New PS Plus games for March dominate most popular PS5, PS4 games chart

The new PS Plus games for March 2023, including Battlefield 2042, have dominated the most-played PS5 and PS4 games for the week in our exclusive data on 3 million players.

PS5 and PS4 players now have access to a 100-hour Battlefield 2042 trophies marathon if they have PS Plus Essential and grab the three monthly games. Indeed, these PS Plus games for March 2023 are now amongst the top 40 most played PS5 and PS4 games of the week having scanned 3 million PSN players.

Battlefield 2042 hits PS Plus and the most played PS5 and PS4 games chart

PS Plus games dominate most played games

The PS Plus Essential games for March 2022 are in, and oh boy have they hit hard. In fifth place and the highest ranked of the three is Battlefield 2042. While the FPS didn't qualify (and still wouldn't qualify) for our best FPS games list, it's clear that players at least want to check out EA's shooter. It had a horrible launch and suffered continual setbacks, but we hear it works now. Staff Writer Lee will be doing a breakdown of the numbers for you in a separate article, but safe to say it's had a stunning rise in players.

The other two games have performed really well. Let's start with all those players that have Minecraft Dungeons trophies or just booted up the game to help the co-op Diablo-like to a 10th place finish. A tenth-place finish means it finished only one place below its mothership title Minecraft and within 0.1% margin of the total player count — that is a close finish, to say the least. It speaks volumes to the brand value of Minecraft, but also that a lot of Minecraft played probably swapped over to the PS Plus title for the week, though Minecraft proper has actual had an 8% increase in total players week-on-week. Good stuff.

Code Vein hits up the PS5 and PS4 games chart

Finally, those 35 hours of Code Vein trophies are clearly to someone's taste — the ARPG has come in 22nd place. The game isn't pushing any boundaries chart-wise and we imagine it will fall next week, but as a niche title, it's really hard to gather any momentum. A finish in the 20s is a great place to be for AA games like this and indies, there is no doubt that it's probably killing in Japan and the RPG-appreciating Asian territories. Its total player count is about 6.1% off of 21st place finisher The Last of Us Part 1, a pretty substantial amount to turnover in the coming week in which The Last of Us TV show will finish.

A few other notables are that Hogwarts Legacy is out of the top three for the first time since launch as it finished in 4th. Its total player count has decreased 10.8% week-on-week, so it might well have a sharp fall again next week. Wo-Long Fallen Dynasty is doing reasonably well at 25th, the Team Ninja title is an Xbox Game Pass game so we aren't expecting any big PS5 or PS4 player numbers here. Finally, Spider-Man Miles Morales is in the chart at 38th, again. People love Spidey!

That wraps up the analysis for the week. If you have any questions or observations, get in the comments to chat! Here is the top 40 most played PS5 and PS4 games chart for the week ending March 12th, 2023.

Most popular PS5 games (week ending March 12th, 2023)

Position	Game	Publisher	Last week
1	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II	Activision	1
2	Fortnite	Epic Games	4
3	FIFA 23	Electronic Arts	2
4	Hogwarts Legacy	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	3
5	Battlefield 2042	Electronic Arts	31
6	Grand Theft Auto V	Rockstar Games	5
7	Rocket League	Psyonix	6
8	Overwatch 2	Blizzard Entertainment	7
9	Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition	Mojang Studios	10
10	Minecraft Dungeons	Xbox Game Studios	-
11	Apex Legends	Electronic Arts	8
12	Destiny 2	Bungie	9
13	NBA 2K23	2K Sports	11
14	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege	Ubisoft	12
15	Horizon Forbidden West	Sony Interactive Entertainment	13
16	Elden Ring	Bandai Namco Entertainment	14
17	God of War Ragnarök	Sony Interactive Entertainment	15
18	FIFA 22	Electronic Arts	17
19	Gran Turismo 7	Sony Interactive Entertainment	16
20	Fall Guys	Epic Games	19
21	The Last of Us Part I	Sony Interactive Entertainment	20
22	CODE VEIN	Bandai Namco Entertainment	-
23	Genshin Impact	Cognosphere	18
24	Madden NFL 23	Electronic Arts	21
25	Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty	KOEI TECMO	27
26	Call of Duty: Black Ops III	Activision	22
27	EA SPORTS UFC 4	Electronic Arts	28
28	Dead by Daylight	Behaviour Interactive	25
29	Red Dead Redemption 2	Rockstar Games	23
30	Ghost of Tsushima	Sony Interactive Entertainment	26
31	The Last of Us Part II	Sony Interactive Entertainment	24
32	WWE 2K22	2K Games	32
33	Tekken 7	Bandai Namco Entertainment	30
34	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	Activision	34
35	The Quarry	2K Games	33
36	Mortal Kombat 11	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	36
37	Mafia: Definitive Edition	2K Games	29
38	Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales	Sony Interactive Entertainment	39
39	Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War	Activision	37
40	Brawlhalla	Blue Mammoth Games	38

Chart compiled using gameplay data from over 3 million active PlayStation accounts. Chart information is copyright GameInsights.

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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 God of War, PS Plus news, and his favourite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and explosive racers — before an evening swim.