Sony is making a big change to PlayStation Plus starting January 2026. The company will stop offering PS4 games as a “key benefit” of the subscription service. This means fewer new PS4 games will appear in both the monthly PS Plus Essential lineups and the Extra game catalog.
This shift follows a pattern Sony has used before. Years ago, they stopped including PS3 and PS Vita games in PlayStation Plus. Now it’s PS4’s turn to be gradually phased out.
The change will hit PS4 owners hardest. With millions of people still using PS4 consoles who haven’t upgraded to PS5 yet, many subscribers will see less value in their membership. PS5 owners can still play most PS4 games through backward compatibility, but the focus is clearly moving to newer hardware.
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Despite raising prices in 2023 and again in early 2025, PlayStation Plus is still attracting more subscribers to its higher tiers. Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO Hideaki Nishino recently shared that about 38% of all PS Plus members now subscribe to either Extra or Premium tiers. Sony sees this as proof that people value the extra content, even at higher prices.
For those unfamiliar with the current setup, PlayStation Plus has three levels. Essential gives you monthly games and online play. Extra adds a large library of PS4 and PS5 games. Premium includes everything plus classic titles from older PlayStation consoles.
The June 2025 lineup shows what subscribers can expect until the changes happen. New additions include FBC: Firebreak (available on its release day), Battlefield 2042, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2, and several others. Sony claims these games offer about 450 hours of gameplay.
This move is part of Sony’s bigger strategy to push more people toward the PS5 while simplifying what content they need to manage. It also highlights the ongoing competition with Xbox Game Pass, which takes a different approach to its game subscription service.