Xbox tests dashboard streak counter for weekly play

Your Xbox may soon keep count of how often you turn up.

Some players in Microsoft's test group are seeing a small flame icon appear on the main Xbox screen. It is a streak counter. It tracks how many days in a week they use the console.

The test version asks for three days of use per week, with weeks starting on Mondays Game File. The icon sits in the upper left of the dashboard, the main menu screen, just under the player's user name. In the version spotted so far, three days were ticked off beside the flame.

Reports of the icon began surfacing in late September. They came from subscribers to the Xbox Insider program, Microsoft's opt-in testing group for early console features. Microsoft describes that programme as a way to experience the newest Xbox features and test the latest games.

Microsoft has not formally announced the test. A company representative declined to answer questions about the new system.

The details were first laid out in an Oct 9 report by Stephen Totilo titled "Xbox's new streak experiment" Game File. A follow-up report published on Oct 12, titled "XBOX Testing a New 'Streak' System for Dashboard", noted that its details came from that earlier Game File reporting Insider Gaming.

This is not Xbox's first streak. The system has previously shown streaks linked to a Game Pass subscription and to use of its mobile app, placed deeper in system menus. A separate Rewards scheme asked players to play at least five days a week to complete a streak, with double the base points for a two-week run and triple for a three-week run Xbox.

What makes this stand out is placement. Put a counter front and centre and it becomes part of the everyday routine. It rewards regular behaviour rather than long sessions.

For players, this means little for now. It is an experiment, visible only to some testers, with no announced date for a wider release and no word on whether streaks will link to points, perks or nothing at all.