Best PS5 games: top PlayStation 5 titles to play right now
Only the best PS5 games will give you top-tier experiences on Sony‘s current-gen console. Now that we’re into the fourth year of the console, the library is as expansive as ever, offering an enormous range of games to get stuck into, no matter what your go-to types, or favorite things to play are. To help make navigating that enormous library easier, we’ve distilled our top picks down to this very list, covering all the key beats when looking for awesome PS5 games to play.
So whether you’re after a fast-paced shooter that pushes the console’s technical capabilities, a family-friendly adventure that showcases the DualSense controller’s innovative features, a simply stunning PS5 exclusive that will immerse you in its action, or something else entirely, you’ll find it here. Remember that there are more ways than ever to play PS5 games now too, and the PlayStation Portal is an exquisite way to take these games, and more, into your hands. However, you’ll have to check in with our PlayStation Portal restock tracker for tips and key links in trying to track down the new handheld gaming device given its popularity.
As a quick note, these aren’t games that are only on PS5 – you want our best PS5 exclusives list for those games and their brethren – but rather the best ones you can play on PS5 more broadly right now. Read on for our picks.
Best PS5 games 2024
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Why we love it
Baldur’s Gate 3 is quite simply one of the best RPGs ever made. Part of this is just how well it converts Dungeons and Dragons into a video game experience. It also features an amazing cast of characters, all voiced with brilliant performances all around.
Baldur’s Gate 3 made one hell of a splash when it launched in 2023. It had been in early access for quite some time, allowing devs to fine tune gameplay to perfection. The launch build has since been updated, and as it stands, Baldur’s Gate 3 is simply one of the best RPGs you can play on PS5.
You’ll start your Baldur’s Gate 3 quest by being infected by a brain worm, and must forge uneasy alliances to uncover a way to save yourself. Along the way, you can take on combat and puzzles in pretty much any way you want. The full variety on offer in Dungeons and Dragons is available here too. Whether you want to be a brutish barbarian, or a whimsical bard, there’s a play-style for you.
While the game is undoubtedly made to be played on PC, the console port is exceptional. If you’re into fantasy RPGs, you really can’t go wrong with picking up Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5.
Why we love it
The definitive version of one of the most influential PlayStation games ever. The Last of Us Part 1 offers just enough new features to warrant a revisit, with 4K visuals, remade from the ground up. The Left Behind DLC is included too, for those that missed it the first time around.
The Last of Us Part 1 takes the iconic PS3 title and drags it into the modern age. Its visuals have been rebuilt from the ground up, bringing things more in-line with the game’s sequel (which has since also been remastered). The main draw here is the opportunity to revisit one of the most iconic games of the last 20 years, one that’s influenced the way narrative storytelling has evolved in this industry over time.
For those that have yet to play The Last of Us, maybe those that started with the TV show, this version is absolutely worth jumping into. Even if you played the PS4 remaster of The Last of Us, there’s plenty to enjoy here as well. For one, the Left Behind DLC is included, and there’s even improved controls and subtle tweaks to gameplay mechanics like crafting. Absolutely one of the best games you can play on PS5 in 2024.
Why we love it
Demon’s Souls is a brutal, frequently punishing affair, but the pure elation it offers for those who doggedly persevere is absolutely worth fighting for.
Demon’s Souls is still one of the best looking games ever made, even almost four years removed from its launch. This is because it fully leverages everything that the PS5 can handle, with some of the best lighting and particle effects you’ll find on console.
In terms of the game itself, Demon’s Souls is a lovingly faithful remake of FromSoftware’s cult classic, with some modern bells and whistles to help bring it up to speed. Players will find a challenging yet satisfying action RPG, with hulking bosses to fell, and labyrinthian dungeons to explore. If you’ve played any of the Souls series, this is the one that started it all, and you’ll no doubt recognize many of the systems that have now become a standard of the genre.
Demon’s Souls forcibly drives home one simple message from the outset: you will die. It doesn’t matter how patient, careful or skilled a player you might be, because sooner or later, you will die. As you learn about enemy attacks, where hidden paths are, and slowly level up your character however, you’ll eventually emerge from the catacombs victorious.
