Sony on Monday published its regular look back at the most-downloaded video games to PlayStation for March, and it’s a very good snapshot of what formed video gaming’s dialog on the entire, not only for that console’s viewers, over the previous month. There are breakout hits alongside long-tail mainstays, with sports activities titles, as they all the time do, lurking on the edges.
Whether or not you have been with the vanguard of considered one of these new releases otherwise you have been immersed in one thing else in the meanwhile, listed here are the highest seven video games downloaded by the greater than 100 million customers of the PlayStation Community. The total record, damaged down by platform and area, is here.
Helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 is the first breakout hit of 2024, launching in early February on PlayStation and PC and instantly dealing with server hundreds totaling a whole bunch of hundreds of gamers in its first two weeks of launch.
Helldivers 2 is a cooperative multiplayer-only recreation, markedly completely different from its predecessor, which was a top-down shooter that also drew a powerful viewers when it launched in 2015. The sequel takes the against-all-odds, tactically demanding setup of the primary recreation and applies it in a extra participating and immersive third-person perspective. It’s extra than simply the most-downloaded PlayStation Community recreation, it’s additionally the biggest-ever Steam launch for a Sony-published title.
MLB The Present 24
MLB The Present 24, by SIE San Diego Studio, is a full-service baseball simulation that has been an annual winner amongst sports activities followers since its inception greater than 15 years in the past. That doesn’t imply its makers can relaxation on their laurels.
This yr, MLB The Show 24 introduces ladies as playable stars in all modes, making an enormous play to broaden their viewers to these followers who’ve additionally dreamed about being huge leaguers, even understanding they by no means had an opportunity at it. Girls function prominently within the Storylines mode that was launched in 2023, a sequence of interactive vignettes which inform the lesser-known tales {of professional} gamers from baseball’s segregated period. They’re additionally current for Highway to the Present, the sport’s actual jewel. It’s a wealthy, vicarious single-player fantasy through which customers create their celebrity and take all of them the best way to the Main Leagues.
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is, because the title says, a sequel — to one thing printed 12 years in the past, however by no means forgotten by its cult viewers. This open-world fantasy journey is just not precisely a Soulslike. Nonetheless, there’s little marvel that the fandom that has gathered for that sub-genre over the previous decade, particularly for video games like 2022’s Elden Ring, would have a pure and fervent curiosity on this open-world epic.
WWE 2K24
WWE 2K24 has a tricky job forward of it yearly, which is mainly, “How do you simulate one thing that’s, uh, faux?” Someway, 2K Sports activities has pulled it off going again three years, presenting skilled wrestling and all of its behind-the-scenes intrigue as movable items on a pleasant chess board of mayhem, as if it was, ahem, a “actual” sport.
The massive showpieces this yr embrace a 40-year retrospective on Wrestlemania. MyRise, the created-player profession mode, as soon as once more delivers two distinctive storylines whether or not gamers select to play as a feminine or male celebrity. And people who benefit from the meta of professional wrestling — the angles, the matchings and the like that makes it such an athletic cleaning soap opera — will discover lots to like in a refined MyGM mode that doesn’t make big adjustments, however is aware of the best way to mud up the successes of the previous two video games with out turning over any teacups.
Madden NFL 24
Madden NFL 24 didn’t say goodbye when the final of Tremendous Bowl LVIII’s confetti fell on the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in early February. Because of the reside service choices of its Final Group mode, Madden outdrew its basketball brethren within the first month of the game’s offseason, at the very least on PlayStation. American soccer is a year-round sport, prefer it or not, and its online game all the time has one thing on provide within the Madden Final Group reside service suite.
Star Wars Battlefront Basic Assortment
Few early-aughts console sequence are as beloved as Battlefront, and if you add the pure enchantment of Star Wars, it’s simple to grasp why this two-game bundle (comprising 2004’s Battlefront and 2005’s Battlefront II) could be such successful amongst nostalgic followers. Each video games have been dropped at trendy {hardware} in 2019 and 2020. However this assortment, if not truly a remake or a remaster, continues to be greater than a straight port and promises the multiplayer action that made the primary two such a long-playing hit on PlayStation 2.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
Right here’s a shock. Rainbow Six Siege wasn’t within the prime 20 of this record the earlier month, however right here it reveals up outdrawing EA Sports activities FC 24, NBA 2K24, and Closing Fantasy VII Rebirth. That is partly attributable to the March launch of Operation Deadly Omen, the primary season of this reside service recreation’s ninth yr. And no, Rainbow Six Siege is nonetheless not a free-to-play recreation. Whether or not Fortnite is spinning up its newest superstar crossover or Future 2 is ready on its subsequent huge enlargement, Siege all the time has your six lined.
Featured picture: Helldivers 2 on Steam
