PS5 Now Shows Exact Player Counts for GTA 5
▼ Summary
– Steam offers detailed data on game popularity, including user reviews and concurrent player counts, which can be used for both positive and negative purposes.
– Sony has introduced a beta widget on the PS5 home screen that displays the top eight most-played games in a region with their weekly player counts.
– The widget also includes a trending list showing games with the largest week-to-week jumps in player activity, but does not provide total player numbers.
– The PS5 widget provides less granular data than Steam, but it marks the first time PlayStation users can see exact weekly player counts for top games.
– This feature may signal Sony’s effort to improve game discoverability and transparency on PS5, potentially in response to competition from Valve’s Steam Machine.
Sony has quietly introduced a new feature on the PS5 home screen that finally pulls back the curtain on console player counts. For years, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 have operated as black boxes when it comes to real-time player data. While Steam offers detailed concurrent player charts and user reviews, console gamers have been left guessing which titles are actually dominating playtime. That may be starting to shift.
As first spotted by PlayStation-focused YouTuber Mystic and reported by CharlieIntel, a new beta widget now appears on the PS5 home screen. It displays the most-played games in your region along with the exact number of weekly players. An early look at the feature shows the top eight games in the U. S. for this week:
Fortnite leads with 14.6 million players. Grand Theft Auto 5 comes in second at 5.13 million, followed closely by Minecraft at 4.97 million and Call of Duty at 4.95 million. Apex Legends pulls 1.72 million, Marvel Rivals draws 1.58 million, Battlefield 6 sits at 1.51 million, and ARC Raiders rounds out the list with 972,000.
As Mystic noted, this weekly list probably won’t change dramatically from one week to the next. It still lacks the granular detail Steam provides for every title on its platform. Still, this is the first time PlayStation users can actually see what number of weekly players qualifies for the top ten. Expect the rankings to shift when major releases arrive, such as GTA 6, which is slated to launch later this year.
The widget also includes a second ranking focused on trending titles based on large week-over-week jumps in player activity. It doesn’t reveal total weekly players for these games, but it does share other metrics, like the percentage increase in total playtime for something such as Company of Heroes 3. This could be a subtle way for Sony to surface games that just received meaningful updates or new DLC, something the platform has historically handled poorly.
We’re still a long way from the transparency Steam offers. But this move might signal that Sony is finally exploring ways to improve discoverability and give players a better sense of what the broader community is playing. Perhaps the company feels the need to compete more directly with Valve as the launch of its Steam Machine living room console approaches. Or maybe this is just a fun new widget with no further plans behind it.
(Source: Kotaku)
