Here are the most popular PlayStation games, based on public trophy data

Enlarge / GTA, Call of Duty, and FIFA dominate PlayStation's most popular games, according to new trophy-based public estimates from Gamstat. (credit: Gamstat)

Back in December, a holiday promotion for Sony's PlayStation Network inadvertently leaked total player counts for hundreds of PlayStation titles. Now, one site is building off that work to create an ongoing database of player count estimates for every game on PSN.

Gamstat launched in December as a clearinghouse for information gleaned from that "MyPS4Life" data leak. But in recent weeks it has unveiled a new algorithm-as outlined on the about page and in more detailed discussions with Ars Technica-that takes inspiration from previous efforts like Steam Gauge and Steam Spy (before Valve shut off the data spigot, in any case).

Time traveling with trophies

First, the Gamstat algorithm takes a semi-random sample of the entire universe of PlayStation Network users. Gamstat's administrator, who goes by Dennis, outlined this sampling procedure to Ars but asked that it not be shared to prevent potential meddling by Sony.

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