PS Plus brings 960% more players to bonus GTA classic on PS5

PS5 and PS4 players showed up in droves to collect those Grand Theft Auto San Andreas The Definitive Edition trophies almost as soon as the game became available on PS Plus Extra. According to GTA San Andreas’ PS Plus Extra player count, the remastered PS2 classic is now one of the top five biggest PS Plus Extra games of 2024.

GTA San Andreas The Definitive Edition sees big player interest on PS Plus

• GTA San Andreas The Definitive Edition gained 960% more players after joining PS Plus
• The GTA San Andreas remaster is now the fifth most popular PS Plus Extra game of 2024
• The PS5 remaster peaked with 14% fewer active players than Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2

Using a gameplay data sample from over 3.1 million active PSN accounts (courtesy of our partnership with GameInsights), we’ve tracked the debut player count of every PS Plus game for 2024. This includes PS Plus Extra’s Grand Theft Auto San Andreas The Definitive Edition, which was added to PS Plus Extra’s Games Catalog on Friday, June 7, 2024.
By Thursday, June 13, 2024, GTA San Andreas The Definitive Edition’s PS5 and PS5 player count had increased by 980.66% compared to the previous week’s data.

That player count increase makes GTA San Andreas the biggest new addition from the PS Plus Extra and Premium Days of Play 2024 bonus games lineup, outpacing previous frontrunner Dredge with 29.79% more PS5 and PS4 players.

Top 10 PS Plus Extra games of 2024 (so far)

#1 — Dave the Diver (April 2024)
#2 — Red Dead Redemption 2 (May 2024)
#3 — Need for Speed Unbound (February 2024)
#4 — Marvel’s Midnight Suns (March 2024)
#5 — Grand Theft Auto San Andreas – The Definitive Edition (May 2024)
#6 — Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (January 2024)
#7 — Animal Well (April 2024)
#8 — Dredge (May 2024)
#9 — Resident Evil 2 (January 2024)
#10 — Tales of Kenzera Zau (April 2024)

That puts San Andreas in the number five spot of our top 10 biggest PS Plus Extra games of 2024 ranking. The top 10 list now has two big entries from Rockstar Games in the running, with Red Dead Redemption 2 still sitting well above GTA San Andrea‘s player count with 14.38% more players.
While the player count for PS Plus Extra in May 2024‘s lineup initially looked pretty poor, the staggered launch of Dredge and GTA San Andreas has helped boost the performance of last month’s announced games significantly. Where April 2024’s had previously outperformed May’s lineup by 23.49%, now only 9.64% more players checked out April’s PS Plus lineup.

It seems despite the game’s initial rocky reception, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas The Definitive Edition has still managed to pull in quite a number of PS Plus players this last week. It shows just how powerful the GTA brand is.

It seems adding any entry from this franchise to your subscription scheme — even if it’s a poorly received port of an all-time PS2 classic — is an easy way to get players reupping their subscription for another month.

Now we’ll just have to see how the new PS Plus Extra and Premium June 2024 games do in their attempt to woo PS5 and PS4 players. I suspect this month’s lineup might not be so successful without the backing of Rockstar games, but who knows what tricks Sony has up its sleeves. Did you check out GTA San Andreas on PS Plus this week? Let us know down in the comments below.