Sony to Mostly Drop PS4 Games from PS Plus Starting January 2026

No longer a "key benefit" of the service

by · Push Square

As part of today's PS Plus Essential announcement, Sony has also announced a change to the consoles it'll target from January 2026 onwards. In a year, PS4 games will no longer be the focus of PS Plus updates across the base tier and both PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium. There may still be a PS4 version included here and there, but PS5 games will be the focus from 2026 onwards.

The PlayStation Blog states: "As we shift to PS5, PS4 games will no longer be a key benefit and will only be occasionally offered for PlayStation Plus Monthly Games and Game Catalog starting January 2026. We may still provide titles that can be playable on both PS4 and PS5 consoles after this date." Everything you've already redeemed for PS4 via PS Plus will still be available to you.

"We’ll continue to evolve the experience of PlayStation Plus and optimize the benefits you receive, including exclusive discounts, online multiplayer access, online game save storage and more," it continues. "As we shift our focus to PS5, we look forward to adding new PS5 titles monthly for you to enjoy."

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3 more PS5, PS4 titles incoming

So, from January 2026 onwards, native PS5 titles will be the focus of PS Plus, across all three tiers. There will still be a PS4 version thrown in here and there, but it should no longer be an expectation in 12 months.

How do you feel about this change to the service? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

[source blog.playstation.com]

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About Liam Croft

Liam grew up with a PlayStation controller in his hands and a love for Metal Gear Solid. Nowadays, he's found playing the latest and greatest PS5 games as well as supporting Derby County. That last detail is his downfall.

Comments 49

I love paying more for less!

Seems fine to me. They didn't say they'd offer fewer games, just shifting to being mostly PS5, which makes sense, given we're over 4 years into the generation.

I wonder if that mean news ps classics on premium will only have PS5 versions and no PS4 versions. Man they must expect gta6 to bring in the rest of the PS4 username because right now there still a lot of people on PS4. Maybe a major price cut as well

It's great that they're starting to focus more on the PS5 it's just a shame that by the time January 2026 rolls around it will have taken them over 5 years to do it.

This makes me think they'll drop from 3 games a month to 2 games. When they removed PS3 and Vita from PS+ to only be PS4 games, there were fewer games total.

Xbox did a similar thing when they removed Xbox and Xbox 360 games from the Games With Gold lineup (it became 2 games a month instead of 4).

Poor move when PS4 releases are still happening in big numbers.
Won’t effect me much because I have PS5 but it’s still a bad move and weakens the service.

So little point having PS plus extra if you only have PS4 as games will leave each month and wont be replaced.

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  • IOI
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Thanks Sony, you make it so easy to not subscribe to PS Plus lol

Over 5 years since PS5 release? About time!

If you've been with PS+ since the start then you've pretty much built your own PS+ Extra collection of games. These 3 new additions will be added to my library and probably never played. The collection grows at 94.99 CAD a year.

@HeeHo

Or maybe it might just give a few people the push that they need to finally upgrade to a PS5

I'm Just playing devil's advocate by the way

@Member_the_game spot on there

@Member_the_game The problem with that theory is that the PS5 is still priced too high for most of the holdouts to upgrade. Even I wouldn't have one if it weren't for my grandparents gifting me the console.

I wanted to upgrade to PS4 in January 2026 but this made me change my mind

Unsurprising really. Considering they aren’t doing mlb for last gen.

Probably means the releases on ps4 are finally going to start dropping

I can see Subs dropping a little after this I'm on mid tier but I may just drop down to basic I'm playing Ghosts of T right now only thing I've really got through Plus but I may just buy it out right and cancel my sub

Understandable

This year PS4 will be 12 years old which already passed the usual standard for Sony who always support their home console for 6 years minimum to 10 years max. So i'm not surprise they wants to fully focus their resource on PS5.

So PS Plus will become cheaper for PS4 users, right?? Lol, sure.

Weird considering most games on ps5 up till now are cross gen. We're only just getting into the only on ps5 territory, well maybe for the past 8 months or so. Also I missed some of those PS4 games. Makes zero sense as it's literally just putting a game on a service, how many resources could they possibly use for this?

@WiiWareWave

I understand what you're saying but at some point, support for the PS4 has to stop, it can't go on forever.

In January 2026 PS4 will be approaching 13 years old !!!

First, it’s a year away, so they have plenty of time to change their mind and probably will. Though I can see them announcing it to keep PS4 only owners from renewing for a year, which is nice of the.

Second, are there even that many PS5 games not on PS4? And if they are including dual releases then why even bother, that’s gotta be like 90% of them at this point.

Sony has been so weird of late.

There are so many PS5 games not available on PS4 so it makes complete sense.

So are they going to remove all ps4 games on extra and premium? That's a massive amount of games (that don't have ps5 equivalents). For instance the ps portal has access to ps5 games only, but it's like a quarter of what's on offer overall. That is massive downgrade, especially as many are enhanced on ps5 thanks to horse power.

I'd be disappointed if they drop the classic games from PS4. I like to replay some of them twice and get the double platinum. Like the recent TimeSplitters, Sly Cooper games etc.

@TheFakulty

The way I read it is that they're not necessarily removing all existing PS4 games..... rather that they just won't really be adding many new ones to the service moving forward.

That was my take on it anyway.... apologies if I've got it wrong

‘Bout time. We’ll be over five years into this generation by then. I’m already tired of seeing ps4 anything these days…

@Member_the_game

That’s how I interpreted it too.

@Member_the_game yes we definitely need clarity as it can be read both ways:
"As we shift to PS5, PS4 games will no longer be a key benefit and will only be occasionally offered for PlayStation Plus Monthly Games and Game Catalog starting January 2026"

It doesn't say added, it says offered which means available i think.

