Best PS5 Games 2026: The Australian Living-Room List

"Best PS5 games 2026" is a search box, not a personality. Most lists that rank for it read like a press-release smoothie: the same twelve thumbnails, the same hedged adjectives, no prices in dollars you actually spend.

This is GamePlayer's living-room list. We are writing from Australia. That means PlayStation Store AU, Plus Extra / Premium, EB and JB, and the quiet fact that a "standard edition" here is often a deluxe price in someone else's region.

Scored reviews live elsewhere. This piece is the shopping argument.

The 2026 buys (full price, no apology)

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Sandfall's debut is the rare new RPG that makes the DualSense feel like a conductor's baton. Our score is 9.4. If you only buy one story campaign this year, make it this. Hub: /games/clair-obscur-expedition-33/.

Ghost of Yotei — Sucker Punch's standalone Ezo hunt is the first-party sword game of the cabinet. Our score is 8.6. Atsu is colder than Jin; the mountain is why the DualSense stays warm; the middle act repeats itself. If you loved Tsushima and still have first-party money, this is the one. Hub: /games/ghost-of-yotei/. Calendar note: release date Australia.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — Kojima put a chiral Australia on a first-party showcase. If you already speak stranding, this is the deluxe walk. If you do not, read the review before you drop first-party money. We also mapped the AU setting.

Split Fiction — Hazelight still understands that a second player is a mechanic. Same-couch is the intended cut. Online is fine. Solo-with-AI is not why it exists.

Monster Hunter Wilds — Best-feeling hunt Capcom has shipped; easiest launch wall. Buy it for the loop and the friends, not for a 40-hour campaign that tests your decorations.

The games that refuse to leave

Elden Ring — Still the open world other open worlds are afraid of. If you have a PS5 and you have not become Elden Lord, 2026 is a ridiculous year to keep waiting. Shadow of the Erdtree remains the DLC argument.

Baldur's Gate 3 — Still the RPG benchmark. Honour Mode is a personality test. Split-screen is a generous idea that sometimes fights the UI. It is also the game we recommend to people who "do not have time," because they will lie.

These two are not "2026 releases." They are why the machine is still in the cabinet.

Plus Extra / Premium: spend the subscription

Plus is worth it in Australia when you treat Extra like a library, not a freebie bin. A month of Extra is cheaper than a deluxe first-party if you actually finish two catalogue games. It is a scam if you subscribe, download a fighting game, and play three nights of the other first-party you already bought.

Use Extra for: catalogue RPGs you missed, co-op experiments, and "I will never pay $80 for this but I will give it a weekend." Use Premium only if you live in the classics player and the streaming trial actually works on your NBN node. We have been burned. You have been burned.

When a 2026 launch hits Extra later — and they do — that is the moment Wilds or a Hazelight title stops being a "should I wait" question.

What we are not putting in the top slot (yet)

Grand Theft Auto VI is a preview, not a scored buy. Rockstar has dated it 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series — we wrote the Australia release guide. When it lands, it will eat a year. Until then, do not let a trailer reorganise your 2026 money. Our GTA 6 preview is the honest holding pattern.

Live-service games that want a weekly date can be excellent and still fail this list's job: telling you what to play this weekend without a battle pass guilt trip.

How we would spend $200 this month

1. Expedition 33 if you have not played it.
2. A Plus Extra month if your backlog is already embarrassing.
3. Split Fiction if you have a person.
4. DS2 only if the first game's roads still live in your thumbs.

That is an Australian shopping list, not a Metacritic average. For the platform pile, stay on /playstation/. For hubs, start at /games/.