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Top 10 games you should play on PS5 in 2026
May 15, 2026·9 min read
The PS5 has finally reached the point where the backlog feels dangerous. Not because there are too few obvious picks, but because there are too many games that can swallow a weekend before you even notice. The console now has playful platformers, brutal remakes, glossy superhero action, strange blockbusters, and some of Sony’s heaviest story-driven games sitting side by side.
This list is for players who want the PS5 at its best in 2026. Not just the biggest names. Not just the newest releases. These are the games that still feel worth clearing time for, whether you want a sharp action game, a horror story with real teeth, a racer that rewards patience, or a world you can sink into for days.
10. Astro Bot
Astro Bot is the kind of game that makes a console feel friendlier. It is bright, quick, clever, and packed with ideas that land before they have time to wear out. Team Asobi keeps every stage moving with new powers, playful level themes, and small surprises that make exploration feel rewarding without slowing the pace.
The PlayStation references could have turned it into a museum tour, but the game never leans on nostalgia as a crutch. The cameos are fun because the platforming already works. Jumps feel clean, hazards are easy to read, and every level has a clear rhythm.
It also uses the DualSense better than almost anything on PS5. The haptics, triggers, speaker, and motion controls add texture to the world without making the controller feel like a gimmick. Astro Bot is simple in the best way: pick it up, smile within minutes, and keep going.
Astro Bot
PlayStation 5
Released
September 6, 2024
Developer
Team Asobi
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PlayStation 5
9. Alan Wake II
Alan Wake II is horror with a crooked grin. It does not just throw monsters into dark rooms and call it tension. Remedy builds unease through editing, sound, live-action fragments, shifting spaces, and the constant feeling that the story itself is trying to trap you.
Saga Anderson’s investigation gives the game a grounded detective shape, while Alan’s sections pull everything into stranger territory. The contrast keeps the campaign from settling into one mood for too long. One side is about clues, ritual murders, and a town with too many secrets. The other feels like being stuck inside a nightmare that keeps rewriting the exits.
On PS5, the atmosphere does a lot of work. Darkness feels thick, rooms feel wrong before anything attacks, and the game knows when silence is scarier than noise. It is slower than many modern horror games, but that patience gives its worst moments room to crawl under your skin.
Alan Wake II
Xbox Series X|SPC (Microsoft Windows)PlayStation 5
Released
October 27, 2023
Developer
Remedy Entertainment
Publisher
Epic Games Publishing
Systems
Xbox Series X|S
PC (Microsoft Windows)
PlayStation 5
8. Demon’s Souls
Demon’s Souls still has a cold, nasty magic that many newer action RPGs miss. Bluepoint’s remake makes Boletaria look richer and sharper, but it keeps the original game’s hostility intact. The world is beautiful, but it never feels welcoming.
Every shortcut matters because getting anywhere safely feels earned. Every fog gate carries tension because the game has already taught you not to trust it. Demon’s Souls is not difficult in a loud or showy way. It is difficult because the world is built to punish carelessness, impatience, and panic.
The PS5 version makes that punishment easier to return to. Fast loading keeps the loop moving, while the visual overhaul gives each area a stronger sense of decay and danger. It is a remake with restraint, and that is why it still works.
Demon's Souls
PlayStation 5
Released
November 12, 2020
Developer
Bluepoint Games
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PlayStation 5
7. Gran Turismo 7
Gran Turismo 7 is at its best when you stop rushing it. This is not a racing game built around constant fireworks. It is about braking a little earlier, learning a corner properly, feeling the weight of a car shift, and slowly understanding why one lap felt better than the last.
That patience gives GT7 its personality. The car collecting, licenses, tuning, circuit experience events, and café progression all feed into a game that treats driving as something worth studying. It can feel dry if you only want instant chaos, but that same focus makes every small improvement satisfying.
The real pleasure is not just winning. It is shaving time off a lap because your hands finally learned the track. It is switching cars and feeling the difference before the numbers explain it. GT7 is a quieter kind of PS5 showpiece, but it has a grip that lasts.
Gran Turismo 7
PlayStation VR2PlayStation 4PlayStation 5
Released
March 4, 2022
Developer
Polyphony Digital
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PlayStation VR2
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 5
6. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart still feels like a Saturday morning cartoon with a blockbuster budget. It is fast, colourful, and smart enough not to bury its best ideas under too much noise.
The weapons carry the game. They are silly, readable, and satisfying to upgrade, turning fights into toy-box chaos without losing control. The platforming stays light, the planets change quickly, and Rivet gives the story a fresh spark without dragging the pace into backstory overload.
