The best free PS4 games are here whenever you have a need for a new game but a lack of cash to spend. And these are permanently free titles too, so you don't have to worry about monthly time limits like with PlayStation Plus
While the free games you get each month with Sony's subscription service are excellent, you get a random selection every month. The games in these lists are permanently free-to-play (excluding some optional premium purchases), so are perfect for dipping your toe into certain genres, or if you want something to play while saving money to save up for a PS5.
Take a look at our top picks below, and also our selection of the best PS4 games overall too if you want more ideas and don't mind coughing up a little dough.
The best free PS4 games to play today
1. Overwatch 2
The long-awaited followup to Blizzard's hero shooter that took the world by storm upon release in 2016, Overwatch 2 doesn't make significant changes from its beloved predecessor, but its gameplay loop is still seriously good fun. You'll find a roster of more than 35 heroes each that matches a particular playstyle from Tank, Damage and Support. Just remember that you'll need a well-balanced team if you want to emerge victorious from intense online matches.
Overwatch 2 offers plenty of content despite its no-cost entry fee. There are 22 maps set in various exotic locations around the globe, as well as six distinct modes. And as mentioned, its group of iconic heroes has swelled to a very impressive size. If you love online shooters, then Overwatch 2 will have you hooked for hours at a time.
Download Overwatch 2 from the PlayStation Store
2. Destiny 2
Like several games on this list, in order to have access to everything Destiny 2 offers you will need to purchase the latest expansion, but you can still enjoy a heck of a lot without spending a single cent. In this sci-fi shooter, you play a Guardian, an intergalactic defender of humanity's final fortress, the aptly named, Last City.
Pick from one of three classes, Titan, Warlock or Hunter, and embark on missions with up to two other friends. You can also complete raids and strikes that require you to confront some of the universe's most powerful foes. And if you're really confident in your skills, enter the Crucible and face off against fellow Guardians.
Developed by legendary studio Bungie, Destiny 2 packs the responsive shooting the former Halo-team is known for, and it's also graphically-stunning even hardware that is more than a decade old. Destiny 2 also offers a compelling loot grind ensuring that no matter how you choose to spend your time, you'll be rewarded with new gear.
Download Destiny 2 from the PlayStation Store
3. Genshin Impact
The Seven gods of Tevyat hold many secrets. Having woken up in this new world with no knowledge of it, and separated from your brother or sister, the answers to your predicament must be in their hands.
You'll have to travel around Tevyat to find these deities, with your weapon of choice being the seven magical elements that the gods represent. You'll also be able to traverse the landscape freely by land, water and air as the weather above you dynamically changes. Plus you can join up with up to three others to form a squad of adventurers.
This is the best free PS4 games list's answer to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and it does a good job of it. So if you're looking for an RPG with a focus on exploration and magical combat that also happens to be free, then you really should take a look at this one.
Download Genshin Impact from the PlayStation Store
4. Call of Duty: Warzone
You don't need to have another CoD game on your PS4 to access Warzone, the franchise's take on the battle royale genre, as it's a free download and doesn't require you to purchase the latest annual entry in the juggernaut shooter series.
When you boot up the game and dive out of the plane into the game map, you'll find yourself in a 150-player battle, on a huge island made of components taken from classic maps from the franchise. And when you take a fatal hit, you have a second chance in the form of the Gulag, a 1v1 match in a cramped environment against another player looking for a free rez.
Overall, there's plenty that this member of the best free PS4 games guide offers, enough to maybe convince a Fortnite or PUBG fan to try a different game for once.
Download Call of Duty Warzone from the PlayStation Store
5. Smite
Most MOBA games place you as an aerial observer of the battlefield, but Smite puts you right behind your chosen character, who will be one of hundreds of gods from pantheons around the world. You stride, pounce or fly into battle against opposing heroes and their minions to destroy their Titan and win the match, taking out towers along the way.
Smite is easy to pick up thanks to automatic settings for leveling your character’s abilities up and buying key items. but there’s plenty of depth and tactical enjoyment too once you turn off these settings, and look around the enormous 108 character roster for your favorite champions in each role. This MOBA/third-person action game combo is a unique experience among the best free PS4 games, and one that might help fans of its mixed-up genres appreciate the other.
