It's no secret that 2016 was a pretty great year for games. As we take yet another step toward a digital future, though, the folks over at Sony decided to take a step back and look at the most downloaded games of the year from PlayStation Network. Some of these results might surprise you.
It's interesting to see which games sell well digitally. In a recent PlayStation Blog post, Sony has listed its most-downloaded games across multiple platforms, including PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and even PlayStation VR and PlayStation Classics. We'll dive into the results more in a bit but, for now, here are the lists.
PS4 Games
2. Battlefield 1
3. Minecraft
4. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
5. Tom Clancy's The Division
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Overwatch: Origins Edition
8. Battlefield 4
9. No Man's Sky
10. EA Sports FIFA 17
PS3 Games
1. Minecraft
3. Grand Theft Auto V
4. LittleBigPlanet 3
5. Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare
7. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
8. Need for Speed Most Wanted
9. FIFA 17
10. Watch Dogs
PS Vita Games
1. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth
2. Minecraft
3. God Eater: Resurrection
4. XCOM: Enemy Unknown Plus
5. Borderlands 2
6. Persona 4 Golden
7. Jak and Daxter Collection
8. Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment
9. Ratchet & Clank Collection
10. Severed
PS VR Games
1. Job Simulator
2. Batman: Arkham VR
3. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
4. PlayStation VR Worlds
5. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
6. Here They Lie
8. Carnival Games VR
9. Harmonix Music VR
10. EVE: Valkyrie
PlayStation Classics
1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
2. Bully
3. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy
4. Dark Cloud 2
5. Twisted Metal: Black
6. The Warriors
7. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
8. Star Wars Bounty Hunter
9. Rogue Galaxy
10. Manhunt
That's a pretty impressive spread. Based on what we're seeing here, it looks like folks aren't quite ready to make the full jump to digital yet. The more story-driven campaign games were further down the list, or not on the list at all, while multiplayer-focused games or games made to be played over long periods of time were closer to the top. For example, the biggest seller for PlayStation this year was Uncharted 4, but it's actually only the 18th most downloaded PS4 game of 2016. Not as many folks are interested in that title's online modes, so it looks like the majority of sales went to physical where you can play it, put it back in the box and delete it off of your hard drive to save space.
Still, seeing Rocket League in the number one spot for PS4 was a little surprising. The game is well over a year old at this point and lots of folks got it free from Plus when it first launched. That just goes to show that if you make a fun, solid game and do right by your community, they'll continue to support you.
Also, Minecraft. It's hard to believe that that many people don't already own the game on multiple platforms, but it managed to break the top three on all PlayStation consoles this past year, so, there you have it.
