Today, in the “Age of Data Collection” it’s strange that our yearly gaming wrap-ups didn’t include more information about our personal gaming habits than last year. I was expecting to learn about some new and hyper-specific gaming categories this year.

Last week, I received not one, but two “Gaming Year in Review 2022” emails (from PlayStation and Nintendo). The PlayStation Wrap-Up featured much of the same categories as last year, while Nintendo provided way less than last year.

Some advertisers and websites ask our permission to collect our data — others do not. Using algorithms and other data science both Nintendo and PlayStation, can easily and instantly spit out spreadsheets worth of gaming data for each and every console owner. My question is, Why didn’t we get MORE information this year?

2022 Gaming Data [PlayStation]

Last year, I received my 2021 PlayStation Wrap-Up a few weeks into 2022, which means it counted the full year. This year, they sent it in the beginning of December, meaning I still have a good chunk of hours of gaming in 2022 that won’t be included here. I could end up surpassing my 2021 hours, and not know it.

Hours Played

My total gameplay hours have decreased from 487 (in 2021) to 391 (in 2022). I did manage to grab about 100 extra hours on PS5 this year from the prior year (307 in 2022, 210 in 2021), but that is due to purchasing my PlayStation 5 in March of 2021. I still managed to use my PlayStation 4 Pro for 84 hours in 2022 (277 in 2021), but that was probably due to watching YouTube and videos while working.

According to the graphic above, I only spent a total of four hours playing online. I feel like I played more online (due to games like Fall Guys, Fortnite and Overwatch 1/2), but that could also very well be correct.

Games Played

In 2022, I played a total of 86 games (67 in 2021). My top five games played on PlayStation were WWE 2K22 (for 43 hours), followed by Gran Turismo 7, F1 2022, God of War (2018), and FIFA 22. The wrap-up named “Fighting” games as my number one genre, because of WWE 2K22, but I would say my top genre looks more to be “Sports” games, or even driving games. I had beaten God of War (2018) when it first came out, but replayed the main story to prepare for God of War: Ragnarok which I’m currently playing.

The reason WWE 2K22 was my top game played this year is because it came out at the perfect time for me for two reasons. (1) I attended a live WWE Smackdown in March of 2022, the same month the game was released. (2) In preparation for my first Live WWE event in years, I went back a few months and caught up on all the story lines. (3) I became obsessed with wrestling once again for the first time since High School. (4) There was much to explore in this game between the My Universe mode, My Rise, MyGM, and all of the different types of matches to recreate.

Now that my God of War: Ragnarok gameplay hours will most likely be split between 2022/2023, I don’t see that being a top played game next year. I still have to play Horizon: Forbidden West in 2023, so that will most likely make the list. Also, if that next Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 game comes out at the right time, it will definitely be in my top five.

In 2021, my top played games were Days Gone (40 hours), DEATHLOOP (30 hours), Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (26 hours), Hitman – GOTY Edition and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (both for 23 hours).

Trophies Earned

Trophies aren’t a big deal to me, but I managed to earn zero platinum trophies this year. In 2021, I earned three platinum trophies, although I believe I truly earned two, but my Ghost of Tsushima platinum may have been counted twice for both Gens (PS4 and PS5) after playing the Iki Island expansion on PlayStation 5.

In 2022, I earned 419 trophies total, which is 100 less than in 2021 (526). The bulk of my trophies earned are always Bronze 332, with 67 Silver and just 20 Gold. I always tell myself I’m going to aim for more platinum trophies each year, but it truly depends on the game. The reason why I earned platinum trophies in both Marvel’s Spider-Man games is because it wasn’t too much extra work.

There have been so many times when starting out a game that I tell myself I will go for the platinum trophy, only to drop that goal halfway through and work on completing the Main Quest.

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2022 Gaming Data [Nintendo]

First off, Nintendo did not give me a total of hours played this year. Instead, they gave a long list of games played with the hours for me to do the math. In 2021, my total hours played reached 323 hours, with 56 of them in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

In 2022, my top game was Splatoon 3 (143 hours), followed by 26 hours in Falling Out and another 20+ in Picross S6. Next came Kirby and the Forgotten Lands which I still have yet to reach the end of. I played that one for only 18 hours, but it felt like so much more.

I played a total of 93 games, compared to 82 total in 2021. The review allows you to scroll through all of your games played that year, but only see the total hours, total days, and top month for each game. Instead of giving us the information we wanted from last year (total hours, TV vs handheld hours, and more) Nintendo gave us some random information that I don’t really care for. I know which games I played at launch, and I don’t really care that I’ve been playing three specific games for over three years.

There was a new “Gaming Trends” category, featuring different genres and the percentage of those types of games you played during 2022. I would have liked to be able to click on these genres and see more information. I just hope we get some better data in 2023.

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I know the main point of these wrap-up/year in review infographics is to show us new and upcoming games we may like, but this year felt way more like an ad for new games than a useful report. The PlayStation one had “community statistics” sprinkled into each page, while the Nintendo one gave us some quick data and moved onto recommended and upcoming games.

In the end, PlayStation won the Wrap-Up, but still both companies could have done better. Even though Nintendo did not include my total hours, I can feel that I did much more gaming on my Nintendo Switch in 2022. These extra hours in Splatoon 3 does include my girlfriend playing for hours at a time when I was out, but we usually play Splatoon together online and take turns playing matches.

I will say that the true winners in data collection and giving consumers their yearly stats for 2022 were Apple and Spotify. I’m an Apple Music subscriber, and they gave us a top ten list for each category (songs, musicians, albums). I saw a bunch of friends posting their Spotify wrap-ups and those were also very detailed.

Next year, I hope the gaming companies will do a little better. Or at least Nintendo will get back to something closer to their 2021 Year in Review. Until then I will continue to play games and hopefully smash my records.