It seems the PlayStation 5 is taking a page out of Steam’s book, as the console is receiving a new update that publicly shows player counts for the top 10 games of the week. The PlayStation 5 is not known for this level of transparency in player counts, so this update comes as quite a surprise.
PC gamers have long had player count numbers for basically every video game on Steam, dating back to about 2013, when the unofficial SteamDB player count tracker launched. In 2022, Valve launched the official Steam Charts page, which details how many players are currently online or in-game on Steam, along with the current top-selling games and the most-played games at the moment. In comparison, neither the Xbox Series X/S nor the PlayStation 5 has an official player count number feature built into their UI. Often, console gamers have to rely on rough estimates, in-game player count numbers, or direct developer reports to gauge what a game’s player base looks like. Meanwhile, on PC, fans can see what game has blown up on Steam at any given moment.
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Sony Quietly Launches Player Count Tracking on PS5
However, it seems Sony is starting to test a new player count feature, as beta testers have received an update to their Welcome Hub Widgets showing the current top 10 games on PlayStation 5 and trending games. As reported and demonstrated by YouTuber Mystic, the “Trending” tab details which games saw the biggest surge in gameplay hours most recently, while the “Top 10” tab shows a full list of the top played games that week, strictly by player count. There isn’t currently a timeline for when this update will roll out to all PS5 consoles, but various beta insiders report they have also received the latest patch with the Player Count Widget.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
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The PlayStation 5 rolling out a player count update would make it the first console ever to do so, but it’s unclear why consoles haven’t had this feature for so long, especially since fans have requested it for quite some time. The Trending tab in particular seems useful for the PS5 social experience, so players can find out which games are the new viral hotness or which just got an update that is drawing players back in. Meanwhile, the Top 10 tab is a great addition, but all the usual suspects seem to be there, at least according to Mystic’s video. Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto 5 are all practically destined to sit at the top of the list, that is, until GTA 6 releases and unseats its predecessor.
However nice it is to have this new feature on the PS5, there is another side to the coin when it comes to player counts. Lots of fans on Reddit and Twitter have started to express concerns about visible player counts, believing that discourse about new and existing games could become toxic because of it. Games like Call of Duty and Battlefield 6 find themselves caught in cycles of player-count wars as their player counts fluctuate. This new PlayStation 5 update is a step forward in visibility for the console, but some console fans tend to take falling player counts and the lack of virality for new releases as signs that games are “flopping” or underperforming, when that may not always be the case.
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What’s more, as far as social features go, the PS5 still has a lot missing compared to the PS4. Features like “Communities” and the “What’s New Feed” are still missing from the console, leaving it a bit of an isolated experience compared to the previous console. Even though players can see what’s trending and the top 10 games on PS5, some more community features could still be left on the table. Hopefully, Sony can listen to community feedback soon and implement even more social features on the console before the successor to the PS5 arrives.
