PlayStation Gameplay Chart: Elden Ring destroys Horizon player counts

By Kes Eylers-Stephenson,

Elden Ring is running rampant this week with a record-breaking number of players, leaving Guerrilla Games' Horizon Forbidden West in the dust. Here is the top 40 PlayStation Gameplay Chart for the week ending March 6th, 2022.

Position	Game	Publisher	Last week
1	Elden Ring	Bandai Namco Entertainment	8
2	Horizon Forbidden West	Sony Interactive Entertainment	1
3	Fortnite	Epic Games	2
4	FIFA 22	Electronic Arts	3
5	Gran Turismo 7	Sony Interactive Entertainment	-
6	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	Activision	5
7	Apex Legends	Electronic Arts	4
8	Grand Theft Auto V	Rockstar Games	7
9	Team Sonic Racing	SEGA	-
10	Destiny 2	Activision	6
11	Ghost of Tsushima	Sony Interactive Entertainment	26
12	Rocket League	Psyonix	11
13	Genshin Impact	miHoYo	12
14	Minecraft	Mojang Studios	14
15	Dying Light 2: Stay Human	Techland Publishing	10
16	ARK: Survival Evolved	Wildcard Properties	-
17	Cyberpunk 2077	CD Projekt	9
18	Call of Duty: Vanguard	Activision	13
19	EA SPORTS UFC 4	Electronic Arts	15
20	Ghostrunner	505 Games	-
21	Assassin's Creed Valhalla	Ubisoft	17
22	NBA 2K22	2K Sports	21
23	Horizon Zero Dawn	Sony Interactive Entertainment	16
24	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege	Ubisoft	18
25	Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War	Activision	23
26	Overwatch: Origins Edition	Blizzard Entertainment	20
27	Dead by Daylight 1/2	505 Games	22
28	Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel	Konami Digital Entertainment	19
29	Red Dead Redemption 2	Rockstar Games	24
30	Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout	Devolver Digital	25
31	Gran Turismo Sport	Sony Computer Entertainment	35
32	Bloodborne	Sony Computer Entertainment	28
33	Marvel's Spider-Man	Sony Interactive Entertainment	31
34	Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn	Square Enix	30
35	Madden NFL 22	Electronic Arts	32
36	NHL 22	Electronic Arts	-
37	Call of Duty: Black Ops III	Activision	37
38	Far Cry 6	Ubisoft	33
39	Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-shot Adventure	2K Games	27
40	FIFA 21	Electronic Arts	RE

Chart compiled using gameplay data from over 1.1 million active PlayStation accounts. Chart information is copyright TrueGaming Network.

Elden Ring has taken the top spot from Horizon Forbidden West in a surprise turn of events. Last week's Gameplay Chart had Horizon in first and Elden Ring all the way down in the eighth spot. However, Elden Ring hasn't only just pipped the PlayStation Studio title to the post, it has destroyed it. FromSoftware's first foray into the open-world has 43.36% more players than Horizon this week — this week being Elden Ring's second week and Horizon's third. Just to put the number of players into context here, Elden Ring has seen a 74.84% rise in players since last week's debut and has 27.45% more players than Horizon had at its peak.

That makes Elden Ring the highest performing game we have ever seen (we have been tracking player counts since January 2021). Another really important item to note is a change in platform preference. We have seen players preferring to hunt down Horizon Forbidden West trophies on PS5 to PS4 by a constant 4:1 ratio, which has become a norm for new releases. Last week, however, Elden Ring players had the inverse of that — 4:1 in favour of PS4 — but that has now reverted to the norm with a 2:1 ratio in favour of PS5. As we have been pointing out for several weeks now, this is the first month we have noticed the tide of players truly changing to favour PS5. However, this is the first time we have seen such a huge sway from last-gen to current-gen.

We have one last note before we get on to other games. Over on our Xbox Gameplay Chart, Elden Ring was trounced by Fortnite by quite a significant margin. Even so, Elden Ring has made a statement for itself as a niche game in a market of safe titles — as discussed in our comments last week. Given the right levels of hype and high review scores, a game of any nature can make it to the top. It is given even more pertinence because it is totally dominating one of the biggest PlayStation games of the year.

We have some other massive debuts to contend with. Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 7 enters at 5th with a 3:1 platform ratio in favour of PS5. GT7 has carved out a niche margin of players in the middle of the top ten between FIFA 22 in 4th and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in 6th. If you are interested in the sim-racer, have a little read of Kes' Gran Turismo 7 review and the Gran Turismo 7 trophy list.

The other top ten debut is the first of the new PlayStation Plus games: Team Sonic Racing. It drifts into ninth, which is a totally adequate debut, especially in a busy month. The Team Sonic Racing trophies aren't that hard, so we don't know how long the tail(s) of this debut will be. It is promising though, given that it has eeked out a nice 4% margin of players above Destiny 2. Ghost of Tsushima — boosted by the Plus giveaway of Legends — is up 16 places to 11th and is giving Destiny 2 a surprising run for its money.

The second Plus game is the popular multiplayer game ARK: Survival Evolved in 16th. With a nice easy ARK trophy list, we don't know how long it will stick around at this part of the chart. However, the game has a (mostly) terrific community of players and we wonder if this might be the surprise performer of the three main Plus games. The final Plus title is Ghostrunner in 20th, which has been quite significantly outperformed by ARK which has 20% more players. The hardcore Ghostrunner trophies might put a few players off, but we would argue it is the best of the three.

Gran Turismo Sport has risen four places into 31st, NHL 22 has debuted at 36th, and FIFA 21 is back in the chart in 40th while dumping out Battlefield 2042 (44th).

What do you think of the chart this week? It's certainly a busy time, but do you think that reflects in the chart? Let us know in the comments along with any questions you have.

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.