Despite pretty strong criticism since its inception, Sony’s been gradually growing its State of Play brand. And according to Streams Charts, its latest livestream set a new record for the series, peaking at over two million concurrent viewers.
This data takes into account co-streamers across YouTube and Twitch, although it’s noted that about 700,000 concurrents were generated by PlayStation’s official channel alone.
It basically means the platform holder is reaching an outrageous number of people with these shows, and the numbers keep going up every year.
Of course, some fans aren’t quite sold on the State of Play format. Many feel these semi-regular streams are too low-key, and would prefer a first-party focused broadcast, like an old E3 press conference or PS Showcase.
It’d be interesting to know how Sony is evaluating its approach internally. Clearly the interest in State of Plays is growing each year, but purely looking at our own polls, the feedback from fans is rarely ever universally positive.
The Japanese giant may be happy with how many people it’s reaching, then, but we have to imagine its ultimate goal is to ensure a high level of viewer satisfaction coming out of these livestreams, too.
[source streamscharts.com]
Comments 24
The timing was better than before, which certainly helped. A show starting at 11 pm (CET) is acceptable, a start after midnight not.
Bring back E3!!
Millions get to witness Days Gone remastered instead of what would have been a Days Gone 2 announcement. This and the failed TLOU multiplayer project I won't forgive or forget until I receive them...
And so the awful journey of Sony will continue because they get rewarded by the mainstream for not offering anything.
(But for the mainstream who doesn't know anything about the quality that was before it obviously doesn't matter)
So that's a lot of people seeing what great games are coming to playstation over the next year, I suppose the next SoP will break this record again.
These State of Play shows are fine if Sony can follow them up with a showcase of whatever big games weren't announced/covered. Timing is everything. Sony has enough games in development to start doing more shows and completely blow us away this year 😬
@Frmknst Please explain how they're "not offering anything".
The power of the PlayStation brand. It's important for third party publishers to have a great relationship with Sony for this fact. I'm looking forward to the Borderlands 4 State of Play. I'm a massive Borderlands afficionato.
@get2sammyb People want Cyberpunk-esque experiences nowadays. The only people who look at the SOP and didn't leave underwhelmed are younger newer gamers and reviewers who just have more content to play/write about. It's not anything special or exciting.
Tbf this sites comment section would make you think Playstation was a shambles and dying out with how doom and gloom it is.If you look at okay above the SOP is largely positive even among the readership here but the comments would make you think the opposite.
Most people just want games and if you came away wanting even 2 of them, Sony did their job.
@Eadgar I liked Borderlands 2 but didn't like the look of 3. Hoping 4 is a return to form would love to get back into the franchise.
@Frmknst "not offering anything"... err... there were over 30 announcements including new games big and small and everything in between, including a new Sony IP. Did we watch the same show? I can understand not personally liking the announcements, but saying they aren't offering anything is demonstrably false.
"And so the awful journey of Sony will continue"... what does this even mean?
Yea cus half those idiots are hoping for a GTA6 trailer lol
@themightyant after re reading their comment, I feel they are saying "Sony" themselves (from their Studios) are offering nothing, which is wrong, obviously. I must admit their output is not super awesome atm (due reasons which we are all aware of) but they are delivering on their statement of one 1st Party AAA Game a year.
Not ever SoP will be for everyone, and myself thought this was a little poor and I honestly think that was down to the pacing of it, but I still walked away with a few titles I liked the look of.
@ZeD I can understand not thinking there is enough first party content but they literally just announced a new first party game/IP in Saros. That isn't "not offering anything" that's just nonsense, I'll call it as I see it. We also know there's other first party games coming this year, and perhaps there will be more surprises like Astro Bot we don't even know about at this time but will release this year.
@themightyant I think it is due to being spoilt to many 1st Party Games in the PS3 and PS4 era that blinds some people.
The trailer for Saros did peak my interest but until I see game play, I cannot really say if I will like it or not. I could not get along with Returnal (never made it past the second area) due to the difficulty curve, but they have said it is not as punishing as Returnal. So, who know... it might be a perfect balance for me.
I feel that statement from some ("not offering anything"), should be rephrased to "not offering anything for me" (I would put the for me in bold but I have no idea how to do that lol) and then the conversation would be very different.
I enjoy the state of play.sony need to do this more often.so its welcome.its more games so its all good.word up son
@ZeD People conveniently forget there were lulls in the PS3 and PS4 gen for first party content too, then they finished the gen with a bang.
But I never quite understand people's obsession with first party. I don't care WHO makes the games as long as there is plenty to play, and honestly my backlog is longer than ever on PlayStation there are more games released every month I am interested in than I can ever play.
Do people genuinely have nothing to play? I just feel a real disconnect with this narrative that we are starving for good games, when I've never had more to play.
@themightyant I do remember the rocky times... dark times lol
Some people make themselves believe that they have nothing to play and NEED the latest games. For myself, I am overflowing across 3 (current) consoles. That does not include titles from 360 and PS3 lol
@get2sammyb This mentality and "PS5 has no games" is something I'll never understand.
Tbh, I think I do, it comes from the PC elitists and the Xbox fanboys.
I know that some folks aren’t thrilled but this was a banger. Not having release dates for some things is of course not always fun, but I’d rather studios don’t bother to announce dates until they’re ready. It also shows how committed Sony is to fixing Jim Ryan’s mistakes. Great showcase, excited for what comes next.
That can't be right, according to the internet no one watched that crap.
@Frmknst Sony could not release a game for the next year's and people would still buy them in droves
@themightyant look where we was at this point in the PS4's lifetime. They've wasted so much time and money making live service games that no one wants and then cancelled the majority of them. Thank God for third and second party or it really would be a quiet generation.
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