Download Smite from the PlayStation Store
6. The First Descendant
The PS4 may be more than 10 years into its lifecycle, and well into its twilight period, but it's still getting new games, and most relevant to this list, new free-to-play games including The First Descendant, a much anticipated online looter-shooter.
Pitched as a "next-generation third-person co-op action RPG looter-shooter" this game is more than just a collection of vague buzzwords. You play a customizable avatar on a mission to stop a force of alien invaders, who have traveled across dimensions to bring destruction to your world. Battling for humanity, The First Descendant mixes cinematic shooting with a compelling loot grind. You can also experiment with multiple combat styles and traversal tools like a grappling hook.
Download The First Descendant from the PlayStation Store
7. PUBG: Battlegrounds
Several entries on this list owe a significant debt of gratitude to PUBG: Battlegrounds (or as you might know it PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds). This 2017 battle royale game basically kick-started the genre and led to a tidal wave of imitators including Fortnite, Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone.
Granted, PUBG was far from the first video game to throw dozens of players onto a large map and have them duke it out until only one is left standing, but it captured the cultural zeitgeist upon release. Its popularity has faded somewhat since with PUBG's imitators surpassing their inspiration in several key areas.
However, with a slower pace, lack of over-the-top hero abilities, and a more grounded tone, PUBG: Battlegrounds still has its place in a crowded market, and after going free-to-play in 2022 its player count remains consistently high.
Download PUBG: Battlegrounds from the PlayStation Store
8. Apex Legends
Set in the same universe as developer Respawn's popular shooter Titanfall, Apex Legends was announced and launched on the very same day back in 2019. Putting a fresh spin battle royale genre made popular by PUBG and Fortnite, Apex has changed a lot over the past five years but its core fundamentals of tight, tactical, first-person shooting gameplay and a strong focus on teamwork have remained.
Anybody familiar with the battle royale genre which instantly understand the core objective. Your goal is to be the last team of three standing from a starting pool of 20 (60 players total), but Apex Legends stands out against its rivals by allowing you to choose from distinct characters each with their own abilities (a la Overwatch). This creates endless possibilities for how you strategize with your team. The game's brilliant ping system lets you mark locations, weapons and enemies for your teammates without saying a word, and the smooth movement and gunplay feel great. The latter comes as no surprise, as Titanfall was a similarly slick shooter.
Download Apex Legends from the PlayStation Store
9. Fortnite Battle Royale
Fortnite really does need no introduction. It's dominated the gaming landscape to a degree not seen since Minecraft and has become more than just a video game. It's now a cultural touchstone that has been referenced, ripped-off and meme'd across multiple mediums from games to movies.
The Battle Royale fundamentals remain the same even seven years after its debut — 100 players parachute onto a battlefield and scavenge for weapons and supplies, then fight until there's one person or team left standing using base-building mechanics to score an advantage — but Fortnite has become so much more than a Battle Royale shooter.
Not only does it drop new content at a clip that other free-to-play cannot keep pace with, but it's also developed lore that fans delight in unraveling. Plus, Fortnite has become a platform itself, offering new experiences like a Lego survival game, or a Rocket League-inspired racing game. You can even watch a virtual concern with Fortnite. Like it or loathe it, it's hard not to be impressed by Fortnite's scale.
Download Fortnite from the PlayStation Store
10. Gwent
Remember Gwent, the card game from The Witcher 3 that you spent more time playing than you did tackling actual quests? That card game is now its own stand-alone experience, and one of the most addictive of the best free PS4 games we've listed. Building on the original Witcher 3 iteration, Gwent is a free-to-play collectible card game that's all about customizing your deck, summoning all kinds of cool attacks and spells, and outsmarting your opponent.
Even if you're not a fan of CD Projekt Red's high-fantasy universe, Gwent is one of the best free PS4 games for anyone who wants an addicting card battler. You'll need to position your cards carefully and play them wisely, otherwise you'll find yourself winning by a mile in the first round and losing the second and third. There's a choice of factions too to compliment your play style, meaning there's plenty to explore.