Why we love it
The way Astro’s Playroom deploys the DualSense’s features and powers is unparalleled. From feeling different surfaces ‘underfoot’ to loading springy jumps with the triggers, it’s superb.
Astro’s Playroom is the best pack-in game since Wii Sports, as it perfectly showcases what Sony’s new system can do. From the sumptuous, crystal clear 4K visuals, to the pleasing 3D audio, this is a gem of a platformer and it’s pre-installed on every PS5. It’s the way Astro’s Playroom shows off the DualSense controller, though, that really steals the show.
You’ll feel sensations that you didn’t know were possible before thanks to Sony’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers tech, such as what it feels like to walk along different surfaces or fire a Gatling gun. It’s a surreal, magical experience, and we recommend booting up Astro’s Playroom first before you play anything else. Better still, not only is it a genuinely top PS5 exclusive, it’s completely free. This is a must-play for those who want to see what the DualSense controller is really capable of.
Why we love it
The writing in Disco Elysium is just so good and is some of the best you can experience in a PS5 game. It’s rich, detailed, gives a great sense of place, and makes for some very memorable interactions.
Many RPG games claim to offer a spectrum of choice, but that usually boils down to doing a “good thing” or a “bad thing”. Washed-up cop simulator Disco Elysium doesn’t make things so simple. Amnesiac from drug and alcohol abuse, your cop explores all the shades of gray in between what constitutes a pure or dark morality in his quest to solve the murder of a hanged man.
The writing is exemplary throughout, pulling you into Disco Elysium’s vaguely European, vaguely post-communist city of Revachol, and the award-winning soundtrack is equally evocative. It’s not one for action fans – you’re primarily engaging in conversation-driven detective work here – but it’s roleplaying of the highest order, an RPG quite unlike any game you’ll have ever played. Disco Elysium: Final Cut is easily one of the best RPGs on PS5 right now.
Why we love it
The realism on offer in Gran Turismo 7 is something to behold. Such is the finish of the world, the cars, and the racing experience, you’ll actually feel like GT7 has transported you to a series of great race track days.
Gran Turismo 7 restores the racing sim franchise to its former greatness, fixing the lack of content and slightly underwhelming visuals in both GT6 and GT Sport. GT7 gets back to what the charming racing sim does best: offering bags of content with sublime racing gameplay, all wrapped up in a wonderfully charming and inviting user experience that’s remarkably moreish.
GT7 is also a stunning showcase of PS5 tech, making arguably the best use of the DualSense Wireless Controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. You’ll feel every bump in the road, every screech around a corner, and every gear change as you maneuver around GT7‘s litany of tracks. Pair this with lightning-quick load times and you end up with a beautifully seamless racing experience in GT7. You rarely wait longer than a few seconds to dive into – or retry – a racing activity. GT7 is a glorious return to form for the series and easily the best racing game to showcase the PS5’s capabilities.
Why we love it
The grim beauty and detail of Mortal Kombat 11‘s brutal finishers is a spectacular sight and keeps us coming back for more, always looking for new ways to finish off opponents in grisly style.
Mortal Kombat reigns as a king of the fighting game genre and Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate only cements that position. Combining Mortal Kombat 11, Kombat Pack 1, the Aftermath expansion, and Kombat Pack 2, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate is the quintessential Mortal Kombat 11 experience. With two cinematic stories to play through, 37 fighters to get to grips with, and a bunch of new fatalities, stages, and brutalities to try out, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate offers hours of gruesome fun.
What’s more, on PS5, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate benefits from 4K dynamic resolution, enhanced visuals, and drastically improved loading times (compared to its PS4 counterpart), so you won’t miss a second more of the action than you need to. This is the best fighting game on PS5 right now.
Why we love it
The execution of 3D Audio and incredible sound design in Village is a true stand-out feature of an excellent horror title, which only serves to heighten the tension and immersion further.
Taking place a few years after the events of Resident Evil 7, Village sees protagonist Ethan exploring an Eastern European village in hopes of finding his kidnapped daughter – but the village residents are…. less than welcoming.
More action-focused than its predecessor, this sequel is visibly closer to the classic Resident Evil 4 in its moment-to-moment gameplay – but blends this with the survival horror elements that we love about older entries. Factor in a slew of quality-of-life improvements, a roster of memorable characters, a well-paced, gripping story, and superb utilization of in-game audio, and Resident Evil Village is a fantastic horror game. We think it’s definitely one of the best examples of how PS5 3D audio can enhance your gaming experience.
