PlayStation 5 Surprise Update Adds Fun New Welcome Hub Feature

Having established itself as the home for some of the most engaging in-depth single-player games of all time, PlayStation has been hard at work to showcase its wide array of championed titles.

Using the Welcome Hub, players have been able to manage their games and apps alongside their online interactions, and while the directory was aptly designed, there is always room for improvement.

Now, a new Beta test has been launched inside the Welcome Hub, as a new PlayStation 5 update has introduced a new 'trending' feature and an active player counter to make sure its users can keep up to date with the games that everyone is falling head over heels for.

New PlayStation Welcome Hub champions trending titles

With eyes firmly poised on the next generation of PlayStation hardware, the current consoles are being tested with fresh features that could soon be ported into the sixth mainline console.

One of these new features comes in the form of a 'Top Ten' and 'Trending Now' list on the Welcome Hub, which highlights the most popular and rapidly-growing titles, respectively.

PlayStation

Launched as part of a Beta update in May, the feature highlights the likes of GTA V, Call of Duty, and Fortnite among the 'Top Ten' games - a list that will hardly move considering the popularity of the biggest mainstream franchises.

But for those gamers who like to flick between new games, the Trending portfolio will be much to your liking.

In its first edition, it boasts Hell Let Loose, Overwatch, and Doom Eternal, which both had a massive spike in players (in the case of Doom, it shows a '188% surge in gameplay hours'), and will likely be focusing on new arrivals to PlayStation and live-service titles with new content drops.

PlayStation's new feature will break the internet when GTA 6 arrives

Arguably, the most interesting part of this PlayStation 5 feature is the 'player count' on the top games.

Rivalling sites like Steam Charts for showing the most-played games, it will make for interesting reading when new AAA titles land.

Specifically, with GTA 6 in the wings, we'll be able to compare the popularity of the multi-billion-dollar game across platforms and provide us with a closer estimate of the record-shattering peak player rates that are expected.

For PlayStation, this is yet another step forward in its never-ending bout with Xbox, which has been swinging in Sony's favour this month, due to matching Microsoft's biggest selling points alongside their own new features.