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2026 has been a genuinely stacked year for PS5 owners. Between a survival horror comeback, a spiritual successor to one of the PS5's best exclusives, the first great licensed Bond game in decades, and a scrappy indie that ended up out-scoring nearly everything else released this year, there's been very little downtime between major releases.

This guide rounds up the best-reviewed PS5 games of 2026 so far, based on aggregated critic scores, and looks ahead at what's still coming before the year wraps up.

Quick Answer: The best-reviewed PS5 game of 2026 so far is Mina the Hollower, a $20 pixel-art action-adventure that's outscored every AAA release this year. For a bigger-budget pick, Resident Evil Requiem and 007 First Light are both sitting around an 88 on Metacritic and deliver on their premises. If you're chasing pure spectacle, Saros (Housemarque's follow-up to Returnal) is the one to get.

How We Ranked These

Rankings below are based on aggregated critic scores from Metacritic as of publishing, focused specifically on the PS5 versions where scores differ by platform. Scores shift over time as more reviews come in, so treat these as a snapshot rather than a permanent leaderboard.

Note on Ghost of Yotei: Sucker Punch's acclaimed sequel is technically a 2025 release (it launched October 2, 2025), so it isn't included in this 2026 roundup even though it remains one of the best PS5 games available right now.

The Highest-Rated PS5 Games of 2026

Mina the Hollower — 93 Metacritic — $19.99
Yacht Club Games' first project outside the Shovel Knight universe, and by far the best-reviewed game of 2026. A Game Boy Color-styled action-adventure that blends Zelda-style exploration with Souls-like combat and a whip-and-burrow traversal system. Critics have called it one of the best top-down adventures ever made.
Resident Evil Requiem — 88-89 Metacritic — $69.99
Capcom's ninth mainline entry splits time between two protagonists, FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft and returning fan-favorite Leon S. Kennedy, and currently holds the highest user score of any game on Metacritic. Critics praised the horror-to-action pacing, though a few flagged the boss fights and narrative as weaker points.
007 First Light — 87-88 Metacritic — $69.99
IO Interactive's Bond origin story, following a 26-year-old Bond through MI6 training. Widely regarded as the best James Bond game since 1997's GoldenEye 007, with particular praise for its cinematic set pieces and cast. The main criticisms are some pacing lulls and underwhelming driving segments.
Saros — 87-88 Metacritic — $69.99
Housemarque's spiritual successor to Returnal, and the studio's highest-rated game to date. A third-person sci-fi roguelike following Soltari Enforcer Arjun Devraj through the eclipse-shrouded world of Carcosa. Reviewers called it a smoother, more accessible evolution of the Returnal formula without losing its bite.
Crimson Desert — 77-78 Metacritic — $69.99
Pearl Abyss's seven-years-in-development open-world action RPG. Reviews were genuinely split — some outlets called it a new benchmark for open-world design, others found the controls and pacing clunky — but the sheer scale and combat systems have kept players engaged for 100+ hours.
Directive 8020 — 71 Metacritic — $39.99
Supermassive Games' sci-fi entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, starring Lashana Lynch as an astronaut hunted by a shape-shifting alien organism. A more modest, budget-friendly pick for fans of branching-narrative horror, with new stealth mechanics that reviewers found a mixed addition to the formula.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Game Metascore Released Genre Price
Mina the Hollower93May 29, 2026Action-adventure$19.99
Resident Evil Requiem88-89February 27, 2026Survival horror$69.99
007 First Light87-88May 27, 2026Action-adventure$69.99
Saros87-88April 30, 2026Sci-fi roguelike$69.99
Crimson Desert77-78March 19, 2026Open-world RPG$69.99
Directive 802071May 12, 2026Interactive horror$39.99

What's Still Coming This Fall

The back half of 2026 is arguably more stacked than the first, with publishers scrambling to release before Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives in November.

2026's Remaining Major Releases
  • Onimusha: Way of the Sword (September 4): Capcom's first new entry in the samurai action series in over 20 years, starring a version of the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi
  • Marvel's Wolverine: Insomniac Games' next comic-book adventure, following the studio's Spider-Man games with a brutal, claws-out take on Logan
  • Silent Hill: Townfall: A new mainline Silent Hill entry from Konami and Annapurna, moving the series' mist to 1990s Scotland
  • Grand Theft Auto 6 (November 19): Rockstar's long-awaited follow-up, expected to be the biggest entertainment release of the year, if not the decade
Why this matters for your decision: If you're weighing whether to buy a PS5 now or wait, don't wait for GTA 6 to decide — everything covered above is already excellent, and the fall lineup only makes owning a PS5 in 2026 a better deal, not a worse one.

New vs. Used PS5: Which Should You Buy?

With a release calendar this packed, plenty of people are deciding whether now's the time to finally pick up a PS5. If you're buying the console rather than just the games, condition matters more than most shoppers expect.

What to check on a used PS5: Confirm the storage tier (many older listings are still on the original 825GB SSD, which fills up fast with modern install sizes), whether it's a Digital or Disc Edition, and the seller's condition grading. Certified pre-owned consoles graded 9.5 or higher perform identically to new units in day-to-day use.

A Digital Edition is the simpler, cheaper way in if you're primarily interested in the games above, since all of them are available (or will be available) digitally on the PlayStation Store. A Disc Edition is worth the premium only if you specifically want physical media for resale value or offline collecting.

Which Game Should You Buy?

# If you want this... Play this
1The single best-reviewed game of the year, on a budgetMina the Hollower — $19.99
2A big-budget survival horror epicResident Evil Requiem — $69.99
3A cinematic, story-driven spy thriller007 First Light — $69.99
4Fast, punishing sci-fi action with roguelike structureSaros — $69.99
5A massive open world to lose 100+ hours inCrimson Desert — $69.99
6A shorter, choice-driven horror experienceDirective 8020 — $39.99

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Key Takeaways

# What You Need to Know About the Best PS5 Games of 2026
1Mina the Hollower ($19.99) is 2026's best-reviewed game — a 93 on Metacritic beats every AAA release this year
2Resident Evil Requiem and 007 First Light are both sitting around 88 — the safest big-budget picks of the year so far
3Saros is Housemarque's highest-rated game ever — a worthy successor to Returnal for sci-fi action fans
4Crimson Desert split critics but not players — a 77-78 Metascore against an 8.8 user score tells two different stories
5Fall 2026 is even more stacked — Onimusha, Wolverine, Silent Hill: Townfall, and GTA 6 are all still to come
6Ghost of Yotei is technically a 2025 release — still worth playing, just not eligible for this year's ranking
2026 has already delivered one of the strongest PS5 lineups in years, and it's not close to over. If you only play one thing from this list, make it whichever genre you already love — the quality bar across horror, action, RPG, and indie has been unusually high all year.
Sources and Methodology (as of July 20, 2026):
  • Metacritic.com — Aggregated critic scores for all titles listed, PS5 platform where available
  • Push Square — 2026 PS5 release schedule and review roundups
  • TechRadar — Best PS5 games of 2026 so far
  • Forbes (Paul Tassi) — Metacritic score tracking for Resident Evil Requiem, Saros, 007 First Light, and Mina the Hollower
  • GamesRadar+ — Mina the Hollower and Saros review roundups
  • PlayStation.Blog — Unmissable PS5 games still releasing in 2026
  • Gzmato.com — Current console inventory and pricing
Published: July 20, 2026. Review scores and release dates reflect information available at time of publishing and are subject to change as more critic reviews are added.