Why we love it
The stratagems in Helldivers 2 are truly chaos-inducing, destruction-heightening, and perfect for killing your own teammates by accident (promise). Calling in an orbital strike or a gun turret will never fail to bring a smile to your face and only serves to enhance the enjoyable chaotic action.
Helldivers 2 has taken the PS5 game scene by storm in early 2024 – and for good reason. This third-person co-op shooter is chaotic, dumb, ridiculous in its humor, and totally bombastic in its action. Comparisons to the movie Starship Troopers are both fair and excellent, with teams of up to four spreading ‘managed democracy’ across the galaxy while slaying bug and robot enemies in the process.
You might well get into some friendly fire with your teammates but, in our experience, that only adds to the spectacle on offer – Helldivers 2 really encourages you to embrace the chaos in your defiant battle against the bugs and bots in relentless encounters and battles to save Super Earth. It is chaotic, but it also has a bit to say about serious matters too, under the right lens.
The shooting in particular feels excellent, and while, like some other bits of the game, it isn’t always precise, it feels excellent to lay into hordes of bugs and robot baddies while hearing your characters shout nonsense slogans all the while.
Throw in a decent variety of mission types, good progression systems, slapstick humor, something we called “riotous violence” in our review, and you get a great result. Helldivers 2 is probably the best PS5 game for co-op action you can get right now.
Why we love it
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a loving recreation of the original’s second act, elevated by an impressive level of commitment and confidence and only held back by the occasional wobble.
With how Final Fantasy 7 Remake ended, it’s no surprise that its successor heads into uncharted waters from the get-go. And while much of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be familiar to those who played the original game, there’s so many twists and turns to experience this time around.
In general, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth offers up a much larger, and more substantial slice of turn-based action and open-world exploration than what we’ve seen before. There are literally hundreds of side-activities to take on as you guide Cloud and friends through a bright and oftentimes funny adventure. While some may be put off by the changes to the original game’s story, others will find Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth‘s approach to a remake very refreshing indeed.
If you’re looking for an absolutely gorgeous world to lose yourself in, or if you just want to dig into an excellent new combat system, then FF7 Rebirth is easily on of the best PS5 games you can pick up right now.
Why we love it
The environment changes in Returnal is one of our favorite things about the game as it maintains originality and freshness throughout whole game – ensuring that no run is exactly the same, and no encounter goes the same way
As one of Sony’s biggest PS5 exclusives, Returnal is bound to draw in many gamers who maybe haven’t played a roguelike before and therefore may find its punishing difficulty, ever-changing levels, and permadeath mechanic to be a real shock to the system. That said, after a few cycles within Returnal’s harsh alien world, they may also find it difficult to stop playing.
Returnal brings developer Housemarque’s signature ‘bullet hell’ approach to the roguelike genre, which means that you’ll never know what to expect when you enter a room, only that you will have to start over again from the beginning when you die. However, thanks to a tantalizing story and immersive gameplay, which take full advantage of PS5 3D Audio and the DualSense’s full range of features, you’ll likely keep returning for “just one more run…” If you want to see what the PS5 is capable of, Returnal is an experience you don’t want to miss.
Why we love it
The level design and playful worlds of Sackboy: A Big Adventure are some of the best on PS5 and the way you interact with them through rolling, grabbing, slapping and more is so much fun.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure is one of the most important exclusives here. This is a game that’s perfect for families thanks to its kid-friendly nature and four-player local co-op and manages to go toe-to-toe with the critically acclaimed Super Mario 3D World.
It helps that Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a truly wonderful platformer, one that manages to avoid the common pitfalls that many developers fall into when designing games for younger audiences. Don’t sleep on this one as it’s one of the best PS5 platformers that you can play with friends and family.
Why we love it
Stalking, examining, and strategically dismantling and hunting each and everyone of Horizon Forbidden West‘s robot dinosaur creatures – the machines – is brilliant, satisfying and action-packed.
If you’re on the hunt for an open-world, narrative-driven adventure in your search for the best PS5 game for you, then look no further than Horizon Forbidden West. Developing and expanding on all that was great about Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4, Aloy’s next adventure is staggeringly beautiful, gripping, and filled with exciting rob-dinosaur action.
