
Congratulations! You weathered the queues and were able to nab a PlayStation 5. You’ve somehow finagled the thing into your TV stand and turned it on without issue. So, what comes next? Of all the options at your fingertips, which games deserve your time and energy?
First, know this: The vast majority of games playable on the PS4 are playable on the PS5 via backward compatibility. (Here’s our list of the best games for that console.) Beyond that, members of the PS Plus subscription service get access to the PS Plus Collection, a perk that offers some of the most acclaimed PS4 games—including Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, and God of War—at no extra cost. All of those titles are downloadable from the PS5’s dashboard. And then there’s PS Now, a $10-monthly service that allows you to stream or download hundreds of PlayStation games right to your PS5. (What’s that? Our list of the best games on the service? Here you go.) No matter what, you’ll rarely be short of terrific things to play on the PS5.
But if you’re looking for something suitably cutting-edge—something designed with this new console in mind—you needn’t look far. Plenty of great games released across generations, with the superior versions, no surprise, out on the PS5. The system has fewer next-gen-only offerings at this point, but the few it has are an impressive lot. Here, without further ado, are the best games for the PS5.