The best PS5 games of 2024

2024 was an interesting year for the PlayStation 5. During its first few months you would have been forgiven for asking where all the big games are, and if we’re honest, that picture isn’t a whole lot clearer as we head towards 2025.

Until very recently we had no idea about what Naughty Dog is working on, Insomniac’s in-development Wolverine game hasn’t been seen since it was announced, and expect Kratos to have at least a few years off before picking up his axe again.

And then there's the all-new PS5 Pro, an eye-wateringly expensive, slightly more powerful PS5 that is really going to need those aforementioned first-party blockbusters to make it an irresistible upgrade further down the line.

But don’t let any of that kid you into thinking there was nothing to play on your PS5 this year. It might have been a relatively quiet 12 months for Sony’s first-party studios, but one of the lesser known ones did give us a 3D platformer of such high quality that Mario might just be feeling the heat. And if you like massive RPGs, 2024 had enough of the things to keep you plonked on the sofa for as long as you could get away with. So without further ado, here are the best PS5 games of 2024. Be sure to upvote your favourites.

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

The second part of Square Enix’s ambitious Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy continued to court controversy, with its increasingly multiversal flirtations threatening to mess with what might be the most treasured story in all of video games.

But those fears aside, there’s no doubt that Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is an incredible reimagining of the legendary 1997 RPG. Exploring the sprawling open world and visiting iconic locations like Cosmo Canyon, Costa del Sol and Gold Saucer is a real thrill for anyone familiar with the source material, and while you could argue that it’s a bit overstuffed, Rebirth’s high points - the Chocobo racing, the piano-playing, the colossal bosses and the fully-fledged card game that can chew up hours of your time on its own - are up there with anything in gaming in 2024.

Then there’s the hybrid combat system, which plays out in real-time but lets you pause the action to select team-up attack commands and use items, which for our money is the most enjoyable in any RPG you can play right now. Rebirth is messy, sure, but when it flies, it soars.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Atlus’ rather terribly named Metaphor: ReFantazio is a must-play for RPG fans this year, whether you’re a veteran of the Persona series or always felt a bit put off by the latter’s high-school setting.

Metaphor (let’s just call it that) is remarkably similar in structure to Persona, in that you have a calendar to pay attention to, social links to maintain and turn-based combat to engage in with your party of choice. But rather than real-world Japan, Metaphor takes place in the fantastical kingdom of Euchronia, and has a politically charged and surprisingly mature story to tell about power, injustice and fiction's capacity to change the world.

Weighty stuff, then, but Metaphor is, crucially, also a hell of a lot of fun to play, with great writing, stunning high fantasy-inspired world design and a slick combat system that blends real-time action with traditional command-based battling to great effect. Persona 6 has a lot to live up to.

Astro Bot

As mentioned at the top, 2024 has been a relatively quiet year for PlayStation 5 exclusives, but even with serious competition we think Astro Bot would have stood out. Team Asobi’s gushingly received 3D platformer builds on the ideas introduced in Astro’s Playroom, the pack-in game that comes pre-installed on every new PS5 console. Which means ingenious use of the DualSense controller, playful level design and more PlayStation cameos than you could possibly imagine.

Some modern video games can appear to forget that they’re supposed to be fun, but in Astro Bot the mission statement seems to be that not a second will pass where you’re not wading neck deep in joy. Lifelong PlayStation fans will delight in finding all the deep cut references - Astro Bot’s release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the brand - but even without all that extra sugar this is the most purely joyful game you can play on a console not made by Nintendo.

Dragon’s Dogma 2

A common criticism of modern open-world games is that too many of them overload the player with information and content, but fail to create a true sense of adventure. No such criticism could be made of Dragon’s Dogma 2, the fiercely hands-off and, to the uninitiated, often bafflingly punishing sequel to the cult classic 2012 RPG, Dragon’s Dogma 2.

The plot is fairly bog-standard fantasy fare, but Dragon’s Dogma 2’s strength is its unpredictability. As you head out on quests, you do so knowing you only have one save file, barely any opportunity to fast travel, and that there’s a very high likelihood that hordes of monsters will try to derail your progress at every turn. Get caught in the middle of the night (never a good idea) by a gang of nasty goblins when your health bar is hanging by a thread and you’re pretty much stuffed. This makes just getting from A to B with your party of fiercely loyal pawns intact feel like a victory.

A versatile combat system that lets you swap between classes at will and the ability to scale the game’s many huge beasts, Shadow of the Colossus-style, with frequently hilarious results, make Dragon’s Dogma 2 one of the year’s most memorable games.

