PlayStation Trophies get a makeover, with new levels and icons

The PlayStation Network’s 12-year-old Trophies system is getting a new level cap and classification scheme, beginning tonight, as the platform heads into the PlayStation 5 era next month.

Trophies’ level calculation, which has been a one to 100 scale since its introduction in the summer of 2008, will expand instead to one to 999. Moreover, progression through the lower levels will come more quickly, and platinum trophies — awarded for collecting all of the trophies a game offers — will count more toward level progression.

Sony emphasized that all trophies earned on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 will carry over once the change takes effect. A blog post on Wednesday morning said that a player with a Trophy level of 12 will start somewhere in the low 200s of the new system.

The new rankings carry 10 different icons and tiers. Bronze tiers run from level 1-299, silver from 300-599, gold from 600-998, and anyone dedicated enough to reach level 999 is rewarded with a platinum badge. This graphic provides a more specific breakdown:

Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Sony added that there will be “a subtle distinction” accompanying the badges to tell the player how close they are to the next level.

Trophies were the PlayStation 3’s response to Xbox Live’s Achievements, which, by June 2008, had been in place since the Xbox 360’s launch almost three years before.

Xbox Live maintains an uncapped Gamerscore count. Guinness World Records acknowledges Stephen “smrnov” Rowe of Canada as the overall leader there, with 2,162,420 points as of April 26, 2019, when Rowe overtook Ray “Stallion83” Cox. (TrueAchievements.org has smrnov at more than 2.5 million points today.)

The third-party leaderboard PSN Trophy Leaders counts more than 650 players at trophy level 100 (its own scoring system goes above that number). Seven years ago, there were fewer than 50.