From the PS1 to the PS5, Sony has blown minds with its great gaming machines — but which is the best? Check out our picks for the best PlayStation consoles!
Lee Brady
Published
Have you ever stopped to wonder which of Sony's gaming machines is truly the greatest? Sure, we all have our favorites (let's face it: the PlayStation console we got first is probably "the best one"). Still, for the sake of science, we here at TrueTrophies decided to put it to a vote. Here are the results: the best PlayStation consoles, ranked!All Sony PlayStation consoles — ranked!
The writing team here at TrueTrophies — that's Editor in Chief Kes, News Editor Lee, and Staff Writers Sean and Jamie — decided it was time to figure out which PlayStation consoles were truly the best. So, we put it to a vote, assigning preferential scores to each of our favorite Sony consoles. Needless to say, there were a few surprising upsets!To date, Sony has released seven PlayStation consoles — five home consoles and two handheld consoles. In this ranking, we're not counting micro-consoles (like the PS TV or PlayStation Classic), accessories (like the PlayStation Portal or the PocketStation), or iterations on any existing PlayStation hardware (like the PSX or the PS5 Pro). These are all fabulous devices, but they're not standalone consoles in their own right.
Check out our ranking of the seven best PlayStation consoles below.
7. PlayStation Portable (PSP)
- Debuted: December 12, 2004
- Famous for: Being the first true portable PlayStation; getting beat by the Nintendo DS
- Biggest Games: GTA Liberty City Stories, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, Gran Turismo
It's an obvious shame because, in many ways, the PSP was an incredible device! It was literally a PlayStation in your hands — a true revelation in its day. Not only could you download whole PS1 games to it with space-age WiFi technology, but you could also play Grand Theft Auto on it. I mean, literally the biggest, hottest games on Earth somehow ran on this thing!
It was the handheld for cool, mature kids — you could play brand-new Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo games on it. Yet, it also had unique spin-offs for PS2 mainstay franchises with the likes of Ratchet and Clank Size Matters and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Later, it would even get PS3 spin-offs like Resistance Retribution and LittleBigPlanet.
Browsing the internet, playing online games like Monster Hunter with relative ease, watching horribly compressed movies on the proprietary (and still rather cool looking) UMD format; it would legitimately be faster to list all the things the PSP couldn't do.
One such thing, for example, was that it could not get ahead of the competition. Comparatively limited as the Nintendo DS was, it was still the handheld to beat, and the PSP just couldn't top it. Maybe you lived in an area where someone else owned a PSP and could play multiplayer with you — not the case on my street. We were all DS kids first and foremost.Sony's first handheld also struggled to recapture the highs of playing most of the 3D games that helped define the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 because — for reasons that remain unjustifiable to this very day — the PSP had no right analog stick. So, as impressive as many of the PSP's coolest games were to look at, they all felt kind of weird to play in your hands.
Speaking of feeling weird in your hands, the PSP got infamously red-hot during prolonged gaming sessions — a side effect of the loud, frenzied whirring of the UMD. Plus, while it does have the word "Portable" in the name, most of my memories of playing the thing happen to take place inches away from an electrical outlet. The battery on this mini powerhouse was simply never up to the task.
With all that said, there's really only one good reason why the PSP is at the bottom of this list, and that's because the best PSP ever made is called the PlayStation Vita. So, don't feel too slighted PSP fans — just wait until you see how high we placed this one's commercially disastrous successor.
Fun Fact: Only Staff Writer Jamie voted for the PSP, and in fairness, he gave it a pretty high ranking! Everyone else probably had a Nintendo DS, the treacherous swine.
See AlsoThe Best Drifting Games Of 2024 | Drifted.com
6. PlayStation 2 (PS2)
- Debuted: March 4, 2000
- Famous for: Being the best-selling video game console of all-time
- Biggest Games: GTA San Andreas, Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, GTA Vice City
Look, there's no question that the PlayStation 2 was the console to have in its day. It was the dream machine — it had everything you could ever want on there. Even Sega games ended up on this thing after Sony put the final nail in the competition's console business. The PS2 simply arrived at the perfect time, just as consoles games were about to get good in a reliable way.
Developers had finally cut their teeth on 3D graphics for long enough during the PS1 era to get comfortable with them, and now all they needed was a bit more power. While the PS2 wasn't a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination, it was still a massive leap in performance compared to previous consoles, and game makers went wild with the possibilities.
Beyond the console's insane 4,000-strong game library — many of which have us audibly cheering every time Sony releases a couple more PS2 games on PS5 with trophy support — the PS2 was also the easiest pitch in video gaming history. It wasn't just your brand-new games console; it was also your brand-new DVD player.
