PlayStation adding player counts for PS5 games doesn't help anyone |
PlayStation is taking cues from Steam and testing a new feature that will let players see player counts for PS5 games every week. As that statistic drives toxic gaming discourse, and discoverability on the PlayStation Store is already rough, this feature could do more harm than good.
First spotted by the YouTuber Mystic and reported on by Destructoid, PlayStation is beta testing a new "Community Activity" widget for PS5's Welcome Hub. Players can choose "Top 10" on this widget to see the week's most popular games, ranked by player count. Meanwhile, the "Trending Now" option will show other games that are surging in popularity, whether that be because of an increase in gameplay hours or the number of matches played.
Although it's somewhat exciting to have more direct access to game-specific player data on PS5, I'm........