Sony has released a new PlayStation 5 system software update that adds a Community Activity widget to the Welcome Hub, giving players a direct look at the most popular games in their country or region. The widget includes two views, Top 10 and Trending Now, and arrives as part of PS5 system software version 26.06-14.00.00. The feature had previously been tested with beta participants earlier in 2026.
Top 10 shows the ten most popular games from the previous week for the player’s country or region. Sony describes the feature as a way to identify games with large active communities, making it easier to see which titles are attracting the most players without relying entirely on third-party engagement charts. The final public version does not display exact player counts, however, despite those figures appearing during the earlier beta test.
Trending Now serves a different purpose by highlighting ten multiplayer games or individual multiplayer modes that are seeing a surge in popularity. Sony says this can surface newly released games as well as older titles experiencing increased activity after major updates or content drops. That means the widget is designed to show both sustained popularity through Top 10 and sudden changes in player interest through Trending Now.
The Community Activity widget can be added to the PS5 Welcome Hub alongside existing panels for storage, friends, trophies, PlayStation Plus and other system information. Sony’s support documentation lists it as a standard Welcome Hub option where available, although widget availability can vary depending on region. Players can customize the Welcome Hub by enabling or disabling individual widgets and changing their placement and size.
The public rollout is notable because PlayStation has historically provided relatively little direct player-count information through the console interface. During the beta, the new widget attracted attention because it exposed weekly player totals for major games in selected regions. The version released to all users keeps the rankings and trend information but removes those numerical totals, so players can see relative popularity without knowing precisely how many people played each title.
The September update includes several other changes beyond the new rankings widget. PS5 users can now enable a speaker indicator during voice chat, showing the name of the person currently talking and allowing the indicator’s position on screen to be changed. Sony has also made adjustments to Bluetooth behavior in certain countries and regions, particularly for a setting intended to help manage controller connections at esports venues.
PS5 Pro owners receive an additional visual change. The Enhance PSSR Image Quality setting is now switched on by default after installing the update, allowing supported games that use the earlier version of PSSR to take advantage of Sony’s newer image reconstruction system automatically. Players can still disable the setting manually through the console’s Screen and Video options.
The new popularity widget also gives console users another way to compare what is actually being played rather than relying solely on store charts, which can be influenced by sales rather than engagement. Third-party companies such as Circana regularly publish rankings based on weekly active users, but Sony’s implementation places similar discovery information directly on the PS5 dashboard and localizes it by country or region.
That distinction could become especially useful around major launches and live-service updates, when Trending Now may show rapid shifts before a title has spent enough time in the broader Top 10. It may also make regional differences in PlayStation activity more visible, since the rankings are not presented as one global chart.
PS5 system software version 26.06-14.00.00 is rolling out now. After updating, users can add the Community Activity widget through the Welcome Hub and switch between Top 10 and Trending Now to see which games and multiplayer experiences are drawing the most attention in their region.
