Animal Well and Dave the Diver score big as day-one PS Plus games
- Animal Well is the fifth-biggest PS Plus Extra game of 2024 so far
- The game was part of a trio of day-one PS Plus games that included Dave the Diver and Tales of Kenzera: Zau
- April 2024’s PS Plus Extra games saw 56% more active PS5 and PS4 players than the next biggest monthly lineup this year
Using a gameplay data sample from over 3.1 million active PSN accounts (courtesy of our partnership with GameInsights), we’ve been keeping track of the debut player count for every PS5 and PS4 game that has been added to PS Plus Extra. This includes Animal Well, which quickly claimed its spot as the fifth-biggest PS Plus Extra debut player count for 2024 (according to data from the week ending Sunday, May 19, 2024).
Announced as one of the PS Plus Extra and Premium games for April 2024, Animal Well actually saw a staggered PS5 release on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. The PS5 game was the third and final day-one launch game announced in the PS Plus Extra lineup for April, following the PS5 and PS4 debuts of Dave the Diver and Tales of Kenzera Zau.
While the day-one PS Plus launch of Animal Well lured in 89.36% fewer active PS5 players than Dave the Diver, that’s hardly a surprise. Dave the Diver isn’t just the biggest PS Plus Extra game of 2024 so far — it’s the third-biggest PS Plus Extra game ever. The fact that there’s only an 89% difference in their debut player counts is a testament to just how popular Animal Well is.
Biggest PS Plus Extra games of 2024 so far
#1 — Dave the Diver (April 2024)
#2 — Need for Speed Unbound (February 2024)
#3 — Marvel’s Midnight Suns (March 2024)
#4 — Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (January 2024)
#5 — Animal Well (April 2024)
That said, Animal Well did top the PS Plus Extra debut of Tales of Kenzera Zau by 14.75% — an impressive feat given that Animal Well was even more buried by Sony’s poor PS Plus Extra interface than Zau. That makes Animal Well the second-biggest PS Plus Extra game from April 2024’s lineup and the sixth-biggest PS Plus Extra day-one game to hit the service so far.
With all of April 2024’s games now in the hands of subscribers, we can finally see a final tally for the month’s debut PS Plus Extra player count. In the end, April 2024’s PS Plus Extra games saw 56.19% more PS5 and PS4 player attention than February 2024’s lineup — the previous best-performing PS Plus lineup this year. It seems the combined powers of Need for Speed Unbound and The Outer Worlds have nothing on Dave the Diver and Animal Well.
Animal Well‘s success here serves as yet another reminder that PS Plus Extra needs monthly day-one games if it really wants to capture the attention of players. Giving PS5 and PS4 subscribers the opportunity to try out new games — even experimental games that they might not ordinarily check out like Animal Well — makes PS Plus Extra feel like a worthwhile service that delivers new experiences to its customers.
If you need a clearer comparison, check out how drab the game lineup for PS Plus Extra and Premium in May 2024 looks. I guess we should be thrilled that Red Dead Redemption 2 is back on the service again, but honestly, I’d take another exciting day-one PS Plus game like Animal Well over that any day. Have you checked out Animal Well yet? Let us know in the comments below.
- When an account opens a game, this is registered as a game being played. Accounts can only register a game once per week.
- Our data is good for suggesting general trends — we represent this using percentages, not numbers.