PS Plus Premium scores its biggest hit yet with Sly Cooper’s PS2 debut

PS2 game Sly Cooper is the biggest PS Plus Premium game so far

• The first Sly Cooper game has scored the biggest debut on PS Plus Premium so far
• The PS2 game debuted with a 2.5% higher player count than The Legend of Dragoon
• Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is the eight-biggest PS Plus game of 2024 so far

Using a gameplay data sample from over 3.1 million active PSN accounts (courtesy of our partnership with GameInsights), we’ve been tracking the biggest games to hit PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium. That includes the first batch of PS2 games ported to PS5 in June 2024: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Tomb Raider Legend, and Star Wars The Clone Wars.

Previously, the biggest game to hit PS Plus Premium was Sony’s The Legend of Dragoon — the beloved PS1 JRPG that joined the subscription scheme in early 2023. That PS1 classic has remained the best-performing game on PS Plus Premium for over a year now, but at last, it has been dethroned by none other than Sly Cooper‘s first PS2 outing.

In its PS Plus launch week (week ending Sunday, June 16, 2024), Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus attracted 2.5% more PS5 and PS4 players than The Legend of Dragoon managed in its own PS Plus launch week. It’s not a large margin of victory, but it’s still enough to make Sly Cooper the best-performing PS Plus Premium game since the higher subscription tier launched in 2022.

Top five PS Plus Premium games so far

#1 — Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (June 2024)
#2 — The Legend of Dragoon (February 2023)
#3 — Tomb Raider Legend (June 2024)
#4 — Twisted Metal (July 2023)
#5 — Resistance Retribution (February 2024)

While Tomb Raider Legend also saw a strong PS5 debut, Sly Cooper saw 39.66% more active PS5 and PS4 players that same week. Every other game released on PS Plus Premium has failed to match these top three games in terms of player numbers.

A true PS2 classic.

Granted, it’s worth pointing out that there’s still a considerable gulf between what counts as a success on PS Plus Premium and what counts as a successful game on PS Plus overall. In terms of just the games added to PS Plus Extra and Premium in 2024, Sly Cooper is only the eighth biggest PS Plus game of the year so far.

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 — Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (June 2024)
#9 — Dredge (May 2024)
#10 — Resident Evil 2 (January 2024)

There’s an 85.11% difference in active player count between Sly Cooper and this year’s biggest PS Plus Extra game, Dave the Diver. Zoom out a little further and you’ll remember that Dave the Diver is only the third-biggest game to grace PS Plus Extra. Stray remains the biggest PS Plus Extra game since the new PS Plus tiers were introduced in 2022, with Grand Theft Auto V ranked second

So, it’s important to remember that while Sly Cooper is the biggest PS Plus Premium game we’ve seen on PS5 and PS4 so far, it’s still a relatively small slice of the pie as far as Sony is concerned. Ultimately, we have to reckon with the notion that Sly Cooper likely boosted subscriber numbers less effectively than Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.

Still an underdog.

If anything, at least the success of Sly Cooper, a beloved PS2 classic, shows that the old Sony favorites still have the power to grab significant PS Plus subscriber attention. Let’s hope Sly’s strong debut encourages Sony to keep bringing more PS2 games to PS5 and PS4. Maybe one of those classic games will really get subscribers to jump on PS Plus Premium’s Classic Catalog someday.

Have you been playing this PS2 classic on PS Plus Premium? Enjoying hunting down this PS2 platinum trophy? If you’re not, it’s worth pointing out that we have some Sly Cooper platinum trophy tips that might make the game a bit easier for you. Either way, let us know what you think of Sly’s success down in the comments below.