Sure, it might sound a little ridiculous now that we can stream movies on toasters, but at the time DVD players were both new and necessary for watching movies at home. The PS2 being both a DVD player and a games console made it very easy to convince non-gamer parents to pick one up. So, if you're looking for the real reason why everyone had one of these things, it wasn't GTA; it was DVD.All that said, when we really get down to it, there's not much else to say about the PS2. It had all the games — that's undeniable. If we were picking the PlayStation console we would most like to have access to on a desert island, the PS2 would be top of the list. It had the best sports games, racing games; it even had cool peripheral games like EyeToy Play, SingStar, Buzz, and Guitar Hero!
It just also happened to be the PlayStation console that had the least to prove. The PS2 is essentially a more powerful PlayStation; its success all-but-guaranteed because the PS1 laid all the groundwork. Later PlayStation consoles would push harder and take more risks, and while they've never matched the PS2's ubiquitousness, you can't deny they each have a bit more personality.
Sure, we might be taking the PS2 for granted. We all owned one; my mother owns two (just in case one melts from her playing too much The Sims Bustin' Out). The memories this PlayStation console gave us will last a lifetime. Unfortunately, that just also happens to be true for every PlayStation console.
Fun Fact: Staff Writer Jamie felt strongest about the PS2 in the voting process, so when the inevitable TrueTrophies purge of 2025 kicks off, you may want to spare him.
5. PlayStation (PS1)
- Debuted: December 3, 1994
- Famous for: Making PlayStation a renowned household name; killing Sega
- Biggest Games: Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy VII, Gran Turismo 2
Sony's 'little grey box that could' was the product of passionate gaming pioneers, technological wizards, shrewd businessmen, and a lot of dumb luck. I mean, all of that talent would have given the PS1 a fighting chance at success, but it also would have died as a gaming curio had Sega not fumbled its competing machine so badly.
Thankfully, for the sake of TrueTrophies and all of our careers on the writing team, history had other plans for the PS1. Ridge Racer, Tekken, Rayman —1995 ended strong. Then, in 1996, we had Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Tekken 2, and the promise of Final Fantasy VII just a little ways into 1997. In short: the PS1 was getting the coolest games of its time.
The hits would just keep coming, and every year hence felt like we were taking repeated leaps into the future. The 3D games on PS1 kept getting better, and if you had the taste and sense to still enjoy 2D games, you were playing stuff like Castlevania Symphony of the Night — a game that still looks stupid good today.
Not only was the PS1 powerful enough to make all of these crazy-looking new games accessible for home audiences, but there was also just a great ethos around the machine. The space-age design, the edgy 90s marketing, the sharp game boxes, those mysterious black-tinted futuristic CD-ROMs — the PS1 was as much a physical games console as it was a concept and an encapsulation of an era.However, we also have to be realistic. While some PS1 games still feel great today (seriously, everyone should play Ape Escape on their PS5), consistent quality was effectively nonexistent. A certain rigidity dogs pretty much every game on the console, and it only gets worse the deeper into the catalog you go. For every Crash Bandicoot, there were two Bubsy 3D's waiting out there.
Later PlayStation consoles would also carve similarly distinctive ethos to the PS1 with the benefit of a stronger library of games, or they would simply launch with better features. So, while some might find this placement a little low, I think this spot perfectly compliments the PS1. It's an honest acknowledgement that its pioneering efforts eventually did lead to greater things.
Fun Fact: This was News Editor Lee's favorite PlayStation console!
4. PlayStation 4 (PS4)
- Debuted: November 15, 2013
- Famous for: Redeeming the PlayStation brand name; wrecking the Xbox One
- Biggest Games: Marvel's Spider-Man, GTA V, God of War
If you want to access good-looking games, you pick up a PS4. Then, unless you're a capital-G gamer or a hobbyist, you find it hard to move on from the PS4, because what's the point? Even as we move through 2025, over 11 years since the console's launch, we're still getting everything but the flashiest AAA titles on PS4.
This was all by design — Sony learned its lessons from the PS3 days and made a powerful console that was both easy to program for and affordable to most gamers. Sony also streamlined its first-party efforts in time for the PS4 thanks to The Last of Us' late success on PS3. Naughty Dog had gifted the company a clear idea for the PS4's future exclusives: cinematic single-player games with a blockbuster production quality.
