The week-long Sony shutdown protest did not significantly impact the monitored player data. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella stated that his team observed no noticeable changes in player count or activity.
The campaign, named "Sony Blackout," took place from August 23 to 30. Participants were called upon to stop using Sony consoles and related services during this period to protest the company's decision to discontinue disc production.
Piscatella recently released the top ten games in the US market based on weekly active users. When asked if the monitoring data showed any changes attributable to the shutdown campaign, he clearly stated that there were no significant changes in either player count or activity.
The one-week duration of this campaign has sparked skepticism among some players. Some believe that the short timeframe may weaken the protest's impact. Additionally, the event coincided with Gamescom 2026, during which some players left their consoles to attend the exhibition, and this overlap may have also affected the relevant data.
Following the conclusion of the campaign, organizer DoesItPlay stated that the shutdown had met the "minimum requirements" and that opportunities for further action would be provided in the future.
The weekly active user rankings for the same period show that the top three on Sony's platform were Fortnite, NBA 2K27, and Roblox; Xbox was led by Fortnite, Roblox, and Call of Duty; while the top three on Steam were Wardogs, Counter-Strike 2, and Helldivers 2.