The major PS5 system update 14.00 launched yesterday and adds an interesting new feature to the Welcome Hub called “Community Activity.” There, players can see which multiplayer games are gaining the most traction and which titles rank among the top ten most popular games in their region over the past week. However, the final version is missing one of the most exciting features from the previous beta.
During the beta, Sony showed precise weekly player counts, but that data is now gone, leaving only the leaderboard. It’s unclear why Sony removed the numbers.
During the beta, Sony still showed actual player numbers
Sony had already tested Community Activity with select PS5 users in May 2026. Even then, the widget had two sections: “Trending Now” and “Top 10.” Sony did more than just list popular games; it also showed weekly active player counts for each title.
Das könnte dich auch interessieren
For example, in an early U.S. beta, Fortnite had around 14.6 million players, GTA 5 had about 5.13 million, Minecraft had around 4.97 million, and Call of Duty had roughly 4.95 million. This also made it possible for the first time to directly compare smaller titles with one another.
This level of transparency was unusual for a console. While Steam has publicly shown for years how many players are using certain games simultaneously, Sony typically publishes very little comparable data on actual activity on PlayStation.
The final PS5 update now only shows the order
That changed with version 26.06-14.00.00. As we reported yesterday in our article on the major PS5 Update 14.00 and the new PS5 Pro improvements, Community Activity is now officially available to all users, but the final version no longer shows specific player numbers.
The final “Top 10” section now lists only the ten most popular games from the past week in each region, while “Trending Now” highlights ten multiplayer games or modes whose popularity is rising fastest. The official patch notes refer to Community Activity solely as a ranking and do not mention player numbers.
Growth figures have also disappeared.
The beta went further: “Trending Now” sometimes showed precise changes in playtime compared with the previous week. Those detailed metrics are also absent from the final build.
As a result, “Community Activity” still highlights trends but reveals far less about each title’s actual player base. A game might rank fifth on the German leaderboard, yet the PS5 no longer lets users know whether that translates to 50,000, 500,000, or millions of players. That missing detail would have made the widget far more valuable.
Why did Sony remove the numbers?
Sony has not offered an official explanation.
Some in the PlayStation community speculate that publishers preferred to keep player counts private, but there is no evidence for that. Sony might also have chosen not to publish the data permanently, or the beta figures may simply have been unreliable.
Because Community Activity was explicitly a beta feature, Sony never promised that every tested element would make it unchanged into the final build. Betas exist to let developers try, tweak, or drop features before launch.
For players, more transparency would still have been exciting
It’s still a shame, though. Especially with multiplayer games, there’s regular discussion about just how active a community actually still is. On Steam, such trends are relatively easy to track. With consoles, however, players often have to rely on data from market researchers, publisher statements, or external estimates.
The new community widget could have provided, for the first time, direct insight into actual activity on PlayStation.
Just a few days ago, during the PlayStation Blackout, we saw how valuable such data can be. In that case, analysts had to comb through external Circana figures just to determine whether the protest had a measurable impact on player numbers. Direct PlayStation figures would be equally valuable for tracking such trends.
The Community Widget Remains Useful Anyway
The feature is far from useless. The Top 10 list still shows which games are played most in your region, making it easier to spot multiplayer titles with active communities. The “Trending Now” section could also highlight new releases or major updates that suddenly draw many players.
That sets the feature apart from the classic PlayStation Store charts, which track downloads and sales. Community Activity instead shows what people are actually playing. For now, Sony is keeping the exact numbers to itself, and it’s unclear whether they will return. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