Thus, we got Uncharted 4, Marvel's Spider-Man, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Order 1886, Days Gone, Bloodborne, Ratchet and Clank, Ghost of Tsushima, and inFamous Second Son — all variations on the same design brief. Action games with a third-person camera and blockbuster visuals; a winning formula that was honed first on PS3.
Granted, it's that refinement of the PS3 era that makes the PS4 a bit less interesting for long-time PlayStation fans to think about. Sanding off the PS3's rough edges made for a console that suited everybody and gave us a formula for the best PS4 games that worked time and time again.Yet, the PS3's rough edges also held a lot of charm and personality, making playing games on the console a memorable experience in and of itself. So, we run into the same problem with the PS4 as we did with the PS2 — a PlayStation console that takes the groundwork of the console before it, strips out the weird stuff (sorry, PlayStation Home), and goes on to sell gangbusters.
The difference is that unlike the PS2, which felt like an inevitability, the PS4 felt like a victory. The success of a PlayStation console no longer looked like a guarantee after the PS3, yet Sony ate its slice of humble pie and worked hard to make this machine exactly as streamlined as it needed to be to win over the masses once more.
That, and the fact that we're still playing PS4 games to this very day, makes it a very strong contender. Perhaps over time our nostalgia for the PS4 will grow and we'll think more highly of its own quirks — let's see.
Fun Fact: This was Editor in Chief Kes' favorite PlayStation console!
3. PlayStation Vita (PS Vita)
- Debuted: December 17, 2011
- Famous for: Being the world's coolest commercial failure
- Biggest Games: Uncharted Golden Abyss, Assassin's Creed III Liberation, Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified
Bigger, more expensive games meant a slower start to first-party support, which would quickly dry up as Sony realized the PS Vita wasn't connecting with players. Critics were quick to point out the console lacked a killer app — a game that made the PS Vita essential. Even in retrospect, you can argue the Vita has many brilliant games, but nothing on par with a Pokémon, Mario Kart, or even a Gran Turismo.
If it had even one major, inarguably excellent exclusive game in its library, it might have been a lot easier to argue that the PS Vita was worth the fairly expensive (for a handheld) launch price of $249.99.
In fairness, $249.99 was the same launch price given to the Nintendo 3DS in its (somewhat disastrous) first year. However, the true cost of the Vita was much higher when you factored in its proprietary memory cards — a minimum $20 surcharge for a measly 4GB of data, barely enough to store one big game and some lighter titles. This was all revealed while the 3DS was getting significant price cuts, too.
Worst of all, from a consumer perspective, was Sony's lack of direction for the console. The addition of two analog sticks and a boatload of GPU power suggested they wanted the Vita to be home to gaming experiences comparable with the PS3 and incoming PS4 — a true evolution of the PSP's cutting-edge hardware.
Yet, the Vita also had a touch screen and a quirky rear touch pad — both of which benefited more casual games like the ones typically seen on Nintendo DS. Paired with a cute, bubble-centric user interface and a launch lineup that included, alongside core titles like Uncharted and FIFA, more casual fare like ModNation Racers and Little Deviants, and you had a console that seemed divided in its identity.All of these fumbles, paired with decent competition from the Nintendo 3DS, led to the inevitable commercial failure of the Vita. And that's really where the story should have ended — except for the fact that if you actually owned a PS Vita, there was a strong chance that you flat-out adored it.
Sure, it had a pretty lackluster first-party library of games, but that's not where the PS Vita shone brightest. The best PS Vita games largely came from burgeoning indie developers or big Japanese publishers (the Vita wasn't nearly as disastrous in Japan). For many, the place to play amazing games like Persona 4, Danganronpa, Shovel Knight, Fez, Guacamelee, Hotline Miami, Dragon Quest Builders and more was the Vita.
Downloadable PSP and PS1 games helped bulk out that slow trickle of new releases with more all-time classics to play than most would ever need. Plus, vitally for us here at TrueTrophies, the PS Vita had trophy support — basically the only killer app or feature that dedicated PlayStation fans ever really needed.
All this helped cement the PS Vita as the underloved magic machine that could seemingly play anything on the go. It may not have been the smartest choice of PSP successor for Sony, but you won't hear most owners complaining about it — except when it comes time to shop for yet another memory card.
Fun Fact: Everyone on the TrueTrophies team voted in favor of the PS Vita, but no one was brave enough to call it their favorite PlayStation console. Tragic, although honestly, those memory sticks were an absolute nightmare back in the day.
2. PlayStation 5 (PS5)
- Debuted: November 12, 2020
- Famous for: Loading games real fast and being impossible to buy for a few years
- Biggest Games: Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Elden Ring
Its high placement here feels entirely down to it being the current PlayStation console. Should the PlayStation 6 arrive tomorrow, play all of the same games, and not cost a bomb, it's easy to imagine the PS5 plummeting down this list.
