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Have you ever felt like you were only playing your PlayStation for a little bit of time, maybe an hour, but you were told it had been five? Maybe this got you wondering how much time you spent on the PlayStation similar to how much time you spend on your phone. Well, in this article we will go over everything you need to know from how long you spent playing a game to how to limit the amount of time you spend playing total.
So how much PlayStation do you play?
Although there are third party apps you can download that will keep track of your time you are playing, the PlayStation now has a built in device that keeps track of how much you use your system as well. This system works similar to the screen time on an Iphone and also allows you to limit how long you play on the console, or a specific game.
If you want to know more about how the device works on the PlayStation that keeps track of your time playing, you will want to keep reading. You can also watch this video to learn how to see your stats for how long you have played and what top games are that you play the most.
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What is the best way to keep track of my PlayStation playing time?
Although you can manually keep track of the playing time, it will not be very accurate as well as it would be extremely time consuming to do. Besides, you will not be able to accumulate the total time of play as you will probably forget a couple of days or not take into account when you hop on and play for just a couple minutes. This is why there is a need for software for this task to automatically keep track of everything for you.
To achieve this purpose there are tons of softwares available in the market. You can simply install them in your PlayStation consoles to make them work and start keeping track. They might not be able to give you the exact time on every game, but they will be able to give you a total time you spent playing on the PlayStation itself.
There are built-in tools that you can use to track your playing time as well. You will be able to see the individual time you have spent on the games as well as the total accurate time. This whole process is quite easy and you will not need to do any hard work to keep track of it as the system does it all for you.
PlayStation Timing
Many people want to find out just how long they play. Some people also want to limit their game time. For that purpose, PlayStation has built-in tools that can be used to do exactly what the user wants it to do.
You can even limit the game time so that the game will only be played for a specific amount of time. This is something that a lot of parents find handy when you want their kids to have fun, but still do something productive.
The time tracked or calculated will be the time from the turning on to turning off of the PlayStation. It will not only be that, but it will also tell you the time that you played on what specific games. It will be the time of starting and ending of the complete gaming process.
How does this even work?
To set up this process you will need to set up your time zone first. Setup the time zone from the settings option. After this, select the Parental Controls/Family Management and select further options according to your choice. After choosing the appropriate settings, the time zone will be set.
After this, you can see the playtime. Simply tune in to settings and select the Parental Control/Family Management. You will be able to see “Play Time for Kids” options there where you will be able to see how much PlayStation your child or you have played.
After selecting the appropriate settings, you will be able to make sure that you do not play the console for more time than you want.
To apply this setting, you will need to do the above settings using the master account. You can choose between either getting notified of the “time limit reached” message or you can set the account to automatically logout option.
Gaming Marathon
If you are doing the gaming marathon with your friends then you will have to manually set the timing to calculate the time of play. You can set up a manual clock alongside the screen to get the display of the time. There is no way to get the playtime of the day or particular event therefore manual tracking is the best option in this aspect.
Calculation of the playing time
Apart from setting out the playtime using the sign-in option for kids as mentioned above, you can use the option of email. From this, you will be able to receive the emails for your playing time from which you can have the complete idea of how much PlayStation you have played.
You can set up this PlayStation gaming service using the PlayStation Network account. This service is only available for the PlayStation 4 consoles. So if you want to set this up for the previous versions you will have to download a third party app that does what you want
To set up the email service for playing time for the PlayStation 4, you will need to sign into the PSN account on your console. After this, you can follow the settings to set up restrictions. From this, you will receive a weekly email telling you the stats of weekly gameplay, your top played game, and other things.
Problems
Although you can get the weekly playing time report from the PSN account, there is no way you can make it to hourly or daily time. You will have no facility to get the reports to break down to individual hours or days so you will have to manually track it.
Also, there is no external software to make this kind of report at this time. PlayStation does not allow it as they do not want people tracking your movements and what you do too closely for privacy issues.
Recommended Time
There is no recommended screen or game time for any kid or adult. But excess gaming can be pretty bad for both of them. This is why it is important not to drain oneself completely while playing games.
Certain small breaks and free time should be taken to do physical activities instead of playing all the time. All of the time restriction tools and methods are developed to make sure that the playtime is not damaging for a person.
You should always be careful not to just constantly play. This is why as an adult or as a kid, you should always take serious considerations about the playing time, games, and screen.
Conclusion
Now that you know the options you have to track your playing time with the PlayStation, you can keep track and also stay safe and not play too much at one time. Although this may not seem super important, many parents find using this tool extremely helpful in order to keep their kids minds active and not just constantly thinking about gaming.
If you want a PlayStation 4 in order to have access to this new feature, you can get one here. Although your kids may see it as a free upgrade, you can use this to limit them and help them in the long run.