A week after both the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 launched, new player data has revealed the most popular games on each console (so far). Both consoles have had their fair share of issues leading up to launch, including low supply and a lack of games to play.
There are a myriad of other issues for the PS5, such as cloud saving being locked behind PlayStation Plus, and prolonged download/upload speeds. The Xbox Series X/S is not without its faults either, but in spite of all of this, players lucky enough to secure their consoles have been putting significant hours into the games they do have.
New data published by Newzoo show each console's most popular titles as of November 15. For the PlayStation 5, Astro's Playroom took the top spot, with 52.6 percent of PS5s having the game installed. In second is Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (37.8 percent), and Spider-Man Miles Morales (36.1 percent) comes in third. In fourth is NBA 2K21 (28.6 percent). Meanwhile for the Xbox Series X/S, its top games include Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at number one (34.8 percent), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in second (26.3 percent), and Assassin's Creed Valhalla at number three (24.8 percent). After Assassin's Creed Valhalla, there is a steep drop to fourth place: Destiny 2 (17 percent).
While PlayStation managed to slip one of its first-party games in the top three, two other exclusives - Demon's Souls and Ghosts of Tsushima - came in at sixth and ninth respectively. First-party exclusives are PlayStation's main area of focus this generation, so ideally it would like those percentages to be higher. But again, these numbers are only after a week of launch; as more exclusives release in the coming months, the ratio of first-party titles to third could change.
Xbox on the other hand has taken a different approach with its console lineup. As Newzoo notes,
"Microsoft’s strategy leans more on its ecosystem, its strong Game Pass content offering, and a play-anywhere philosophy...Xbox Game Pass, a service which gives subscribers access to all first-party titles and a selection of third-party ones, is also a key pillar of Xbox’s next-gen consoles, and 50% of titles in the Xbox top 10 are currently part of Game Pass in some form."
Of course, Xbox has publicly commented on Halo Infinite's turbulent development, and at the moment it sounds like the company does not mind being the Call of Duty machine, as long as players play it through Game Pass. It will be interesting to watch as these numbers change for both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S as various Black Friday and holiday deals begin and drop the prices on many games.
Source: Newzoo