Breaking news: they're going to stop actively incentivising people to use their 13 yo console and encourage people to move across to their 4 yo console.

Next up, water is wet. More news at 10

I would say that this should start from 2025

A shift more understandable (if still unpleasant) in case of PS3 and Vita, but with a fully backward compatible pastgen? Forget PS+, PS4 games still arguably remain a key incentive of PlayStation 5 itself. Which might need all the incentives it can afford once you're able to get a whole Gen 10 hybrid for its price.

Then again, the shakeup is still almost a year away, and there should still be a fair share of crossgens to fill the lineups with. I also dare assume the first-party Premium segment will remain because it would be kind of disingenuous to "retire" Gen 8 classics from the same subservice you're offering Gens 5-7 on. Time will tell.

@Koverby if I had a dollar for every thing you first world consumers are tired of, I could probably splurge out on a PS5 just for the whim of it, the everpresent dust-collecting risks of a home console in my household be damned.

@TheFakulty

Yeah I guess you could read it either way so a bit of clarity would be nice.

Personally though, I'd be amazed if they just suddenly decided to remove all existing PS4 games from the service..... I just can't see the logic in doing that whereas maybe focusing on only adding PS5 games moving forwards does make more sense

Seems pretty clear to me

As we shift to PS5, PS4 games will no longer be a key benefit and will only be occasionally offered for PlayStation Plus Monthly Games and Game Catalog starting January 2026. We may still provide titles that can be playable on both PS4 and PS5 consoles after this date.

There's still going to be games you can play on PS4, it's just that they're not adding anything that's not on PS5, and you're not guaranteed any particular number of PS4 titles in any given month.

There are so few games for PS5 ...

Unless, haven’t you upgraded to ps5, it doesn’t really matter

@TheFakulty They never said that. They said that starting from Jan. 2026, new additions will focus on PS5 and PS4 games will appear with less frequency. That's it

I still have a ps3 and ps4 but I don't see any need to upgrade to the ps5 since there isn't enough exclusives on the ps5 that are not available on either the ps4 or Xbox. I am not saying I would never get a ps5 but I would be spending $500 - $700, so it very unlikely I would be getting a ps5. I personally find the essential games tend to be miss, miss, miss, hit, at least in my opinion. I think Sony is behind the game in pushing the ps5 they should of been offering ps5 games much sooner and they should already not be offering ps4 games, even though I only have a ps3/ps4.

PS4 release: November 2013
PS3 PS+ games dropped: February 2019
Time gap: 5 years, 3 months

PS5 release: November 2020
PS4 PS+ games being dropped: January 2026
Time gap: 5 years, 2 months

Coincidence? Think not.

I'm ready to drop ps4 compatible versions of ps5 games. It's holding the current console back, look at what devs are saying how the series s is holding back releases for Xbox. Its time to move on from the ps4 guys, it had a good run. You will still have all the games and things which is a lot. I think this is a sign that ps4 support is beginning to end and I'm ready.

See, it would be great if they could back those statements with the reassurance that we won’t have less games in total.

If games are still being done for both platforms, which means games are still being released for PS4.

So why would Sony just turn their backs of PS4 owners that sign up to PS Plus?

They don't have the gust to officially end the generation because there are still SO many players there. So why not keep adding PS4 games to Essential??

Because Sont is particularly super anticonsumer this generation.

@Whately86 If Sony is super anti-consumer, they would completely drop PS4 support the day PS5 out in the market. But no, they keeps supporting PS4 with 1st party games like GOW Ragnarok, GT 7, Horizon FW, MLB The Show, Sackboy, and Miles Morales that Sony could easily just make them as PS5 only. Heck, some of them has free PS5 upgrade.

On top of that, they also released PS1, PS2, and PSP classics for PS4, which if you bought them from PS3/PSP/Vita store then you don't need to buy it again aka free. Now you tell me that's a "super anti-consumer" practice.

With this year, Sony has supported PS4 for 12 years. Meanwhile the competitors like Xbox One and WiiU already long gone with their store closed down and no more support.

In 2026, the Playstation 6 will probably be only a year or two away from being released, and yet there are people on here still expecting Sony to be supporting the PS4? If it isn't already, the PS4 will basically be a legacy console by then.

Honestly, the PS5 will be over five years old by then. A base PS5 really isn't that expensive - you can grab one used for under £200/$200, and sell your old PS4 for a few pounds/dollars as well - so there really isn't any reason not to have upgraded by now.

Okay... so by the end of 2026 will almost all native PS5 games be given for free. What next?

@PuppetMaster Xbox One has not gone, nor has it's store front. Developers still have support for the Xbox One system (much like how you get PS4 and PS5 releases of the same game).
Only difference is that you will be playing the "best" version of the game automatically depending what system you are using.

I think you are getting it confused with the 360 store front, which closed down last year. Tbh though, the PS3 store has been abandoned for years now. You can still buy games, but always at full price lol

I think people may be reading into this too much. They are just saying they will not be adding and PS4 games from Jan 26. It is not the first time this has happened. PS3 and Vita games were dropped in the past. Don't worry, give it a few years and the PS4 games will be added to the Premium tier

Please release Wild Arms 4 and 5 and the Legaia games before dropping PS4 releases Sony.

They removed PS3 and Vita games back in March 2019 considering how old the PS3 was.

What benefit will there be with the removal of PS4 games if you don't actually see much of those benefits already after everything that has happened.

https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2018/02/28/your-ps-plus-games-for-march-are-bloodborne-and-ratchet-clank/

They're making room for PS6 games.

Seems fine really. You'll still have access to potentially hundreds of PS Plus Essential PS4 games depending on when you started.

The pipeline of PS4 games is already starting to gradually dry up and PS4 owners will still have billions of very cheap titles to buy and play.

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