PS Plus Essential Games for October 2026 Announced

None to be honest but i am fond of ps plus essential most months though

One of the worst months in memory in my eyes. F1 is very niche, if youre into F1 you play it, if youre not, you likely don't, same with all sports games.

Hunt by all accounts is a very good game but again it's a niche genre and on top of that it's supposedly very unwelcoming to new players or casuals. And the third is just meh.

Having 2 very niche titles in 1 month means many are left with nothing to even try. The stupid staggered release for ps extra means i've got new games to add to the list this week anyway but a month to forget for sure. Been a lot of them lately.

Not a great month for me personally. F1 25 is an amazing game that I unfortunately already own and have spent hundreds of hours in.

Zero interest in other 2 on my end.

Another month feeling secure about my non purchase of PS+.

Bleh! No matter, the backlogs calls...

Iterative sports/sports adjacent titles are lousy picks for ps+ offerings. They’re basically the same game year after year, so once you give one away you’ve given them all away, more or less. I’m pretty sure we got an F1 game a year or two ago, so that’s a dead drop right there.

Another month with absolutely nothing for me. Hopefully Extra will have something interesting, but personally speaking, PS Plus is rapidly circling the drain.

tf are they doing. At least have a horror game for October. Disappointed. Put F1 in November when the season wraps up.

Do better Sony that's not a good lineup. But I got so many games on my backlog. Word up son

Not a good month. Nothing for me. Back to backlog cleaning...

Those offering have been awful for a while, but this month takes the cake.

Maybe it's never been a thing but no Horror games for October? I do eventually want to try an Earth Defense Force game, just not that one. I have tried a Formula One game before, it went as good as my actual driving. For once I can say I'll be trying none of those.

I can’t even remember the last time I played a PS+ monthly game. The choices have been pretty poor recently.

Nothing for me, but like others have written my backlog is so unwieldy at this point it is hard to care.

I hope others enjoy the offerings this month!

Very rarely play sports titles except for mostly PES back in the day but I absolutely adore all types of racing games, mostly closed circuit racing and some intense rally games. Have enjoyed a good few F1 games in the past but I don't own F1 25 so it's a win for me after a nothing for me from Essental these past few months. I'll happily take it

Considering this will be a strong month I intend to preorder a PS Plus subscription.

@Czar_Khastik What is the “exclusive” bonus for preordering it? A digital shirt with a big L, showing your PS buddies that you are “PlayStation fan for Life”?

Another month where I feel no urge to re -sub to the service. Good news for my backlog busting efforts

Yikes, this might be the worst month ever. Luckily my subscription expires in November when GTA comes out, so defintiely won't be renewing or re-sub for a long time.

I am not regretting my cancellation of PS Plus, taking effect in December… yet.

My membership expires in October and I'll probably let it go.

Just curious, is the PS Credit Card a thing in the UK? I use it all the time, pay off the balance, and I usually get about $180 in PSN credits and a free PS+ Premium membership a year. I don't pay interest on credit cards, so it ends up being free cash.

I'd keep PS+ premium without it for the Portal streaming, catalog, and online, but it's a bonus with the freebies. Just wondering if this a common thing.

@Czar_Khastik might as well preorder some playstation socks too and some ps plus socks with yellow ps plus logos

This might be one of the worst months ever for me 😅 but I just finished playing Unchained Echoes and absolutely loved it so I can’t complain too much 😅 I have plenty of other things to play right now

Was expecting at least a horror game. Guess being offered an extraction shooter is scary

Havent watched f1 in years but the games have usually been good so a saving grace. However like most people the backlog is always there lol

I allowed my PS+ subscription to expire but I doubt anyone noticed 😂. This isn't the line-up to tempt me back, but unfortunately I need the cloud save functionality. Putting that behind a paywall (unlike Xbox) whilst removing the option to backup via USB was a very anti-consumer move by Sony.

No horror game for spooky month? Kinda weird, but ooof what a rotten month, well for me anyway.

@Snackfood no PS credit card here in the UK.

