If you don’t have a PlayStation Plus (PS Plus) membership, you’re only not getting the full benefits of your PlayStation 5 (or 4). PS Plus lets you play online multiplayer, as well as get free games and other bonuses. Sony recently revamped their PS Plus subscription method, so you now have the option of three different tiers: Essential, Extra and Premium. We’ll go over all of these options below. When you’ve figured out which one you want, check out or list of the best PlayStation Plus deals at the bottom of this article. You can start your PS Plus membership for as low as $5.
What is PlayStation Plus?
Along with online multiplayer and other in-game network features, a PlayStation Plus Essential membership grants you access to exclusive discounts and other promotions. Perhaps the most notable benefit of PlayStation Plus is that every month, Sony gives subscribers one PlayStation 5 and two PlayStation 4 games that are free to download. You have one month to add these free PlayStation Plus games to your library.
After that, these titles are yours to keep so long as you have an active PlayStation Plus subscription. The free-to-download games are generally pretty good (they are often some of the best PS4 games that have been out for a little while), and these alone justify the cost of PS Plus even for people who don’t do a lot of online gaming.
If your membership lapses, you lose access to these games; however, you can download them again if you re-activate your PS Plus account. In other words, you don’t need to worry about losing your free games if you decide to go without PS Plus for a while (or if you just forget to add more time to your subscription) — once they are in your library, these free PlayStation Plus titles are yours to play whenever you have an active PS Plus membership. Just note that you may only add them to your library during the month that they are free.
If you want more from your PlayStation Plus membership, there’s also PlayStation Plus Extra. This service gives you all the benefits of PS Plus Essential as well as a downloadable catalog of nearly 400 PS4 and PS5 games.
Not enough for you? There’s always PlayStation Plus Premium which does all that, and adds on PS3 game streaming for select titles) along with some PS1, PS2 and PSP games too. It’s more limited than anyone would like but there are some good titles like Ape Escape, Tekken 2, and Dark Cloud.
In all cases, there’s also access to PS Plus Collection — a roundup of some of the best games seen on PS4 such as The Last of Us Remastered, God of War, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. This won’t be for long though with Sony discontinuing the library from May 9. Fortunately, if you download any of these games before then, they’re yours to keep unless your PS Plus subscription lapses. It’s a great way of gaining insight into what Sony has to offer but you’re going to need to be fast, making one of these PlayStation Plus deals even more unmissable right now.
PlayStation Plus Essential — starting at $5
PlayStation Plus Essential is the new name for what was previously known simply as PlayStation Plus. The main purpose of signing up for the service is to access the online modes of your favorite games, though there are added bonuses such as free games to download every month. You’ll be able to keep playing these games as long as your PlayStation Plus Essential membership remains active, or you decide to upgrade to the higher tiers — PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium.
14-day trial — $5
3-month membership — $24, was $31
12-month membership — $70, was $80
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