PlayStation Plus Essential vs. Extra vs. Premium: Which tier is right for you?
If you're a new PS5 owner, you might be trying to decide if you should subscribe to PlayStation Plus. This popular service lets you play games online, use cloud storage features, receive exclusive PlayStation Store discounts, and, most importantly, it offers access to a selection of games at no extra cost.
There are three unique tiers: PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium. We’ll tell you what each offers to help you choose which is the best for you. As you might expect, the general rule is that the higher the tier, the more complimentary games you get. But be mindful that Sony has recently increased the annual price of all three PlayStation Plus tiers, so the service is becoming increasingly expensive.
PlayStation Plus used to be a single-tier service, but Sony revamped PlayStation Plus in the summer of 2022, which may help it compete more directly with Xbox Game Pass. The expanded PS Plus functionality offers a full library of games to stream and download, in addition to the subscription’s current online features.
However, these additions come at a cost. PlayStation Plus is now split into three separate tiers: Essential, Extra and Premium. Functionality and price differ considerably among the three. If you plan to upgrade your PS Plus subscription, read on to find out which tier will best suit your needs.
PlayStation Plus Essential
PlayStation Plus Essential is the easiest of the three membership plans to explain. That’s because it’s basically the same as PlayStation Plus has always been. PS Plus Essential costs $10 per month, $25 per quarter or $80 per year. It also offers the same benefits: online play, cloud saves, two rotating, downloadable games per month and PlayStation Store discounts.
PS Plus also gives PS5 players access to the PlayStation Plus Collection: more than a dozen downloadable PS4 games.
PlayStation Plus Extra
Here’s where things start getting interesting. PlayStation Plus Extra includes all the same benefits as PS Plus Essential. However, it also lets players download “a catalog of up to 400 of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games.” These games include Death Stranding, God of War (2018), Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11 and Returnal.
The service will offer both first- and third-party fare. PS Plus Extra costs $15 per month, $40 per quarter or $135 per year.
PlayStation Plus Premium
PlayStation Plus Premium is the most feature-rich — and the most expensive — tier of the three. First off, Premium includes all of the features found in the Essential and Extra tiers. On top of that, players also get access to hundreds of PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP games. Players can download or stream PS1, PS3 and PSP games; PS3 games are streaming-only. Additionally, players can stream these back-catalog games to a PS4, PS5 or PC.
Finally, Premium offers “time-limited game trials,” which let players try a selection of games for up to two hours, total. PlayStation Plus Premium costs $18 per month, $50 per quarter or $160 per year.
Which PlayStation Plus tier should you choose?
The good news is that it should be remarkably simple to choose among the various PlayStation Plus tiers. If you were happy with what the PlayStation Plus service used to offer and don’t want anything else out of it, stick with PS Plus Essential. Playing online and storing saves in the cloud are both arguably worth the price of admission.
If you want an instant library of modern games, but don’t care much about the classics, PlayStation Plus Extra is probably the way to go. On the other hand, if you want to explore a much bigger chunk of Sony’s back catalog, it’s probably worth investing in PlayStation Plus Premium.
You could also make an argument for Premium if you don’t have a PS4 or PS5, and want to stream hundreds of titles to your PC. This was a benefit of PlayStation Now — and former PS Now subscribers should be pleased to hear that Sony will automatically convert their subscriptions to PS Plus Premium.
