitely attest to that. I had No Man’s Sky on my hard drive for years and never launched it. 😂
Also… Phasmophobia isn’t something I remember charting at all. It’s a surprising one to be on this. Again, I think maybe it’s also more downloaded repeatedly because it’s a co-op game and gets redownloaded more than once for friend play sessions and deleted in between.
I literally have not played a single game on these lists lol
I have a whopping 3 of those games, all physical though...
Although technically I claimed It Takes Two whenever it was on PS Plus, I haven't downloaded it.
@themightyant Live service games should have their own section......on the Ladbrokes website.
I'm guilty of downloading GTA5 last year and replaying story mode.. It's that good, and I don't even play online
@GymratAmarillo Completely agree. It's crazy people don't consider MLB or Gran Turismo live services, this has been going on for a while.
Sony stated in their 2021 investor documents that MLB The Show 2021 was the "highest paying user spend of any sports title in the US PS Store" as of March 2021, that's more than FIFA, Madden, NBA etc. per user.
Many old games on EU list. Both EA 24 and 25 on list. But it seems football/ soccer is not as popular in the US. Maybe Sony should release on Switch 2, where there lots of platforming lovers. Not sure, Mario fans would revolt though. That would be quite a big shock.
GTA 5 really is an infinite money glitch.
Shame that means we will get a new GTA mabey every 15 years
@Stickleman
That's more because of Rockstar's modern game design and the resources and time it takes them to do it, and GTA Online allows them to do it.
I'd rather see the most played games on PlayStation from last year sales charts are rather boring
@Stickleman you got the defective edition as well as mobile ports that you can't play until you contact customer services with your receipt information
GTA 5 being among the top 5 most downloaded games 12 years after release is insane
@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Totally agree. Like you I like playing single player and personally would prefer if Sony concentrated on those games. But it's wilful ignorance at this point if you can't accept that live services have taken over in the last 10+ years and dominate sales, profit, engagement etc. You don't have to like it, but don't delude yourself people.
Even games that we maybe don't think of as 'live services' are often live services now including games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Gran Turismo, etc. More and more single player games are becoming live service lite.
I don't blame Sony at all for trying to catch some more of this profitable wave, but I agree their execution has been poor. That all said, despite the failures, I expect they have still made large profits through their live service initiative. They've had record profits, several quarters running. And how much does MLB The Show bring in every year? As I quoted above Sony said it made more than every other sports game in the US per user a few years ago. Plus Destiny, Helldivers 2, Gran Turismo etc. With the exception of Concord and TLOU Factions all their other live services have seemingly been cancelled quite early.
There are only 2 games on the lists that I have played, and those don't even start up until 14-15 (depending on region). An interesting list, though for me, full of uninteresting filler games; but one mans trash and all.
PlayStation players love sports games and multiplayer shooters more than anything.
I've been playing nothing on these lists. Just been playing like a dragon infinite wealth, rdr2 and replaying the phantom pain
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