Helldivers 2

Sony’s search for a live service hit hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing, but in Helldivers 2 it had 2024’s multiplayer standout. So successful was this good old fashioned squad-based shooter that its servers were unable to withstand its massive playerbase in the weeks after launch.

Its appeal is very easy to understand: giant alien bugs have invaded the galaxy and it falls to humanity to push them back and save the day. With its Starship Troopers-inspired humour, big guns and even bigger airstrikes, every mission is the best kind of dumb fun, especially when everyone in your party accepts that a bit of friendly fire now and then is inevitable. Liberating the universe from alien threats is important work, and accidentally blowing up your mates comes with the territory in Helldivers 2.

Tekken 8

Fighting games have incredibly dedicated fans, but they’re often dismissed as too obtuse for newcomers who weren’t brought up on arcade sticks to get into. Tekken 8 is absolutely catering to its longtime series devotees, but thanks to streamlined control options and modes like Arcade Quest, which gradually teaches new players the game’s systems and movesets, anyone can now participate in a game that lets you pit a tiger head-wearing muscleman against a panda. And that can only be a good thing.

For players more familiar with the nuts and bolts of Tekken, the eighth mainline entry introduces a new mechanic called the Heat system, which can be utilised once per round and temporarily allows your characters to deal huge damage. It rewards aggressive playstyles and is a lot of fun to master. Chuck in a typically bonkers story mode and one of the deepest rosters in the series’ long history and you’ve got a Tekken for the PS5 to be proud of.

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

The Like A Dragon (formerly known as Yakuza) series pumps out new games with such impressive regularity that it can feel impossible to keep up unless you dedicate all of your gaming time to it. We’re not sure what the solution is to that, but there weren’t too many better uses of 60+ hours this year than Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

The continuing adventures of Ichiban Kasuga sees the loveable goofball head to Hawaii in search of his long-lost mother, and while taking the series out of Japan for the first time was a risky move, it paid off. The sun-drenched island state is the perfect location for Infinite Wealth’s singular cocktail of gloriously OTT turn-based combat, hilarious minigames and criminal underworld shenanigans. Only in this game will you bounce between gritty Yakuza plotlines, dolphin-riding and tending to your very own Animal Crossing-esque island resort. Some story beats will have all but the most well-read Like A Dragon fans scratching their heads, but they’ll likely be having too much fun to care.

Silent Hill 2

Konami has clearly been watching Capcom’s ongoing run of Resident Evil remakes with interest, as this year saw PS2 classic Silent Hill 2 get a modern makeover.

Bleaker than your average Resi, Silent Hill 2 puts you in the soon-to-be blood-stained shoes of James Sunderland, who travels to the ominously foggy rural town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter of invitation from his deceased wife. Awaiting him are all manner of nightmarish monsters and environments drenched in wholly unsettling vibes.

Ditching the old-fashioned fixed camera angles in favour of the now standard over-the-shoulder viewpoint thankfully robs the game of none of its oppressive atmosphere, so your first run-in with Pyramid Head will be as terrifying as it was back in 2001. Silent Hill 2 is a seriously classy remake that introduces an iconic game to a new audience while preserving what made the original so special.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Call of Duty is still the biggest game in the world, and likely will be for many years to come, but the series can be a bit hit and miss these days. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 can firmly be filed in the former category thanks to a varied and perfectly paced single-player campaign, an excellent Zombies mode and the new Omnimovement system, which lets you sprint and slide in any direction, a subtle change that revitalises multiplayer matches.

Black Ops 6’s innovations all land, which can’t be said for some of its more recent predecessors, and while you could accuse it of playing it a bit safe, when the whole package is of such a high standard it’s difficult to do so. The only downside for PS5 players is that they have to pay full price for the game, while Xbox Game Pass subscribers get it as part of their subscription after Microsoft's successful acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Is it cheating to have DLC for a game released in a previous year in a best games of 2024 list? In most cases yes, but it almost feels a bit disrespectful to call Shadow of the Erdtree mere DLC. Considering the size and scale of this add-on, which only becomes accessible to players nearing the end of the main game, it would probably be fairer to call it Elden Ring 1.5.

Your early hours spent in the new Land of Shadow area will likely be hilariously humbling, with FromSoftware proudly maintaining the reputation its DLCs have for being even more rock hard than the games they spring from. But as you explore this mysterious new map and hunt down the hidden Scadutree Fragments that are crucial to boosting both your attack and defence, those bosses - of which Shadow of the Erdtree has some of the most intimidating in all of Elden Ring - will start to drop a bit more easily.

You can make the case that Shadow of the Erdtree is simply more Elden Ring, and that’s true, but getting this much more of one of the best games ever made is quite the treat.

• Want more PS5 classics? These are the best PlayStation 5 games from across the console's lifetime