None of Most Popular PlayStation Games Are Made by Sony

03.04.2024 - 21:47 / gamerant.com / John DiCarlo / Sony

Unlike the Xbox and Switch, PlayStation's top 10 games ranked by average monthly active users (MAU) don't contain any first-party titles. Most of the slots on PlayStation, as well as on other platforms, are taken up by industry titans like Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Modern Warfare 3.

PlayStation is known for its excellent first-party games thanks to the impressive lineup of developers that fall under Sony's PlayStation Studios umbrella. These include Naughty Dog and its Uncharted and The Last of Us games, Santa Monica Studio and God of War, Insomniac Games and Spider-Man, and more. While these titles command plenty of respect and usually sell well enough, a new report reveals that none of them cracked the rankings for PlayStation's most-played games.

Market researcher Newzoo recently released its newest report on the game industry. The report revealed that Xbox's Minecraft and Starfield and Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Mario Kart 8,Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were all included in the top 10 by MAU over the course of 2023 for their respective platforms, while PlayStation's rankings were solely made up of third-party titles.

This might not come as a huge surprise to PlayStation fans, as the highest-played games on most platforms are often made up of multiplayer titles. However, recent releases like 2022's God of War: Ragnarok and 2023's Spider-Man 2 failing to crack the list might still come as a disappointment. While single-player games often experience a sharp decline in player numbers after a month or two, Santa Monica Studio tried to boost Ragnarok's lifespan by implementing an impressive roguelike mode post-launch, and while it was well received, it seems to not have been enough to make Ragnarok one of the PS5's most-played games of 2023.

PlayStation's most-played titles, as well as the same rankings for Xbox and PC, highlight the overall gaming community's love for established live-service titles like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Roblox. The Nintendo Switch is the only outlier, with its 2023 MAU rankings mostly made up of first-party titles. Interestingly, Newzoo reported that 60% of playtime in 2023 was spent in games six years or older, with five of these older titles accounting for 27% of all playtime.

It seems that Sony is not dissuaded by its first-party games not retaining massive numbers of monthly users, with development on future PlayStation titles like Kojima's Death Stranding 2 still going ahead. Although these games don't compete with other franchises in terms of MAU, their $70 price tags and large sales numbers still seem to generate enough revenue for Sony.

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