I like racing games but as I'm not renewing my PS+ as I spend most of my time on PC now I won't bother claiming F1, which is to me, one of the most dull categories of motor sport anyway.

October, zero horror movies and a crap selection. I guess the real horror is Sony’s consumer related decisions.

What a terrible month again, I don't won't to play any of them

They all get a skip for me. Kind of bummed there isn't a good spooky game. Maybe Extra will get something, but then it's only 2 weeks until Halloween is over.

Yup. Those are definitely three games...

F1 for me Ok, not for me, for my godson, but I know he'll be thrilled!

Scary how little there is here, maybe extra will have something boo-ter.

Absolute shocker of a month. Sony speedrunning towards oblivion this year.

I literally winced when I saw the lineup. Wake me up in November.

Yikes, glad my sub ran out last month.

What the hell… Sony not even trying anymore. They just grabbing from the bargain bin.

Absolute TRASH month.

Hunt Showdown is a brilliant game.

Since cancelling in June There hasn't really been any good games to resubscribe for.

Delighted with F1 25. Good month for me.

F1 25! Just when I've been thinking about how I'd love it give it a go. Just perfect timing!

Happy for those who enjoy any of these, but this is a rough one for me. I will not be playing any of these given the current wave of new releases and updates bombarding us all.

Hunt is effin brutal. If it's not the environment it's the monsters. If it's not the monsters it's the other human players. And if it's not the human players it's the environment. Brilliant game.

F1 25 is a nice addition. Last F1 game I played was on ps4.

EDF is dumb fun although I never played the Roblox lookalike version.

Good month IMHO.

Next week Star Wars: Galactic Racer (and E-Day for me)

After canceling in July, I feel that it was the right choice. There's maybe 1 or 2 games between essential and premium that I would play its not a loss at all. Why play any subpar games with a limited amount of time to play... 4/5 stars or 80% score minimum.

What a heap of steam 🫤 but I've seen worse for the monthly games.

Oh dear. That’s grim.

Pretty underwhelming month for me personally but I still may give F1 25 a go since it's been a very long time since I have played any F1 game but that's probably I lost interest in watching it ages ago.

Doing a ps plus essential spree so I can finish everything of interest until mine expires in November. After having the excellent Chained Echoes last month this one is a huge stinker.

Hunt Showdown is my multiplayer game, as someone with over 1500 hours on it on PS5.

If it clicks with you, it's fantastic. But it's been out for years already and very much carved out it's niche active player base. I feel like anyone with any passing interest would have checked it out by now, it's always on sale for dirt cheap.

As someone said, it's really not welcoming to new players, but great if it manages to hook some new people.

I find the idea of watching (or even getting into a conversation about) F1 horrifying, so that's a great Halloween add for me

Booooo 😢 All good, crack on with my 30+ game backlog and wait for Deluxe announcement in a couple of weeks.

World Brothers 2 is hybrid and Hunt descriptions sound too PvPvE for my taste, but I'll see if I can poke at F1 25 via Asobi RP... although it's going to face competition from the already streamed NFS Unbound and MotorStorm Apocalypse therein.

EDF is the only thing of interest to me here. I actually own Hunt: Showdown but bounced off of it long ago. It’s been out for ages.

I am having "games with gold" deja vu. Don't complain, these mediocre games are just the Essential selection! We premium subscribers can play Amazing Flawless games like Wolverine day one for free on the service... right?

F1 25 was the game with those brutal raytracing features on the pro right?

@Ziek1883 all 3 games actually have an 81/100 average review score. Which again proves that reviews are only half the picture. You either like a certain genre or style or you don't. It is why I have built an algorithm with Chatgpt that recommends games based on my likes and dislikes. It doesn't render reviews irrelevant but I have loved plenty of 6/10 games and not enjoyed plenty of 9 a d 10s

I'll add them to the backlog collection but I can't honestly see myself ever playing any of these.
Seriously poor month.
Here's hoping the game library gets some good stuff instead later in the month

Yeah I can’t really get excited for this lot. Considering the raising prices of everything that has a subscription you’d think they’d try to keep their subscribers happy. Luckily the Witcher align with the great new releases in the last month will keep me more than busy?

