Every year, PlayStation fans look forward to reflecting on their gaming accomplishments, and the Year in Review feature offers the perfect way to do just that. Whether it’s tracking hours played, top games enjoyed, or the number of trophies earned, the PlayStation Year in Review delivers a personalized snapshot of your gaming journey. For both casual players and hardcore trophy hunters, this feature has become a beloved annual tradition, allowing the PlayStation community to celebrate their progress, compare stats with friends, and revisit gaming memories that defined the year. It’s more than just numbers it’s a celebration of a year spent immersed in virtual adventures.
What Is PlayStation Year in Review?
The PlayStation Year in Review is an interactive experience provided by Sony at the end of each calendar year. It compiles data from your PlayStation account and presents a customized breakdown of your gaming activity. This includes gameplay hours, most-played titles, earned trophies, and genre preferences. Available to users with a PlayStation Network (PSN) account, it typically launches in December and runs into January of the following year.
Eligibility Requirements
To access the Year in Review, users usually need to meet the following criteria:
- Have a registered PSN account
- Be 18 years or older
- Have played on a PS4 or PS5 console for a minimum number of hours
- Enable data tracking and communication settings
Once available, players can access the report through the official PlayStation website, where they log in with their PSN credentials to view personalized stats.
Key Metrics Featured
The PlayStation Year in Review highlights various metrics that offer insights into your gaming habits. These stats are both fun and informative, often sparking friendly competition among friends or social media followers.
Total Hours Played
This metric gives a detailed breakdown of the total time you’ve spent gaming throughout the year. It may also include:
- Hours spent on PS5 vs PS4
- Time spent in multiplayer vs single-player modes
- Most active months of the year
This is often the most eye-opening statistic, especially for players who weren’t aware just how much time they dedicated to their favorite games.
Top Played Games
One of the highlights of the Year in Review is seeing your top three most-played games. For many players, these titles often represent a deep connection, whether through story, community, or long-term goals like completing trophies.
Top games usually include:
- Total hours spent in each title
- The percentage of the year those games accounted for
- Breakdowns by genre or series
This data helps players recognize what types of games they naturally gravitate toward.
Trophies Earned
The Year in Review also includes a summary of all trophies earned across the year, from Bronze to the coveted Platinum. It displays:
- Total trophies earned
- Your most common achievement types
For completionists, this section is particularly rewarding as it reflects progress and dedication across multiple titles.
Monthly Activity Graph
This visual feature shows your monthly gaming activity, with a graph that plots which months were the most active. It often corresponds with major releases, holiday breaks, or seasonal events in live-service games.
Genre Preferences
The report identifies your favorite game genres based on time spent and number of titles played. Whether you’re a fan of action-adventure, RPGs, shooters, or simulation games, this data helps you understand your core gaming style.
Why It Matters to Players
The PlayStation Year in Review goes beyond simple data it creates a moment of reflection and celebration. It helps players:
- Appreciate their favorite gaming memories
- Track achievements and milestones
- Reconnect with games they might revisit
- Share stats with friends and social communities
Sharing Year in Review results online has become a community tradition, with players proudly posting screenshots of their stats, top games, and trophy counts. It encourages social engagement and builds a stronger bond among PlayStation fans.
How Developers Benefit
While the Year in Review is a gift for players, it’s also a valuable feedback tool for developers and publishers. When certain games consistently appear in top-played lists, it shows where community engagement is strongest. Developers can use this data (on a macro level) to:
- Gauge the success of live-service updates
- Identify which franchises have strong replay value
- Understand seasonal patterns in player engagement
This insight can shape future content drops, patches, and marketing strategies, further improving the overall PlayStation ecosystem.
Standout Trends from Recent Years
Over the past few years, several trends have emerged from aggregated Year in Review data:
- Rise of live-service games: Titles like Destiny 2, Fortnite, and Call of Duty: Warzone consistently dominate hours played.
- Strong presence of narrative games: Story-driven games like The Last of Us Part II, God of War Ragnarok, and Horizon Forbidden West often top players’ lists.
- Increased PlayStation Plus usage: With the expansion of PS Plus tiers, more players are sampling a broader library of games.
These patterns reveal how gaming preferences are shifting and evolving year by year within the PlayStation community.
Tips to Prepare for Your Next Year in Review
If you want next year’s PlayStation Year in Review to reflect your gaming goals or habits, here are a few ways to shape your gameplay experience:
- Set trophy goals for the year, such as achieving a certain number of Platinum trophies
- Explore new genres to diversify your top played list
- Participate in live events or seasonal content to maximize activity during certain months
- Log in regularly, even during less active months, to maintain consistent gameplay time
Tracking your goals throughout the year makes the final review even more rewarding, giving a sense of purpose to your progress.
A Celebration of Gaming
The PlayStation Year in Review is more than just a marketing feature it’s a celebration of everything players have achieved and experienced over the past year. It highlights your most memorable adventures, provides stats to be proud of, and reminds you of the incredible stories, characters, and moments that made your year on PlayStation truly unforgettable.
Whether you play casually or clock in hundreds of hours each month, the Year in Review is a fun, nostalgic look back at the gaming chapters you’ve written. And as a new year begins, it also serves as motivation to dive into more adventures, unlock more trophies, and discover even greater stories waiting on your favorite console.