PS5 Will Reveal the Most Played Games with Steam-Like Player Numbers

Looking at that list of games, it's clear that I'm not the target audience and haven't been for a while now. Sony "prestige titles" is what I've always been here for, as well as the best 3rd party support. This list is exactly why Sony went so hard after live service. They don't own any of these games.

That top 8 certainly tells a story.

GTA 5 dominating 13 years later

So, every game is live service, despite the internet vehemently telling me no one wants those games.

Lists like this always make me disappointed in my fellow man. The masses truly have not washed.

So for the Call of Duty numbers, is that for the current game or is a combination of all Call of Duty games on the platform?

@Swandivetotheasphalt The "internet" is always a small minority of actual gamers. Most people do not interact or post on sites like this and social media. They just play the games they like and enjoy their time. The always online crowd is simply stuck in its own echo chamber.

Not really bothered what other people are playing but it's still a nice thing to implement!
Loads of people put huge stock in things like that!

@get2sammyb Exactly, these games make money because they are popular to the masses that don't go online to socialize. They play there games and enjoy them. Helldivers 2 is one of the best selling Sony games of all time, selling over 20 million copies so far. What makes this even better for Sony is that they continue to make money off of the original purchases due to people buying the DLC, while games like Ghost of Yotei sell great but only make money off of the initial purchase. Even if 90% of their live service initiative fails, the 10% that succeeds ends up making up the difference in money lost in no time and then funds other games.

Utterly pointless unless the charts are subdivided into online MP games and offline games player numbers. That top ten will barely change over time.

It’s a step in the good direction, but not very useful. We’ve known this top 10 for years from the sales data. I want concurrent players like Steam and more, but a lot of publishers will get nervous when Sony publishes more data.

Would you look at that list of games ay?

Sony is stupid for chasing live service...🙄

I picked ‘Nah, I don’t care what others are playing’ because no it wouldn’t influence my choice of games in the slightest. I would have picked ‘I’d check the list once then turn away in disgust at all the live service slop the drooling masses waste their time on’, but that poll option doesn’t exist.

Hey folks a question: since live service games are the most played and specially shooters are up there in the front, why didn’t Sony picked an own shooter series to revive, instead of betting on new projects, that ultimately failed hard? I was mostly a PC/Nintendo player so I dont know but didnt Sony have a CoD alternative? How about Killzone?

It's completely useless as is, those games are always going to be in the top 10 so this might aswell be a static image on our consoles 🤷

I'm always a fan of more data, but I suspect this top 10 isn't going to show a whole lot

I think it would be good if they prioritized games that you play, so you can always see if there's someone available to play a game with you. Of course best thing is to just let you check whatever game you want, but if they want to keep it closed in then I think that would be better. I don't care to know how many millions of people are playing Fortnite, that's nothing new to me

Nice feature, can't always be relying on "Steam concurrent players." The US and guns...

@Swandivetotheasphalt I don't speak for everyone, but I sure is hell don't want any. I don't play any of those "games".

Would like to see them do what capcom does with their games and give updates sales numbers each quarter next.. curious to see where some of the first part numbers are at.

But wait a minute. Reliable journalists and YTubers wrote think pieces and made videos about how things player counts and data like this are weaponized against games like Marathon or Concord.

@dardel they got wrapped up in short-term trends, I think. That was the main issue. Make good interesting shooters and sports games and people will always play them.

They could use countless IP's. Even a Breaking Bad live service would be less of a gamble than the niche stuff they have tried 🤷‍♂️

Also, i'm pretty sure the top 4 (the absolute behemoths) naturally evolved over time to monetise and provide new modes/seasons etc as they grew and grew, they didn't just release as predatory money vacuums, they started as games people wanted to play and adapted to the fact that people wanted to keep playing them. These days everyone is trying to start with the predatory aspect and work back and try and fit a game into it, and that is an awful way to design a game.

Plus half of those don't require Plus to play, can bet the stretch in player count from Fortnite to GTA5 is mainly because of that - FREE online play. Let that sink in Sony.

Hm. Where’s Marathon on that list?

Lol didn’t Epic just have a major layoff and say Fortnite is losing money? It has triple the amount of players as anything else.

While player count doesn’t necessarily equal revenue, you have to figure there’s a strong correlation. Either Epic was insanely wasteful and incompetent with how they’ve been spending their money or there’s a serious problem with the live service model.

The fact that most gamers are mindless drones that just play the same few games every year I could careless.

I misread "Minecraft" for " Marathon" in 3rd place for a second.😅

Transparency’s good. Also I have no interest in any of those top 8 games.

Something like this will be what hurts them and their studio made games because a young upcoming gamer will never try anything different because the widget tells them that said game is popular and just like the ones shown in this article, the people playing them never stop playing them especially fortnite, call of duty and fifa and those always stay on top.

