Sony has announced the PlayStation Plus Essential monthly games for May.
The games, which are available to claim from May 6, are available for players on all tiers of PlayStation Plus – Essential, Extra and Premium.
May’s games include Ark: Survival Ascended, the remaster of Ark: Survival Evolved which was released in early access in 2023. This is available for PS5 users only.
It’s joined by Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun will also be available. The fast-paced first-person shooter will be available on PS5 and PS4.
May’s highlight, however, is Balatro, which is available for PS5 and PS4 owners. Balatro was one of the major success stories of last year, having sold 5 million copies by January 2025.
The game has earned numerous awards, including Best Indie Game, Best Debut Indie Game and Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards.
It was also nominated for Game of the Year at the DICE Awards and won Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game, Mobile Game of the Year and Strategy / Simulation Game of the Year at that ceremony.
It also swept up at the Game Developers Choice Awards this month, winning awards for Game of the Year, Best Debut, Best Design and the Innovation Award.
VGC’s Balatro review noted: “The worst thing about Balatro is that it’s so good that we have to take time away from Balatro to write this review.”
“Balatro is an astonishingly addictive take on Poker that’s utterly impossible to put down,” we wrote. “Occasional difficulty spikes aside, it’s a piece of simplistic genius that we’ll keep on our Steam Deck forever.”
Until these games are available on May 6, players can continue to claim April’s PlayStation Plus Essential games.
These include RoboCop: Rogue City (PS5), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (PS5 / PS4), and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory (PS4).
Sony recently announced plans to shift away from providing PS4 games as part of its monthly PlayStation Plus offerings.
Starting in January 2026, “PS4 games will no longer be a key benefit” of the service, with the platform holder instead turning its focus to offering PS5 titles.
