The Plucky Squire nabs the second-biggest PS Plus Extra debut of 2024

The Plucky Squire's PS Plus player count shows the day-one PS5 game's launch on the service was a big success, only falling short of Dave the Diver's launch.

The Plucky Squire nabs the second-biggest PS Plus Extra debut of 2024
Lee Brady

Lee Brady

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PS5 players far and wide showed up recently to check out those The Plucky Squire trophies after the game launched day-one as part of the PS Plus Extra and Premium September 2024 lineup. By comparing The Plucky Squire's PS Plus player count to all the games added to the service this year, we can see the PS5 adventure scored the second-highest debut of 2024!

PS Plus Extra's latest day-one game is another big success

  • The Plucky Squire launched on PS5 and PS Plus Extra on Tuesday, September 17, 2024
  • That week, The Plucky Squire scored the second-biggest PS Plus Extra debut of 2024
  • The game's strong debut also makes it the fifth-biggest game to launch on PS Plus Extra so far
Using a gameplay data sample from over 3.1 million active PSN accounts (courtesy of our partnership with GameInsights, which draws the majority of its PSN data from sources beyond TrueTrophies), we've been able to track the debut player count of every new PS5 and PS4 game that arrives on PS Plus Extra.
That includes developer All Possible Futures' PS5 game The Plucky Squire, which was made available in the PS Plus Extra Game Catalog on its PS5 launch day on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. By the end of that week, The Plucky Squire had secured the second-biggest PS Plus Extra game debut of 2024, knocking PS Plus Extra's Police Simulator into the #3 spot.

It was not a particularly close contest either. The Plucky Squire saw 25.5% more PS Plus Extra subscriber attention than June's Police Simulator Patrol Officers, which makes some sense. After all, Police Simulator wasn't a day-one launch for PS Plus — it was just an absurdly popular game the moment it arrived on the service (for reasons that still largely escape us).

Top 10 PS Plus Extra games of 2024 (so far)

#1Dave the Diver (April 2024)
#2 — The Plucky Squire (September 2024)
#3Police Simulator Patrol Officers (June 2024)
#4Remnant 2 (July 2024)
#5Red Dead Redemption 2 (May 2024)
#6Cult of the Lamb (August 2024)
#7Need for Speed Unbound (February 2024)
#8Marvel’s Midnight Suns (March 2024)
#9Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: The Definitive Edition (June 2024)
#10Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (January 2024)
As strong as The Plucky Squire's debut on PS Plus was, it still couldn't top PS Plus Extra's Dave the Diver, which remains the biggest game on the service this year and the fourth-biggest game to ever come to the Extra or Premium tier.
Granted, it was a close contest between Dave the Diver and the new PS5 adventure title — The Plucky Squire's player count was only 3.9% short! That makes it the fifth-biggest PS Plus Extra debut since the service began (at the time of writing).

Biggest PS Plus Extra games of all time (so far)

#1Stray (July 2022)
#2Grand Theft Auto V (December 2023)
#3Grand Theft Auto Vice City The Definitive Edition (October 2022)
#4Dave the Diver (April 2024)
#5 — The Plucky Squire (September 2024)
#5Sea of Stars (August 2023)
#6Horizon Forbidden West (February 2023)
#7Back 4 Blood (January 2023)
#8Police Simulator Patrol Officers (June 2024)
#9Devil May Cry 5 (January 2023)
#10Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart (May 2023)
Unless your game is titled Grand Theft Auto, one trend remains consistent among the most popular PS Plus Extra titles released so far: day-one launches. The Plucky Squire is the just the latest addition to the growing list that includes Dave the Diver, Sea of Stars, and the big cat, Stray. Once again, I argue that Sony needs to consider making PS Plus monthly day-one games a thing.
At any rate, the game's success on PS Plus must be good news for both Sony and All Possible Futures. We're sure we'll see The Plucky Squire on our best PS Plus games list soon enough, but in the meantime, let us know: have you been enjoying this PS5 adventure game? 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.
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.
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