That's because, at least so far, the PS5 has proven to be the safest PS4 successor anyone could have imagined. It's effectively the same console but more powerful. It has some stunning console exclusives in its pocket — Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Astro Bot in particular stand out — but the vast majority of the best PS5 games are still playable on PS4.That said, when we sit down to play games right now, there's really only one machine that's holding the attention of everyone on the TrueTrophies' team, and that's the PS5. There's a comfort that comes with knowing your console is not only powerful enough to run all of the biggest games around, but that it also lets you jump into those games faster than ever.
In a few years time, I think we can expect the PS5 to rank alongside the PS2 as a logical next step for Sony that perhaps wanted for a few more quirks or a touch more ambition. Today, however, it gets extra points for being the best PlayStation console to get right now.
Fun Fact: This was Staff Writer Sean's favorite PlayStation console!
1. PlayStation 3 (PS3)
- Debuted: November 11, 2006
- Famous for: Nearly destroying PlayStation; introducing the world to trophies
- Biggest Games: GTA V, Gran Turismo 5, The Last of Us
This price felt distinctly insulting considering the console's weak launch lineup, its lack of PS2 backwards compatibility (in most models), its overlap in features with the cheaper Xbox 360, and its lack of novelty compared to the Nintendo Wii. Early adopters were sold on the console's potential power, but games also tended to run worse on PS3 than Xbox 360 due to its troublesome custom Cell microprocessor.
In short, the PS3's launch was nothing short of a disaster, and the console spent much of its decade on the market fighting tooth and nail to claw gamers' trust back. So, why is it at the top of our list? Well, because it actually pulled it off.
The bones of the PS3 felt like the future at the time, introducing us to the PlayStation Network — a place where you could just download brand-new games and old PS1 titles straight to your PS3. This was bolstered by a colorful built-in social network that let you play games online with your friends for free. The lack of a online subscription cost like Xbox 360 likely convinced the first wave of adopters to stick with Sony.
Early adopters could hail the PS3 doubling up as a fancy Blu-Ray player. They could also point to some exceptionally showy first-party games like Resistance Fall of Man, Afrika, Ridge Racer 7, and Heavenly Sword.
These weren't killer apps, but they showed promise of the future. Soon, they would also get to talk about the PS3's insanely ambitious PlayStation Home and the first essential exclusive: Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots.
This period also saw Sony as an underdog, which meant the company was more willing to invest development in new indie games. The console kept getting unique games you couldn't get anywhere like Tokyo Jungle, The Last Guy, Rain, and — vitally — the award-winning Journey.Sony also tried its hand at weird, fun ideas on PS3. For example, we got a competitive AR card game (The Eye of Judgment), a crossover fighter (PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale), motion control games (thanks to the PS Move), and a magical spell book (the much-overlooked Wonderbook); just to name a few weird innovations.
Yet, all the while the PS3 was also growing its array of blockbuster exclusives like the Uncharted series, new Killzone games, Demon's Souls, Gran Turismo 5, God of War III, inFamous; eventually culminating in the brand-defining The Last of Us. On the backfoot, Sony pushed hard to win players back, and it was an exciting time to own a PlayStation console.
That said, if we're being perfectly honest, the reason the PS3 stands head and shoulders above the competition is simple: it's the PlayStation console that first introduced trophies. An adaptation of Microsoft's Achievements, trophies stood out with their introduction of the platinum trophy — a metric for gaming prowess that felt accessible even to casual players.
To be there in the heyday of the PS3 was to experience a PlayStation console that felt alive and constantly evolving — one that rewarded its owners with cool games and new features constantly. While it might not be the cutting edge machine it once was, it still lives on as the best PlayStation console for its mapping out what works for Sony's present consoles and for being a wild ride for anyone who lived through it.
Fun Fact: This was Staff Writer Jamie's favorite PlayStation console!
That's our list! We're sure you're bound to disagree with some of it, so let us know what particular PlayStation console ranks highest for you down in the comments below. If you're hungry for more hardware talk, why not also check out our PS5 buyer's guide and indulge the second-best PlayStation console a little more!
Best OfHardware
News Editor Lee covers the latest upcoming PS5 games like Ghost of Yotei while making sure PlayStation Plus’ classic PS1 and PS2 games are given enough respect. Lee leads the charge on our original data analysis courtesy of GameInsights. His 25 years of PlayStation experience compliments his love of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
View discussion...