It's kinda interesting but is it that hard to just showed how many players online if you boot up the games? Say i turn on SF 6, Uncharted 4, or Ghost of Yotei and the in-game menu or home shows how many people who's currently playing the game.

Glad to see Marathon ther- oh wait.

@themightyant I mean the same logic could be used for why would they show total players for the week

@Jacko11 I think most people understand why they're chasing live service games. The frustration comes from how poorly they've navigated that strategy. They panic bought Bungie and bunch of other studios when MS bought Blizzard/Activision. They overpaid for much of these studios and forced them into projects that many of them didn't specialize in...then they laid off many of said studios when they didn't hit the mark.

Truly, they just don't have a pulse on gamers anymore. Their most successful game they thought would be a flop, meanwhile they thought that the Concords and Marathons would be massive success stories. This is made all the more frustrating when they're known for single player narrative games

@Swandivetotheasphalt Those top 5 games have solidified themselves over the last 10 years or longer.

A lot of studios now appears to be chasing their own cash cow which needs to be something truly unique to replace those games. A lot of the newer live service titles have come and gone within 6 months or less of release.

I think people see all these newer flops and feel that time could've been spent on another single player game. Now guaranteed whatever single player game that wouldve been made in its place has a chance to fail also. But at least a single player piece of work isnt going to get shut down 3-6 months after release if it didnt meet the sales targets to warrant paying for servers amongst other things.

Seeing lists like this is just a reminder that there are many types of gamers. Outside of single player gta5 that I played 13 years ago, I wouldn't touch any of these games with a 20 foot pole.

@themightyant Very true. I think we(I?) sometimes forget how small of a group people like us are in a company's grand plan.

Yeah, not sure I need the reminder of most popular games. Painfully aware of how it is. Although part of me is surprised the gap between 1 and 2, and the gap between 4 and 5 in terms of players. I also feel like the fact that it is the usual suspects at the top reiterates how difficult and perhaps foolish it is for other developers to keep chasing the same crowd who play these games.

Great feature.... BUT we will just see the usual suspects at the top

That top 10 list is utterly hideous

Information is gold.

A top ten list is not information.

Information influences purchasing behavior, and Sony is afraid of what will happen.

If the list does not include usage metrics for ALL games, it is useless.

If the list is aggregating weekly data, it is providing ‘directional’ indicators - useless in practice.

It is great to see this beta, it feels like a single step in the correct direction.

But, it needs to be much, much more.

This would be pointless for me as it would just be the same top 10 games every time, only thing I'm surprised by is that there's no gacha games in there.

Maybe they can make it customizable so that we can pick what games to track, atleast that way I can see if it's worth jumping back into some older online games, like Monster Hunter Rise which I'm tempted to jump back into and do the DLC.

@themightyant same thing you said about fanboys using sales as bait, like why isn't helldivers 2, marathon, or even Saros on the list? People can use any data to try to start fights online.

Separate lists for multiplayer and single player and I'll actually be interested in looking at it.

While I think it's a step in the right direction, you should be able to see more games then just the Top 10, cause heavy hitters won't exactly change much. It's like how the Steam charts has Counter-Strike 2 at the top spot day in and day out.

It's a start but not really that useful in itself.

The Steam numbers are great when deciding to buy older or indie multiplayer games and see if there will be anyone to play with.

I think looking at this would just depress me.

@get2sammyb the live service success stories are either games that have always had huge followings (and perfectly fit the genre) or games that didn’t plan for the success they’ve achieved. You can’t have a boardroom meeting with a load of suits and just order up some live service juggernaut. Best thing Sony could do is buy the next successful game rather than trying to make one.

@get2sammyb this only highlights more of what I’ve been saying for years. No one buys a PS in the masses for their 1st party titles like the media would have us believe. The masses buy a PS for Call of Duty and GTA. That is what the numbers have always shown. People buy a Nintendo console for Mario and Zelda. The numbers show that as well. Sure Sony has a few hits with some of it’s IP but that is why when you play Astro Bot you see a graveyard of IP’s to collect in the game that haven’t been around in 2 console cycles. Horizon for all the love Herman has for it, is not a system seller. No one in the industry has Mario and Zelda. In the beginning i was so excited Sony was diving into online games. The sad dad action adventure games were becoming a stale formula. But gosh darn i didn’t know they would make those types of mistakes. Think of this Sony made more money securing rights to Black myth Wu Kong and Stellar Blade than it has with it’s own first party in the last several game releases. Even admitting back in 2025 on this very site that first party titles are a showcase of what the hardware can do. Basically a demo and Sony’s main priority is to find the newest games from third-party studios and leverage them into creating their titles on industry leading hardware. Corporate speak for 3rd party titles is easy and guaranteed money vs our own 1st party titles, that they have since narrowed done to around 1-2 a year. Yet the narrative around games media is Sony’s first party is whats driving in the numbers and customers. It’s not true and it takes very little to see in the numbers. Take away Spider- Man 2’s packed in hardware sales and see what the game really sold to buying customers. It’s not what most on this site would believe it to be.

