Study Finds 43% of PlayStation Boycott Replies Were Fake

A new analysis by cybersecurity research company Cyabra suggests that fake accounts played a significant role in amplifying the PlayStation boycott campaign organized in August 2026.

The campaign, known as #PSBlackout, emerged following Sony's decision to phase out physical PlayStation game releases starting in 2028. Supporters encouraged players to disconnect their consoles and avoid spending money through the PlayStation ecosystem.

According to Cyabra's official research, up to 43% of replies under certain official PlayStation posts were classified as inauthentic.

Researchers examined social media activity between July 1 and August 26 across X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, identifying 842 suspicious accounts involved in the discussion.

These accounts accounted for approximately 25% of the boycott-related conversation and generated more than one million potential views and 113,000 engagements.

Cyabra also discovered that variations of popular protest hashtags, including #NoDiskNoBuy, showed particularly high levels of suspicious activity, with inauthentic participation reaching nearly 90%.

However, the research emphasizes that genuine players were responsible for much of the campaign's strongest engagement.

Around 28% of influential posts came from accounts with fewer than 5,000 followers, demonstrating that smaller creators and ordinary players helped spread the protest organically.

The findings suggest that automated or coordinated accounts increased the apparent scale of the backlash rather than creating the underlying dissatisfaction.

Although the boycott attracted considerable attention online, the study does not establish how many players actually stopped using their consoles or whether the campaign significantly affected Sony's business.