PlayStation Starts Surfacing Weekly Player Counts on PS5 Welcome Hub, Giving Sony a New Steam Style Window Into What Is Actually Being Played

PlayStation appears to be taking a small but meaningful step toward greater platform transparency on PS5. As spotted by Mystic and now widely reported by PlayStation focused outlets, Sony is testing a new Welcome Hub widget in the PS5 beta program that shows both a Top 10 chart and a Trending Now view for games in the user’s country. The feature does not mirror Steam’s live concurrent player model, but it does show weekly player numbers and trend surges, giving users a much clearer sense of what is popular on the platform at a given moment.

That distinction matters. Steam and SteamDB have trained players to talk about concurrent users in real time, but the PlayStation version shown in beta appears to focus on weekly active players and region specific momentum instead. In practical terms, that means Sony is not exposing minute by minute engagement data, but it is giving players something arguably more useful for discovery: a broader look at which games are pulling in the largest audiences over the course of a week, and which ones are suddenly surging because of updates, discounts, or fresh buzz.

The feature also fits naturally with the Welcome Hub itself. Sony officially introduced Welcome Hub in September 2024 as a customizable information space on the PS5 home screen, designed around widget driven visibility before players jump into a session. This new beta addition effectively turns that space into a light discovery and engagement dashboard, which is a smart move given that console storefronts have historically been far more opaque than PC when it comes to what players are actually spending time on.

As shown in Mystic’s video walkthrough, the Top 10 mode can look very familiar in the United States sample currently circulating. The visible rankings included Fortnite at 14.6 million weekly players, GTA V at 5.13 million, Minecraft at 4.97 million, Call of Duty at 4.95 million, Apex Legends at 1.72 million, Marvel Rivals at 1.58 million, Battlefield 6 at 1.51 million, and ARC Raiders at 972,000. Those numbers underline what many people already suspected: the PS5 ecosystem is still heavily anchored by giant live service and evergreen titles, with newer hits fighting for room underneath them.

The more interesting part may end up being Trending Now. According to the beta details shown so far, that view highlights sudden spikes in activity rather than sheer scale, which should make it a much better place for newer launches, seasonal updates, and revived catalog games to gain visibility. Examples reported from the beta include Overwatch with a 255% surge in matches, Company of Heroes 3 with a 249% surge in gameplay hours, Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown with a 128% surge in matches, and DOOM Eternal with a 188% surge in gameplay hours. That is the sort of feature that could make the Welcome Hub feel genuinely useful for game discovery instead of just decorative.

There are limits, of course. The current version is region based, so players are only seeing what is popular in their own country rather than a worldwide PlayStation picture. It also remains a beta feature for now, which means the final presentation, accuracy, and availability could still change before a broader public rollout. Even so, the direction is clear enough: Sony is experimenting with a more visible, data driven layer that could reshape how PS5 users discover games and talk about platform performance.

For PlayStation, this is a smart and overdue move. It does not go as far as Steam’s ecosystem, and it is not pretending to. But by finally surfacing weekly player data and trend signals directly on the console, Sony is giving players a more grounded look at what is thriving on PS5, while also opening the door for publishers and developers to benefit from more immediate visibility inside the platform itself. If it rolls out broadly, this could become one of the most quietly useful PS5 interface upgrades in quite some time.

Do you want PlayStation to go even further and show live player data in the future, or is a weekly Top 10 and Trending system the right balance for PS5?