The Best Games to Grab During the Big Games, Big Deals Sale on the PlayStation Store

Hot on the heels of the last major sale event on the PlayStation Store, Sony has kicked off the Big Games, Big Deals Sale, and it's honestly a very fitting name. This latest sale event contains one of the best selections of discounts and deals on games both old and new, making now a perfect time to log in and peruse ahead of the sale's end on May 6. With hundreds of deals to sift through over roughly a week and some hard choices to be made, we've combed through what's available and chosen 15 picks to highlight as some of the best deals to grab while the sale is active, whether because of their all-time low pricing or because of their essential place in every PS5-owner's library.

• Release Date — March 24, 2015
• Developer — FromSoftware
• Publisher — Sony Computer Entertainment
• Genre — Action RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)
• Price — $9.99 (Normally $19.99, 50% off)

If you've somehow made it the past decade without playing Bloodborne, my only real question (other than "how?") is, "What are you waiting for?" Not only is Bloodborne arguably FromSoftware's magnum opus, it's also a fantastic entry for Soulslike newcomers, as its speed and focus on aggressive play are a little easier to get used to for someone new to FromSoftware's unique style of methodical, stamina-based combat. Bloodborne has had the honor of being a "Greatest Hits" PS4 title for some time, and that normally discounted $20 asking price is down an additional 50% off right now, bringing the game down to just $10. Bloodborne is absolutely the best game you could pick up at that price.

• Release Date — January 20, 2021
• Developer — IO Interactive
• Publisher — IO Interactive
• Genre — Action, Stealth
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $44.99 (Normally $99.99, 50% off)

Ahead of IO Interactive's excellent-looking 007 First Light launching at the end of May, it's a perfect time to go back through the developer's Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy. Especially if you can grab it at a steep discount, which you can currently do on the PlayStation Store. After crafting Hitman 3, IO Interactive went back and redesigned the levels of Hitman and Hitman 2 within the Hitman 3 engine, giving players one of the best selections of semi-open world stealth sandboxes and rechristening it the World of Assassination. For fans of stealth action, it rarely gets better than the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy, and you're getting a huge wealth of content for $45 (instead of its normal $100 MSRP).

• Release Date — October 27, 2023
• Developer — Remedy Entertainment
• Publisher — Epic Games Publishing
• Genre — Survival Horror
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $17.99 (Normally $59.99, 70% off)

For all the Game of the Year talk that Alan Wake 2 generated the year of its release, it's surprising to see not that many people still talking about it. Thankfully, if you happened to miss out on the excellent sequel when it first launched, you have the advantage of being able to grab it for an incredibly generous discount right now on the PlayStation Store, where it's down to just $18 from its normal $60 MSRP. Alan Wake 2 brings the titular author hero back, but joining him is newcomer Saga Anderson, an FBI agent whose investigation into the events surrounding the first game is inextricably tied to Alan Wake's salvation in the second. Survival horror rarely gets better than this.

• Release Date — October 21, 2022
• Developer — Atlus, P-Studio
• Publisher — Sega
• Genre — JRPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)
• Price — $17.99 (Normally $59.99, 70% off)

If you're a fan of JRPGs and somehow don't already have Persona 5 Royal in your PS5 library, that's an oversight that needs correction immediately. Thankfully, Royal is back down to its previous historic low of just $18, which is more than a fair price to pay for what's arguably one of the best modern RPGs, jam-packed with roughly 150 hours worth of content if you're hoping to see and do everything the game has to offer. The core gameplay of Persona 5 is the best the series has ever been, with plenty of powerful demons to collect, grow, and fuse to create powerful new Personas who aid in combat, and its main story and central mystery are right up there with Persona 4's as being some of the best not just in the series, but in the genre.

• Release Date — March 12, 2024
• Developer — WayForward, Konami, M2
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — Action, Run 'n Gun
• Review Aggregate Score — 74% (Contra Anniversary Collection); 70% (Contra: Operation Galuga)
• Price — $26.99 (Normally $44.99, 40% off)

Even if you're only a casual run 'n gun fan and don't typically go for arcade-style shooters, the current deal on the PlayStation Store for the Contra Run & Gun Bundle is just too good to pass up. For just $27, players get both the Contra Anniversary Collection and 2024's Contra: Operation Galuga, which is an excellent new entry in the long-running franchise and a faithful retread of the events of the original game. That's a whole lot of classic run 'n gun action for less than $30, and if you have a friend or loved one to play couch co-op with, this collection is all the more essential. You rarely see Operation Galuga down to this price on sale, so you're basically getting it plus the series' greatest hits for free.