Many will say that it doesn’t change a whole lot from Zero Dawn, or break ground that much, but Forbidden West absolutely is one of the best experiences you can get on PS5 right now. And absolutely do not skip the side quests, with some of the best we’ve played on PS5 (or any platform, for that matter) in recent years.
Why we love it
Swinging through New York as Peter or Miles is better than it’s ever been in the PlayStation 4 and 5 Spider-Man series. The smooth, seamless, and combo-tastic way you can dance through the air, off buildings, and deploy the web wings for extra speed and coverage is breathtaking.
Marvel‘s Spider-Man 2 is the definitive PlayStation superhero experience. Building on the first two games in the saga beautifully, this PS5 blockbuster gives us both Peter and Miles as playable characters and lets us loose once again in New York City.
Fans of the series and the superhero are well served with the game’s Venom story arc that throws in a few surprises along the way, and as a singe-player open-world action game, it doesn’t get much more fun than this. From taking on lowly criminals breaking into shops, to scouring the city for the many collectibles and puzzles, and from gliding your way through the sky scrapers in wind tunnels, to exploring all the skills and tools available to Peter and Miles, the action is relentless, and fun is paramount.
As a Sony first-party title, you get to enjoy a host of DualSense features too which make everything from firing web bursts, swinging through the streets, and solving puzzles with differing trigger pressures immensely fun, and immersive. There’s also a host of impressive accessibility features that means more folks than ever can join in the fun of being a fully-fledged Spider-Man.
Why we love it
The combination of a gripping and emotional narrative with God of War‘s signature crunching combat is a thing to behold in Ragnarok – it means that every turn you’re in for an epic encounter or a brilliant bit of story; the mixing of the two makes this a true epic.
God of War Ragnarok is the critically-acclaimed sequel to God of War (2018). Picking up several years after the events of its predecessor, this single-player epic once again follows Spartan Kratos and his son Atreus. But, this time, the pair are preparing for Ragnarok, a great battle that is prophesized to bring about the destruction of the Nine Realms.
Ragnarok will feel familiar to those who played God of War, but what really makes this sequel great is its emotive narrative, which shines in its subtler moments, while clever evolutions to combat introduce welcome changes that advance gameplay without oversaturating it. It’s a sequel that is often as brutal as it is poignant, making it easily the best mature open-world adventure on PS5 right now.
Best PS5 games: FAQs
What PS5 games are coming out soon?
There are a tonne of PS5 games coming out in 2024. Just a couple of the most notable PlayStation 5 games releasing in the coming months include Stellar Blade, and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.
For a full list of upcoming PS5 games and when they release, check out our new PS5 games roundup.
What games are way better on PS5?
A number of PS4 games have been enhanced for PS5, with some benefiting from improved frame rates and visuals that make them both look and play better than before. Just some PS4 games which have had PS5 improvements are God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, and The Last of Us 2. But, don’t forget, most PS4 games will benefit on PS5 anyway thanks to significantly improved loading times.
What were the most downloaded games on PS5 in 2023?
2023 was a stellar year for PS5 games with some extremely popular and successful games entering the mix to keep us entertained all year long (and into this year too, frankly). However, some were more played than others, and some were certainly downloaded more than others – and when the big releases come, they really do arrive with force.
In the US, the most downloaded games on PS5 last year were Hogwarts Legacy, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Madden NFL 24, and NBA 2K24.
In the EU, the top downloaded games were EA Sports FC 24, Hogwarts Legacy, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, GTA 5, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
How we made our best PS5 games list
Many of us at TechRadar Gaming play a lot of games on PS5 and have experience with dozens and dozens of the games on the platform – this means you can trust what we think makes up the best PS5 games. From playing loads of individual PS5 games and committing hundreds of hours that span all genres, we’re well placed with game experience to recommend the best PS5 games to you.
TechRadar Gaming is full of passionate editors and writers who have a range of interests that range across genres and platforms. The benefit of this is that we can call upon a wide variety of knowledge and expertise when making lists such as these. We’ll also be constantly curating our choices for top PS5 games, so keep it here if you want up-to-date recommendations.
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