PlayStation Gameplay Chart: Free-to-play Yu-Gi-Oh title makes surprise Top 10 appearance

By Kes Eylers-Stephenson,

There is only one thing on our mind this week: Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel. The new free-to-play version of the card game has gotten off to a flyer. Here is the top 40 PlayStation Gameplay Chart for the week ending January 23rd, 2022.

Position	Game	Publisher	Last week
1	Fortnite	Epic Games	1
2	FIFA 22	Electronic Arts	2
3	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	Activision	4
4	Grand Theft Auto V	Rockstar Games	3
5	Apex Legends	Electronic Arts	8
6	Rocket League	Psyonix	9
7	Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel	Konami Digital Entertainment	-
8	Call of Duty: Vanguard	Activision	7
9	Deep Rock Galactic	Coffee Stain Studios	5
10	Minecraft	Mojang Studios	11
11	Genshin Impact	miHoYo	10
12	DiRT 5	Codemasters	6
13	Destiny 2	Activision	12
14	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege	Ubisoft	15
15	Battlefield 2042	Electronic Arts	14
16	Marvel's Spider-Man	Sony Interactive Entertainment	13
17	Assassin's Creed Valhalla	Ubisoft	18
18	Red Dead Redemption 2	Rockstar Games	20
19	Ghost of Tsushima	Sony Interactive Entertainment	19
20	Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War	Activision	22
21	Horizon Zero Dawn	Sony Interactive Entertainment	27
22	Dead by Daylight 1/2	505 Games	21
23	NBA 2K22	2K Sports	23
24	Overwatch: Origins Edition	Blizzard Entertainment	24
25	Far Cry 6	Ubisoft	17
26	Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout	Devolver Digital	25
27	Persona 5 Strikers	Atlus	16
28	Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales	Sony Interactive Entertainment	26
29	Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn	Square Enix	28
30	God of War	Sony Interactive Entertainment	33
31	PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds	PUBG Corporation	30
32	The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	CD Projekt	29
33	It Takes Two	Electronic Arts	31
34	Madden NFL 22	Electronic Arts	34
35	Call of Duty: Black Ops III	Activision	RE
36	Final Fantasy VII Remake	Square Enix	36
37	LEGO DC Super-Villains	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	35
38	Mortal Kombat 11	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	38
39	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	Bethesda Softworks	40
40	Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy	Square Enix	32

Chart compiled using gameplay data from over 811,000 active PlayStation accounts. Chart information is copyright TrueGaming Network.

FIFA 22 and Fortnite have held positions while Modern Warfare overtakes GTA V into third, while Apex Legends and Rocket League have soared into their best positions for months, even if they are still only carrying three-quarters of GTA player base for the week.

Whatever, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel — the free-to-play version of the card game — is here in seventh and it is the coolest entry it could ever have had. Why? It has knocked Vanguard out of its position by a fractional about of players. That is really great news for publisher Konami, as it hasn't seen a game in the chart ranking that highly for a long time. In fairness, I would have thought eFootball did better, but I cannot find any record of it entering to top echelons of the chart after its start in 30th.

So, what does that epic entry leave us with? Well, it has knocked down last week's best performing PlayStation Plus game — Deep Rock Galactic — from fifth to ninth. It's been a very strong month for the game, so there is no shame in dropping even if it has lost nearly a third of players. Dirt 5 is just behind, drifting into 12th after a sixth-place finish last week. Again, we are looking at nearly a third of players lost week-on-week. Perhaps more than anything, this demonstrates how hard it is to keep games in the limelight even when it is freely accessible to most PlayStation players. That makes the feat of the mainstays above these two all the more impressive. The other PS Plus game, Persona 5 Strikers, has dropped a huge 11 places into 27th. Again, though, this is a niche game for a subset of JRPG fans. Atlus can be proud of its general performance over three weeks.

It's phenomenally quiet across the rest of the chart. There are small rises and falls everywhere, but one of the most interesting is probably the presence of Call of Duty Black Ops III with a reentry at 35th for no apparent reason. It is a little sad to see Guardians of the Galaxy have an eight place drop, putting it on the brink of expulsion in the 40th spot. Far Cry 6 has also seen a bit of a drop in player count, knocking it eight places into 25th with very close player counts from 14th to 28th. Among Us has also already departed through the airlock. Sad.

What do you think of the chart this week! Anything standing out to you? Let us know in the comments!

Chart

Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favourite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.