PS Plus September 2024 lineup scores big 12% player count boost

The PS Plus September 2024 player count shows PS5 and PS4 players once again returning to the subscription scheme — this time to play the new Harry Potter game.

Lee Brady

Published 15 Sep 2024

Securing those day-one Harry Potter Quidditch Champions trophies for the PlayStation Plus September 2024 lineup seems to have paid off big for Sony. The PS Plus September 2024 player count shows a 12% boost in PS5 and PS4 players month-on-month, making September the second-best performing month for PS Plus Essential this year.

PS Plus September lineup is the second-most popular of 2024

September 2024's PS Plus games debuted with a 12% increase in player interest compared to the PS Plus lineup for August 2024
Harry Potter Quidditch Champions was the most popular game in the September 2024 lineup, followed by Little Nightmares 2
September 2024 is the third month in a row to show consistent growth in PS Plus player interest

Using a gameplay data sample from over 3.1 million active PSN accounts (courtesy of our partnership with GameInsights, which draws most of its PSN data from sources beyond TrueTrophies), we've kept track of the debut player count for every PS5 and PS4 game made available via PS Plus Essential.

This includes September 2024's PS Plus game lineup of Harry Potter Quidditch Champions, MLB The Show 24, and Little Nightmares 2 — all of which were made available to PS Plus subscribers on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

Compared to PS Plus' August 2024 player count, September 2024's game lineup saw a 12.37% increase in active PS5 and PS4 players. That means PS Plus Essential has now seen three consecutive months of player count growth — a winning streak that Sony will be keen to keep going as long as it can.

That 12% player count boost also makes September 2024's selection of games the second-best performing PS Plus monthly lineup of the year. The combined PS Plus player count of September’s three games fell just 8.5% short of May 2024's leading lineup (which was largely bolstered by EA Sports FC 24).

The best PS Plus Essential months of 2024 so far

#1 — May 2024 (biggest game: EA Sports FC 24)
#2 — September 2024 (biggest game: Harry Potter Quidditch Champions)
#3 — March 2024 (biggest game: Sifu)
#4 — January 2024 (biggest game: Evil West)
#5 — August 2024 (biggest game: Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga)
#6 — July 2024 (biggest game: Among Us)
#7 — April 2024 (biggest game: Immortals of Aveum)
#8 — June 2024 (biggest game: Streets of Rage 4)
#9 — February 2024 (biggest game: Foamstars)

The top-performing game in September 2024's PS Plus lineup was the day-one game Harry Potter Quidditch Champions, which quickly became the second-biggest PS Plus game launch of the year as well (behind EA Sports FC 24). That said, it's largely thanks to interest in this new Harry Potter game that September's lineup did so well, as the performance of the other two monthly games was middling at best.

The second-most popular game in the September 2024 lineup was Little Nightmares 2, which saw 77.01% fewer active PS5 and PS4 players than Harry Potter Quidditch Champions. Of the 27 PS Plus Essential games released this year so far, Little Nightmares 2 ranks as the 17th most-popular game — pretty much in the middle of the rankings.

Top PS Plus Essential games of 2024 so far

#1 — EA Sports FC 24 (May 2024)
#2 — Harry Potter Quidditch Champions (September 24)
#3 — Sifu (March 2024)
#4 — Evil West (January 2024)
#5 — Foamstars (February 2024)
#6 — LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga (August 2024)
#7 — Among Us (July 2024)
#8 — Tunic (May 2024)
#9 — Ender Lilies Quietus of the Knights (August 2024)
#10 — F1 23 (March 2024)

Finally, there's PlayStation Studios' MLB The Show 24, which saw the smallest amount of interest from PS Plus subscribers this month. The baseball sim did gain 229.67% more players after coming to PS Plus, but that's a relatively low figure compared to most games that join the service (Little Nightmares 2, for example, gained over 3000% more active players after joining PS Plus Essential).

As a result, MLB The Show 24 ranks as the 24th most-popular PS Plus game this year in a list of 27 games. In other words, it's the fourth-worst performing PS Plus Essential game of 2024 so far, skewing way against the norm for sports games on the service.

In fairness to San Diego Studio, baseball is a relatively niche sport — largely popular in the US and Japan. Most fans of the sport will have already picked up the game, and there's not that wide potential audience waiting to jump in and enjoy the game like there is for something like EA Sports FC 24.

Either way, on a more granular level, this could have been a disastrous month for PS Plus had Sony not wisely put the money into bringing a big new Harry Potter game to the service. Good thing too — we already think Harry Potter Quidditch Champions is one of the best PS Plus games we had all year! What do you think? Did you enjoy this month's PS Plus lineup? Let us know down in the comments below.

Chart compiled using gameplay data from over 3.1 million active PlayStation accounts (not just TrueTrophies accounts). Chart information is copyright GameInsights. Regarding this data:

When an account opens a game, this is registered as a game being played. Accounts can only register a game once per week.
Our data is good for suggesting general trends — we represent this using percentages, not numbers.

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Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee keeps one eye on the future (Astro Bot), one eye on the past (PS1, PS2, and PS3 games), and his secret third eye on junk he really likes (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Sonic). A PlayStation fan for over 25 years, he loves replaying classic games via PS Plus.