Also, trending titles too
by Sammy Barker
Sony is about to surface more data about the PS5’s ecosystem than we’ve ever seen before, with a new Welcome Hub widget that’s currently in beta.
While this isn’t identical to Steam’s concurrent player numbers, the new optional addition – spotted and shown by YouTuber Mystic here – reveals the top ten games in your country, with total player numbers for the week.
While the widget is only available to select beta testers right now, the aforementioned video reveals the following for the US:
- Fortnite: 14.6m
- GTA 5: 5.13m
- Minecraft: 4.97m
- Call of Duty: 4.95m
- Apex Legends: 1.72m
- Marvel Rivals: 1.58m
- Battlefield 6: 1.51m
- ARC Raiders: 972k
As mentioned above, this data is accurate for the US only, so you’ll see different results depending on where you live. (EA Sports FC is likely to trend highly in Europe and the UK, for example.)
It’s also worth noting this data is different to the concurrent players you see on Steam; this is the total number of players per week, so anyone who booted up any of the aforementioned games at least once in the last seven days will contribute to the number.
It’s unclear whether this is combining PS5 and PS4 information, but we suspect it’s just taking into account PS5 versions.
As the video points out, while this information is interesting, the weekly top ten is unlikely to change much so it’s unclear how much we’ll actually glean from it.
The widget does have another toggle which tracks sudden surges in activity; if a game gets an update or a discount, for example, it may appear here as players flock to it. This is similar to the Trending Games tab on SteamDB, and may actually provide the more interesting data.
Personally, we find it fascinating Sony has finally decided to surface some of this information – even if it’s quite a limited picture compared to what’s made available on other platforms.
With this being in beta we suppose it’s possible the company may ultimately decide against releasing it publicly, but that seems unlikely to us. We imagine it’ll go out to everyone eventually once it’s happy with the test’s feedback.
Is this something you’re personally interested in, or are you uninterested in which games the wider PlayStation fanbase is engaging with on the PS5? Let us know below.
Will you look at PS5’s most played widget? (1,122 votes)
- Yes, all the time – it sounds fascinating27%
- Maybe, I’ll glance at it from time to time44%
- Nah, I don’t care what others are playing28%
- I don’t know1%
[source youtube.com]
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.