• Release Date — March 18, 2022
• Developer — Team Ninja
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Genre — Action RPG, Soulslike
• Review Aggregate Score — 72% (Mixed or Average)
• Price — $15.99 (Normally $39.99, 60% off)

Despite some middling critic reviews and plenty of laughable memes made from the game's cutscenes, don't let the general perception of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin fool you. This is one of Team Ninja's best Soulslikes and a surprisingly great retelling of the events of the original Final Fantasy, especially as the game reaches its final act. While Stranger of Paradise shares a lot in common with both Nioh and Nioh 2 (mission-based structure, plenty of collectible loot, a robust endgame), the complexity of its buildcraft is almost exponential in comparison, thanks to the inclusion of a couple of dozen "Jobs" (the term for classes in Final Fantasy) that can be mixed and matched to create custom loadouts capable of insane min-maxing damage. The core game is great, but the endgame is a playground for those who love to craft cool builds.

• Release Date — May 21, 2024
• Developer — Nightdive Studios
• Publisher — Prime Matter
• Genre — FPS, Immersive Sim
• Review Aggregate Score — 76% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $13.99 (Normally $39.99, 65%)

Despite being mostly known for excellent remasters and ports of classic first-person shooters, Nightdive Studios took it upon itself to craft an ambitious modern-day remake of the original System Shock, and it's easily one of the studio's best games. The 2023 System Shock remake finally made its way to consoles back in 2024, and the PS5 version looks and plays incredibly, maintaining all the smooth performance and strong visual fidelity of the PC version while handling surprisingly well on a controller. That said, it is a very faithful remake that retains the obtuse puzzles and instant-death difficulty of the original, so its current $14 sale price is a much easier pill to swallow than the normal $40 asking price.

• Release Date — February 13, 2026
• Developer — Marvelous
• Publisher — Marvelous
• Genre — Action RPG, Farming Simulation
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $47.99 (Normally $59.99, 20% off)

It can be hard to beat the value of a good action RPG/farming simulation hybrid, both in terms of gameplay enjoyment and the amount of content on offer in that particular genre combination. One of the better entries into the "FarmPG" genre in quite some time is the latest Rune Factory game, Guardians of Azuma, which streamlines both halves of its gameplay to be the most satisfyingly paced and consistently rewarding entry in the franchise. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma only recently came to PS5 earlier this year in February, so it's great to see it already getting a nice 20% off discount to entice more players to pick it up.

• Release Date — June 29, 2023
• Developer — Motion Twin, Evil Empire
• Publisher — Motion Twin
• Genre — Action Roguelike, Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $18.89 (Normally $31.49, 40% off)

Motion Twin's Dead Cells has rightfully earned its place in the pantheon of "best action roguelikes", sitting right alongside classics like Hades and Enter the Gungeon as one of the all-time greats in the genre. Its place as an endlessly replayable Metroidvania made a crossover with either property from the genre's portmanteau a pie-in-the-sky dream that, somehow, Motion Twin was able to make come true with its collaboration with Konami on the Return to Castlevania DLC, giving Dead Cells one of its biggest and best content drops yet. You can currently grab the Return to Castlevania bundle, which contains an updated version of the base game with some of the previously released DLC and the Return to Castlevania expansion, all for $19. Definitely one of the best "dollar-per-gameplay-hour" deals to be found in the Big Games, Big Deals Sale.

• Release Date — April 12, 2016
• Developer — FromSoftware
• Publisher — Bandai Namco
• Genre — Action RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $29.99 (Normally $59.99, 50% off)

As the final (for now) game in its respective trilogy, and the follow-up to a fairly polarizing second entry, Dark Souls III had a lot riding on it when it originally launched back in 2016. Of course, the return of series creator and FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki meant that closing the loop on the trilogy was in the most capable hands, and Dark Souls III fully delivered on an epic action RPG experience with some of the best combat and pure jaw-dropping spectacle. The FromSoftware catalog only goes on sale every so often, so if you have yet to grab Dark Souls III, it's definitely worth picking up while its $30 instead of $60. Heck, while you're at it, go ahead and get the Deluxe Edition with both DLC expansions for just $45.