This is why Sony ain’t giving up on live service games because most of the popular games on PlayStation are live service games.

Open windows into sales data are nice to have.

@dskatter lol as if

Those stats are pretty goddamn depressing

Bit pointless if that is the top 8.

This new kids really have no taste the moment they see their fav streamer/YouTuber playing you got to jump in too I guess I'm to old for this
A list filled with mainstream bs

Ps:No Roblox that's pretty surprising

Ew, I couldn't care less about anything on that top 8 list or always seeing the same constant list on my home screen. It's a shame the vast majority of gamers don't seem interested in actually high-quality and immersive games/experiences and mindlessly play the same trendy and unoriginal slop for years on end just because they feel they have to play what's "popular". It seems like the gaming industry is locked in a race to the bottom and/or a death spiral if these are the "games" making the most money.

I'll use it a lot, couldn't care less what people think, I find it interesting. I only play BF6 and Arc out of those games and the list won't affect what I play at all. The top 40 would be nice to see though, maybe they will add more in the future. Personally I think it will be a good thing for sites like this and stop some of the toxicity towards certain genres. People may have to choose their words a little more carefully but it won't stop it completely ofc, we can see that from some of the comments in this thread already. I'm 50 this year so by no means a kid.

> People complaint about Sony chasing live service games and demands more single player games
> In the same time people b*tching against Sony single player games like Intergalactic, Wolverine, Saros, Lost Soul Aside, Astro Bot, Ghost of Yotei, GoW Sons of Sparta, Death Stranding 2, Horizon FW, TloU, or Kena with so many complaint like the game is woke / DEI lesbian girlboss, sad dad sims, walking sims, too expensives, too kiddy, too difficult, tired of Marvel, tired of open world, tired of Chinese games 🤷‍♂️

Damn if you do, damn if you don't 🤷‍♂️

That's great news; now, tourists can have more data to obsess over on Twitter.

As the concept of the "Third Space" is killed by poor government policy and economic stupidity, online games have taken that place instead.

In the past kids would go to malls, parks and playgrounds. Now they go to Fortnite. For adults you'd go to the pub but as the group starts living their own lives you find it easier to connect on Helldivers 2 than arranging a pub meet.

Regarding this concept of putting these numbers online? I think it is bad. Online keyboard warriors will make discourse even worse but it is better than SteamDBs CCU in that unique weekly player count is a far more interesting metric than CCU.

I have no doubt Sony will fake the numbers.

I look at this list and cry because The Last of Us 2 multiplayer online game could’ve been here. What could’ve been.

Oh my! Not what I expected on the top. I'm obviously not in the target audience. However, Arc Raiders is very fun (provided you have a Internet connection, which I don't...).

Maybe have 2 tabs one for multiplayer games and one for non multiplayer games now that would be a useful feature

Weekly users is a way more useful indicator than Steam's concurrent players. This is a golden mine for the analysts.

Interesting but they should make it top 20. Top 8 is a bit pants.

@OptimusPrime1 Dude, single player games are one and done - instead of taking note from most played concurrent games, it would make more sense to look at sales. single player games still sell very good; you’re not gonna see them on lists like this because multiplayer & live service games have longevity and infinite replayability - you can only play an “immersive game” for so long before you’ve seen it all and done it all. This list doesn’t paint the whole picture & these top games are mostly YEARS in the running - anyone will finish a single player by then no matter how bloated it is.

then how come if I play games like fortnite without cross play its filled with bots, can't even get a match in apex legends with cross play off. almost impossible to find matches in any game with crossolay off. but supposedly these games have millions of players, I call bs

I remember having a good time with Minecraft on xbox360 with my roommate.
And that's the extent of my experience with any if those games on the list lol

Just a bit depressing to me, personally, seeing the never-changing top 10 titles, and what they all are. 🤢🤑

@HonestHick Your comment is more clearly written than mine lol, but that's exactly it. PS is a safe bet that won't miss out on games.

That's the jist.

Would have preferred seeing the live numbers of people who are playing right now.

14 million people in US playing Fortnite on PS5 is crazy. I don't think some games could achieve that world wide and counting on all platforms.

I abhor live service games but that's alright that others get enjoyment out of them the problem is all those people aren't continuously spending money on those games and they still put so much focus on them

@CutchuSlow maybe they'll have that but this is the number of people playing during a week , so it makes sense maybe during a 2-3 week window of a single players game release that game would be up there in that list, but after that it will prob in number of people playing till it hits a sale.