The dimension-hopping tech was the headline when Rift Apart launched, but the game holds up because of its rhythm. It keeps throwing new sights and tools at the player, then moves on before the spectacle gets stale. Few PS5 games are this easy to enjoy from the first hour.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
PC (Microsoft Windows)PlayStation 5
Released
June 11, 2021
Developer
Insomniac Games
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PC (Microsoft Windows)
PlayStation 5
5. Spider-man 2
Spider-Man 2 understands that swinging through New York should never feel like a commute. The web-swinging was already strong in Insomniac’s earlier games, but Web Wings give the sequel a faster, smoother flow that changes how the city feels. Getting across the map becomes part of the fun instead of the thing between missions.
Peter and Miles also give the game a sharper pace. Their abilities feel different enough in combat, and the story uses both heroes to keep the campaign moving between personal drama, superhero chaos, and Venom’s larger threat. Not every story beat lands cleanly, but the game rarely loses momentum for long.
The best version of Spider-Man 2 is not in the checklist activities. It is in launching from a rooftop, diving between buildings, opening the wings, and gliding into another swing at the last second. That feeling still carries the whole game.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
PC (Microsoft Windows)PlayStation 5
Released
October 20, 2023
Developer
Insomniac Games
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PC (Microsoft Windows)
PlayStation 5
4. The Last of Us: Complete
The Last of Us: Complete turns one of PlayStation’s most famous stories into a full, bruising arc. Part I is lean and tightly controlled, built around Joel and Ellie moving through a broken America where every act of trust has a cost. Part II Remastered is larger, harsher, and more uncomfortable, pushing the same world into revenge, guilt, and consequences that refuse to stay clean.
Played together, the two games feel less like separate releases and more like one long argument about love, violence, and what people do when grief takes over. The first game pulls you in with clarity. The second makes that clarity harder to live with.
The PS5 package also gives Part II more staying power through No Return, Lost Levels, commentary, and improved presentation. The story remains the main reason to play, but the extras make the collection feel more complete than a simple remaster bundle.
The Last of Us Complete
PlayStation 5
Released
April 10, 2025
Developer
Naughty Dog
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PlayStation 5
3. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Death Stranding 2 is strange in a way big games rarely get to be. It cares about walking, weight, distance, machines, music, and the quiet relief of finding help left behind by another player. The act of crossing a landscape is not empty travel here. It is the game.
That gives every delivery its own little story. A route can go wrong because of weather, terrain, enemies, cargo balance, or one bad decision made halfway up a slope. The game turns movement into pressure, then lets beauty break through at unexpected moments.
Kojima Productions builds worlds that can feel ridiculous and sincere at the same time, and Death Stranding 2 leans into that mix. It is odd, expensive, sentimental, and stubborn. There are cleaner open-world games on PS5, but few are this committed to their own rhythm.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
PC (Microsoft Windows)PlayStation 5
Released
June 26, 2025
Developer
Kojima Productions
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PC (Microsoft Windows)
PlayStation 5
2. God of War: Ragnarok
God of War: Ragnarok works because it lets Kratos change without sanding him down. The combat is still heavy, violent, and satisfying, but the story is more interested in what happens when a man built for war has to become something else.
The Norse cast gives the game much of its texture. Atreus is older and harder to protect. Freya’s anger has weight. Thor is not just a wall of muscle, but a damaged weapon pointed by someone worse. The best scenes come when Ragnarok slows down enough to let these characters breathe before everything crashes back into mythic violence.
Valhalla adds a strong final note. Its challenge structure gives Kratos another way to face his past, turning combat into reflection without losing the snap of the axe, blades, and shield. Ragnarok is huge, sometimes too huge, but when it hits, it hits with force.
God of War Ragnarök
PlayStation 4PC (Microsoft Windows)PlayStation 5
Released
November 9, 2022
Developer
SIE Santa Monica Studio
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PlayStation 4
PC (Microsoft Windows)
PlayStation 5
1. Ghost of Yotei
Ghost of Yotei gives the PS5 the kind of open-world adventure that still feels built around mood, not clutter. Atsu’s journey across northern Japan has the familiar pull of revenge, but the game’s strength is in the way it lets the world carry that anger. Wind, fields, snow, silence, and sudden violence all work together.
Sucker Punch already proved with Ghost of Tsushima that it knew how to make travel feel cinematic without turning the screen into a mess of markers. Ghost of Yotei pushes that idea into a colder setting with a new lead and a different emotional temperature. The result feels less like a repeat and more like a sharper second cut at the same fantasy.
The swordplay matters, but so does everything around it: the pause before a duel, the ride toward smoke on the horizon, the small stories found off the main path, and the calm that makes each fight land harder. In 2026, Ghost of Yotei feels like the PS5 game most players should make time for first.
Ghost of Yotei
PlayStation 5
Released
October 2, 2025
Developer
Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Systems
PlayStation 5
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