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Update []: More data is beginning to emerge on this week’s State of Play, which rocketed to the most viewed ever.
According to Steams Charts, the broadcast peaked at three million viewers, and “set all-time highs across all key viewership metrics”.
The YouTube VoD has now overtaken 2021’s PS Showcase, and is on track to overtake 2023’s PS Showcase and the PS5 Showcase from 2020.
Aside from Sony’s PS5 reveal event, this is likely to end up PlayStation’s most successful ever live broadcast.
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Original Story: I was miffed by our poll results last week when only 36% of you said you thought yesterday’s State of Play would be the most watched ever. I was so confident in this episode breaking the record, I would have put money on it.
(In fact, I wish I had now.)
The June 2026 instalment blew past the previous record holder’s views in under 12 hours, and at the time of writing has amassed 4.2 million views, which means it’ll overtake 2021’s PS Showcase imminently – and will probably end up above 2023’s PS Showcase as well.
That’ll make it the most viewed PlayStation broadcast ever, aside from the two PS5 reveal presentations in 2020. In fact, there’s a possibility it may beat out one of those as well.
The most viewed State of Play prior to yesterday was the February 2026 edition, which got 3.4 million views. It’s clear that this series is on an upward trajectory now, and has established itself as Sony’s main method of communication.
I think, whatever your personal opinion on yesterday’s show, the platform holder has figured this format out. At the end of the day it all comes down to content and expectations, but there’s no doubt these broadcasts are slick, well paced, and don’t really waste your time.
I don’t think yesterday’s State of Play was necessarily the best one ever, but I do think it was very good overall, and it featured tons of games I want to play. In addition to the dedicated Phantom Blade Zero broadcast, we’ll probably get another more general one of these in September.
I think that’s one thing that has changed dramatically since the old E3 days: there are multiple opportunities per year to host these, so there’s less incentive to throw the kitchen sink at one singular show. I think that’s why Sony decided to keep Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet underwraps a little longer – at a certain point, it just becomes overkill.
For me, Sony has nailed the format and pacing of the State of Play, it all just comes down to content moving forward. And while you can never please everyone – especially in this day and age – I’m happy to see the series go from strength-to-strength.