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It’s a clear answer to Xbox’s widely embraced and successful Game Pass service, but is it worth the fuss, and does it hold a candle to one of gaming’s best-ever value propositions?
Updated June 05, 2025 by Quinton O’Connor:We’ve expanded our coverage of PlayStation Plus with additional information and a fifth opinion from our staff.
Review
Nonetheless, Jade Kingstill believes this is not enough to “justify the increased asking price”. Soon after its revamp, she criticized the service as “feeling rushed” anddescribed its launch as a “muddled and disjointed” answerto the industry’s recent shift towards subscription-based ecosystems.
PlayStation Plus Premium probably isn’t the Xbox Game Pass rival Sony was hoping for it to be. It’s a perfectly passable service, packing a number of modern games and beloved classics under its umbrella for a reasonable monthly asking price, butit just doesn’t command the same cultural presence as its Xbox rival.
She seems to agree with Eric Switzer’s opinion that it’s a“rebrand of PS Now and PS+ rather than a new service” in his critique of the new PS+.It’s the strong opinion of both that PS Plus needs to release newer titles in order to keep up.Eric believes that there is an audience for older PlayStation titles, but “it can’t begin to compare to the audience for new games.”
Time Expenditure
It favors all types of gamers looking for any type of experience, from the short and sweet humble indie gem to thehundred-hour-longnarrative-driven blockbuster. The rotation of games (for Extra and Premium) is clearly denoted to players, meaning that you will know ahead of time when a game may be leaving the service.
The gaming catalog changes from time to time; be sure tohead over to the official PlayStation Plus game catalogto see what’s currently included with the subscription.
For the Essential tier, you’ll get to play and keep one PS5 game and two PS4 games each month- though the quality of these games can sometimes be a mixed bag. you’re able to sink many hours into them and play them whenever you feel like, as long as you have an active subscription.
Cost
PlayStation Plus is split into three tiers, with each offering a variety of different perks at different costs. Below, you can check out each tier, as well as what it includes and what the cost is.
$9.99 USD
$24.99 USD
$79.99 USD
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$14.99 USD
$39.99 USD
$134.99 USD
Games Catalog including up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games
$17.99 USD
$49.99 USD
$159.99 USD
Classics Catalog including access to PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PSP titles Cloud Streaming
Time-limited Game Trials
All memberships include monthly games (usually one PS5 and two PS4 games), online multiplayer, discounts, and cloud storage.
What Subscribers Are Saying
Great In The Short-Term - Jacob Whaling
The comparisons to Game Pass are inevitable, and day-one releases are sorely missed on PS Plus. If you’re a game-sampler and love trying out new experiences, PS Plus Extra is perfect, but if you like to stick to one game at a time, you’re better off just buying it.
It’s Not Game Pass… And That’s Okay - Alpay Dedezade
Despite being clearly inferior to Game Pass’ day-one releases of new games, PS Plus still has great value and a lot to offer.
On average, the quality of the free monthly games on the essential tier has remained decent, and the large game catalogs of Extra and Premium allow you to play a vast library of awesome indie and blockbuster titles that you would never have played or completely missed.
Sure, it’s a little disappointing that it doesn’t offer day one heavy hitters like Game Pass, but what’s there is more than worth the price of admission.
A Mixed Bag Of Offerings - Hilton Webster
On one hand, PS Plus is pretty great. You’re guaranteed multiple free games each month at the lowest tier which usually comes in a great variety of games big and small. Higher tiers come with an equally higher price, but the offerings don’t quite scale.
Emulation can be dodgy on some older games, and PS3 games can only be streamed. It’s great to pick up if you love the monthly games, though higher tiers are harder to justify.
A Good Deal… With Some Caveats - Axel Bosso
The different tiers added to PS Plus came with tons of games, and that’s always good. There are really great titles of all genres here, and more are included frequently. You’ll never be out of games to try.
What’s not so good is that we LatAm users don’t have access to the PS3 catalog. It was announced that we were going to be able to download them, but that never happened. Also, the Classic list of games could be much better, with very few titles since the service started.
Not So Much - Quinton O’Connor
PlayStation Plus is… OK. The thing is, I’m not sure “OK” flies these days when Xbox Game Pass has shown us how it’s done. I don’t mean to say that we should fixate on the value proposition between the two services and dismiss PlayStation Plus out-of-hand if it comes up short. It’s just that I can’t view Sony’s offering in as kind a light when I know how much better itcouldbe.
The biggest issue is PlayStation Plus Premium. I’m a big fan of older games. If you aren’t, then certainly skip this tier. But if you are, I wish that I could tell you it’s better than it is. The retro offerings are paltry, and there is seldom a month since PlayStation Plus’s revamp when I’ve seen what’s being added and been impressed.
Not to knock the games that do come out on Premium. But there are just comically few of them overall, and we’re still not at a point when it feels justified. PlayStation Plus Extra comes out looking a bit better, I reckon. But $15 a month still feels steep. If you’re simply looking to tap into online multiplayer, fork up the $10 for Essential instead.
