In a nutshell: Sony has revealed the most downloaded games for its PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation VR platforms across the whole of 2021. And if there's one thing that the charts illustrate, it's that a lot of console owners really love sports titles and Call of Duty.
Sony has split its charts into two regions: the US/Canada and the EU. Looking at the current-gen PS5, NBA 2K22 tops the charts in the former area, while another sports game was the most downloaded in the EU last year---FIFA 22. But Call of Duty: Vanguard took the second spot in both locations.
On the PS4, it's amazing to find that, eight years after launching on the console, the most downloaded title in the US/Canada in 2021 was Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar's record-breaker was also the second most-downloaded title in the EU, beaten only by FIFA 22.
The US/Canada and EU saw the same three titles as their most-downloaded VR games in 2021: Beat Sabre, Job Simulator, and Superhot VR, in that order. Additionally, Sony included a free-to-play (PS4+PS5) category that's unsurprisingly dominated by Fortnite, Rocket League, and Call of Duty: Warzone. What is a surprise is seeing eFootball 2022 in fourth place on the EU chart, though many people likely downloaded it just to see how bad Steam's worst game really is.
Overall, Call of Duty takes 11 of the 60 spots on all the charts, and there are 20 sports games.
Yesterday brought reports that Sony had planned to stop production of the PlayStation 4 at either the end of last year or sometime in 2022, but the company has now decided to increase production of its last-gen console in response to the PlayStation 5 shortages.