• Release Date — September 21, 2023
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Survival Horror
• Review Aggregate Score — 93% (Universal Acclaim)
• Price — $19.99 (Normally $49.99, 60% off)

They say you can't improve upon perfection, but that's precisely what Capcom pulled off with its remake of Resident Evil 4. True to form for the franchise, the new Resident Evil 4 doesn't make the original obsolete, but rather builds upon it to deliver an experience that's at once fresh and familiar, making owning and playing both regularly an essential act for fans of the franchise and survival horror in general. The Gold Edition of Resident Evil 4, which includes the equally great remake of the Separate Ways DLC, is down to just $20, which is the price that you'd normally find just the base game at. If you somehow don't already own this excellent remake, grab the Gold Edition while you can to get the full experience.

• Release Date — February 13, 2026
• Developer — Tarsier Studios
• Publisher — THQ Nordic
• Genre — Adventure, Cinematic Platformer, Puzzle, Horror
• Review Aggregate Score — 80% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $31.99 (Normally $39.99, 20% off)

Speaking of excellent horror games, Tarsier Studios' Reanimal has a nice 20% off discount on the PlayStation Store right now as part of the Big Games, Big Deals Sale, which is the lowest price we've seen Reanimal hit since its launch back in February. I recently listed Reanimal as one of the better modern cinematic platformers, and I stand by that assessment; it's got some excellent physics-based platforming, head-scratching puzzles, and tense, heart-pounding stealth sections that do the genre proud. On top of all that, it's also an incredibly effective horror game that goes way further than anything Tarsier crafted with Little Nightmares and its sequel.

• Release Date — March 5, 2026
• Developer — Bungie
• Publisher — Bungie
• Genre — FPS, Extraction Shooter
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $31.99 (Normally $39.99, 20% off)

Just a little over a month since its launch, Bungie's live-service extraction shooter Marathon is already getting its first chunky discount, down to just $32 instead of its normal $40 MSRP. While I don't think Marathon will ever go free-to-play, I do think that occasional discounts like this one are a great way to entice players who may be on the fence to give it a go. I'd highly recommend doing so, as although Marathon has a steep learning curve and can be incredibly competitive, it's an absolute blast once you start to get the hang of things, and it provides a competitive shooting experience that most other extraction shooters simply don't have. ARC Raiders is great for the casual, co-op-friendly crowd, but Marathon is about as dog-eat-dog as it gets.

• Release Date — September 4, 2025
• Developer — Team Cherry
• Publisher — Team Cherry
• Genre — Metroidvania, Soulslike
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)
• Price — $15.99 (Normally $19.99, 20% off)

Is Hollow Knight: Silksong the greatest Metroidvania ever made and the end-all, be-all fans hoped it would be? That's debatable, but what isn't is that Silksong is a major achievement for developer Team Cherry and a worthy sequel to Hollow Knight that one-ups it in just about every regard. The world is absolutely massive, the combat is finely-tuned and ultra-challenging, upgrades feel significant and transform how you approach the game's world, and the story and atmosphere are nigh-unmatched by any other Metroidvania/Soulslike hybrid. Simply put, even if it isn't the greatest, it's one of the all-time greats, and more than worth picking up while it's on sale for $16.

• Release Date — February 6, 2026
• Developer — Team Ninja
• Publisher — Koei Tecmo
• Genre — Action RPG, Soulslike
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)
• Price — $55.99 (Normally $69.99, 20% off)

It's not a major discount, but Team Ninja's recently released Nioh 3 is down to its lowest-ever price since its February launch, coming in at just $56 instead of its normal $70 MSRP until May 6. Nioh 3 does away with the mission-based structure of its two predecessors in favor of an open-world setting, and it does wonders for the general pacing and difficulty curve of the game's main quest. The new additions to the combat sandbox, including differentiating between Samurai and Ninja stances and having two loadouts for each, give players plenty of freedom of expression during encounters and make the game's buildcraft and endgame even more enjoyable than they were in Nioh 2. Simply put, Nioh 3 is the best the series has been so far, and an essential Soulslike for fans of the genre.