2026 is quickly approaching like a cruise missile over the horizon, and with it comes an vital reminder: PS4 video games will not be included within the month-to-month PlayStation Plus Important freebies.
Okay, earlier than we go any additional, let me dispel any fears: PS4 video games should not being faraway from PlayStation or something insane like that. And there’ll nonetheless be PS4 titles within the recreation catalogue which is out there on the costlier PlayStation Plus Further tier.
However what is occurring is that starting in January 2026, the “free” video games that PlayStation provides out each month to everybody who has PlayStation Plus Important will not have PS4 titles – it’ll be PS5 video games solely. So if in case you have a PS4 and have been subscribed to the bottom tier purely for the month-to-month video games, it is likely to be time to ditch it utterly and even transfer as much as the subsequent tier.
In equity to PlayStation, this transformation was really announced at the beginning of 2025, giving us a whole yr to get used to the thought.
‘As a lot of our gamers are at the moment enjoying on PS5 and have shifted towards redeeming and accessing PS5 titles from the Month-to-month Video games and Sport Catalog profit, PlayStation Plus can also be evolving with this pattern and can concentrate on providing PS5 titles by means of the Month-to-month Video games and Sport Catalog profit beginning January 2026,” mentioned Sony on the time.
Thoughts you, regardless of what Sony says, there’s really lots of people nonetheless on PS4. Back in May of 2024, for example, Sony’s own numbers showed that their monthly active consoles were evenly split between PS4 and PS5. Since then, Sony has stopped giving actual numbers, sadly. Their newest chart from June of this yr exhibits 124m month-to-month customers, and it seems that the PS4 nonetheless makes up roughly a 3rd of them, in order that’s round 40m.
So, why the change? It’s really exhausting to say. With so many individuals on PS4, it’s clear that individuals are much less inclined than ever to improve to the newest technology. However that’s additionally precisely why Sony is doing this: an try to push folks onto PS5, though I extremely doubt this might actually drive anybody to the PS5 at this level.
