A new PS5 Welcome Hub widget currently in beta testing reveals top and trending games by region, bringing a new layer of Steam-like player analytics to the notoriously opaque console space.
YouTuber Mystic flagged the PS5 widget in a recent video, showing several examples of details shared with beta program participants (per Radec). Two settings are available: one shows the top 10 most popular PS5 games of the week, and the other shows games that are "trending now," selected based on "which games and modes are surging in popularity right now." Both settings use country-specific data rather than global stats, expanding on the "top games in your country" banner already in the PlayStation Store.
This beta widget notably includes player count figures, albeit only weekly. Fortnite had "14.6m players this week," according to one example shown. Some other examples get into two-digit decimals. (I wouldn't read too much into the exact numbers here, as the whole thing screams early beta.)
Unsurprisingly, Fortnite and other online giants like GTA Online, Minecraft, and Marvel Rivals fill out this particular top 10. The immovable nature of live service games means that won't change very much between regions or between weeks, making for a pretty static feed.
Assuming it's out in the wild or at least still visible in beta, this widget could provide some interesting first-hand data on the GTA 6 launch, as the game's expected to be heavily PS5-leaning due to the makeup of the console audience today (not to mention Sony's alleged marketing deal with Rockstar).
The trending widget is more interesting, as it brings a smidgen more algorithmic promotion and topicality to PS5. It also more closely mirrors the feeds and stats orbiting Steam, handily the best store for game visibility. PlayStation doesn't seem keen to release the granular details that filter through tools like SteamDB or Steam Charts, but any additional insight or visibility for trending PS5 games is welcome.
One trending example shows a "249% surge in gameplay hours" for Company of Heroes 3. Overwatch saw a "255% surge in matches" following its season drop, the widget adds. And so on.
"I give the 3rd party pubs about 5 minutes after seeing this before they start sending emails demanding the user numbers get pulled," joked analyst Mat Piscatella, games director at firm Circana.
There's theoretically space for newly launched games, not just freshly updated games, to elbow their way into this trending feed, which could give devs behind recent hits – especially games that originally pop off in certain regions – another means of reaching players. Centering it in the PS5 welcome hub, which is generally the first thing you see when you boot up the console in its normal state, could actually give the hub some more use. That said, it will come down to where Sony sets the bar for trending and how much space is left behind once the expected big releases get a turn.
This looks like a small addition, and it's still only in beta, but discovering new games has been a weakness of console storefronts for years, so any attempts at improving that experience are welcome. I don't know if it's more of a UX or information problem, but a proper, agile "New & Trending" banner is exactly what I've wanted for ages.
A cursory look at the PlayStation Store on my PS5 reinforces that there's still plenty of room for improvement. Because I played Saros, Returnal maker Housemarque's latest third-person bullet hell shooter, Sony tells me I should try... Metroidvania darling Axiom Verge and retro survival horror game Signalis. Great games, all, don't get me wrong, but it's certainly an eclectic bunch. There's no question that I get more pragmatic suggestions from Steam, which also makes it a lot easier to see at a glance what's popular right now and what stands out in recent releases. That openness and variety is a deeper part of PC gaming, and is easier to show with a mouse and monitor, but it could benefit console gamers too.
I've seen this time and again in my years monitoring new releases, and I've heard much the same from developers on the other side of the fence who are weighing up the value of a console port. Building more of this kind of information into the PS5 hub and store could help make the console more practical for players and more appealing for indies, ideally resulting in a better selection of games.
That's a lot to pin on this one little beta widget, but the direction, at least, is encouraging. And credit where it's due: I was just now able to brute-force a rabbit hole of PlayStation Store recommendations that eventually led me to ScourgeBringer (pictured above), a 2022 release that I'm actually happy to discover (and which has 12x more reviews on Steam).
You can sign up for the PlayStation beta program for free if you're interested in sampling features like this.