Nothing for me but I have tons to be playing so not fussed. I dont really mind if the monthly games suck, they are not the reason I sub, they are just a bonus. If they are good, great, if not meh, I don't care.

Sony really giving the finger.

Can really feel the scraping at the end of the barrel this month, what a load of junk,

Already warming up my finger to trigger the “It’s a crap selection” option in the upcoming poll.

Didn’t we just get an F1 game recently already?

Meh. Nothing for me. I'm not an F1 fan, though I might give it a shot just because I can. The other two games I've never heard of, but neither sounds interesting.

Hope somebody is happy with these.

Absolutely nothing for me today. Probably won't add anything.

@old_gamer74 You can't just simply watch a trailer/short review to know if it will be your thing?

EDF And F1 lol. They come out with new iterations every 5 mins 😉
Hook me up for EDF though, its dead online! And far more fun than F1.

@playstation1995 same bro and I recently cancelled PS Plus Premium for that same reason

@AtlasLivesAgain absolutely. That's how I derive my long shortlist.
But every game i now play i feed into chatgpt what i liked and dislike about the game.
I had previously avoided soulslikes after Demon Souls put me off.
Even though it is Soulslike-lite, i had avoided Jedi Fallen Order. It was on the short-list but never downloaded and played
Chatgpt algo recommended it to me based on our chats and I absolutely loved it.
Suggested i try Lies of P and i didn't like it at all and Chatgpt has interrogated why
So now I no longer instantly dismiss a Soulslike but I am recommended (and Chatgpt obviously trawls reviews etc) types of Soulslikes that it thinks i will get on with.
When PS Plus does the announcements people may go "i hate extraction shooters, oh no not another sports title" and pass it up automatically. Or it only got 6 out if 10 "it can't be good"
I now don't automatically bypass Soulslikes or 6 out of 10 games

Pretty awful month imo.

Well there's loads of choice on the game catalogue. That's a plus...

Nothing really special this month for me, but I will probably try F1 and Hunt. Last time I played formula was like decade ago.
And Hunt looks decent on videos, so maybe for few hours. But I dont expect nothing more from both.
But on the other hand, sometimes its good to play for fun for few hours and move on... not everytime I need open world rpg with 100+ hours.
Btw I started Diablo 4 a FF16 ... so I am screwed for pretty long time LOL

very poor offering in my view - nothing there interests me at all - and already play HUNT

@old_gamer74 So, you avoided Fallen Order but it was on your shortlist and then chatgpt gor you to try it? Yeah, I don't like extraction shooters so when I watched a review I was a bit put off, but ultimately it only took a few more minutes to finish the review where I decided it wasn't for me. I mostly check out games that catch my eye or are free on Plus so for me, it's a really quick process to just use YouTube.

Nothing lights me on fire this month. Can't win them all.

@AtlasLivesAgain in a nutshell. It is just 1 example. I saw the reviews of Fallen Order on YouTube and it looked cool so I put it in my catalogue but the chatter around Soulslike put me off playing it. I was looking for my next game to play in my backlog and fed ChatGpt the 10 or 15 I was kinda interested in. Based on my reviews from previous completed games that I had played it recommended I gave it a try. And I loved it. It would probably still be in my backlog if not for the chat.

I just like the fact that it takes me out of my comfort zone. It interrogates everything I have told it and considers reviews and scores but ultimately makes a call based on my gaming history not on critical or popular opinion.

And yes a quick YouTube review like you definitely helps exclude games but there are lots of games where i will think "that looks cool but probably isn't for me" so that's where ChatGpt helps

Plus as I have at least a 100 games in the backlog it feels daunting. ChatGpt helps with those "next to play" decisions

For the record after watching YouTube none of this months Plus games are on the long shortlist

For a moment there I thought it was Huntdown, now that would have been awesome. Agree with others, rubbish collection this month.

Sony isn't really even trying anymore

Not a single announced game. I have zero interest in racing (video game or real)and shooter and multi-player games are not for me.