Download Gwent from the PlayStation Store
11. The Finals
To clear up any confusion, The Finals is not some sort of tedious exam simulator as the name might suggest. Instead, it's a free-to-play team-based shooter, and while that might sound fairly standard, what really sets this effort from Embark Studios apart is its highly destructible environments. You can smash through walls and ceilings and blow apart cover as you hunt down and eliminate your enemies.
While playing as a team is important, seeking individual glory is also encouraged here, and those who rank highly on the post-match leaderboard will be well rewarded with new weapons, gear and accessories. The gameplay relies heavily on a momentum-based transversal system that allows players to leap through the air, run along rooftops and use map elements such as ziplines and jump pads.
If you like fast-paced shooters, The Finals is a contest you'll want to compete in. Though, we could without the vaguely annoying announcers narrating our matches.
Download The Finals from the PlayStation Store
12. Paladins
It's easy to pass off Paladins as a cheap Overwatch clone at first glance, but this team-based shooter has its own special quirks — and as its inclusion on the best free PS4 games list suggests, it costs nothing to play. Paladins stands out from the hero-shooter crowd by letting you customize your character via collectible cards, adding an extra level of strategy to the game's tried-and-true objective-based combat. You'll either be capturing points, pushing payloads into your opponent's base, or just defeating as many as you can in straight-up combat, enhanced by a blend of fantasy/sci-fi themes and designs.
With a rich fantasy aesthetic and an ever-growing roster of champions, Paladins is a great team shooter for folks who don't want to pony up the cash for Overwatch or dive headfirst into the well-established community of Team Fortress 2 — or for those who need a break from either one.
Download Paladins from the PlayStation Store
13. Warframe
Warframe has been around since the PS4's launch, and it remains on the best free PS4 games list because it's still evolving. This online sci-fi shooter casts you as a futuristic space ninja who commands their own Warframe: a remote-controlled robo-suit that has its own distinct attacks and abilities. You can team up with friends to tackle the game's story missions or test your strength in competitive multiplayer, fighting across a Solar System of the far future.
Warframe is constantly getting new characters and content, such as customizable spaceships, open-world sections, cinematic quests and of course extra weapons. All this content makes this game a great pick for folks who want to loot and shoot their way through a bunch of cool-looking sci-fi worlds. It's great if you're community-minded too, with one of the busiest fanbases around and an annual fan expo too.
Download Warframe from the PlayStation Store
14. Rocket League
Rocket League is an easy game to wrap your head around, it’s soccer but with rocket-powered RC cars. But don't be fooled by its simple core premise, it’s one of the most mechanically deep games on this list. However, even with such a high skill ceiling, it still manages to be extremely newcomer-friendly thanks to its pick-up and play nature.
Originally launched as a paid game in 2015, in September 2020 Rocket League adopted a free-to-play model and now stands as one of the best free games on the PS4 (or any console for that matter). There are a variety of modes on offer, but the classic 3v3 matches are where you’ll likely gravitate too. Just be warned, once you’ve scored your first winning goal, you’re almost guaranteed to be hooked on Rocket League and might find yourself lacking the desire to play anything else for quite a while.
Download Rocket League from the PlayStation Store
15. Fall Guys
A delightfully silly take on the battle royale genre, Fall Guys lets you dress up an adorable bean character and then compete in hilariously high-concept obstacle courses and devilishly tricky mini-games in an attempt to be the last one standing and win a coveted golden crown.
Fall Guys might have a colorful cartoon aesthetic but it’s nevertheless a surprisingly intense experience when it comes down to the final stages of a match. However, its joyful comedic streak ensures that even when you’re eliminated in an early round, you’ll be laughing at the ridiculousness of the events that lead to your demise. This helps to avoid some of the frustrations that come with the battle royale genre.
If you’d rather step into the blunderdome with friends by your side, Fall Guys also offers a co-op mode. And the development team regularly releases limited-time events and periodically adds new courses and mini-games into the mix in order to keep things fresh and interesting for players.
Download Fall Guys from the PlayStation Store
How to choose the best free PS4 game for you
If you like the sound of one of the best free PS4 games we've put on this list, here are a few questions you can think over before hitting the download button.
One of the best ways to get a feel of what a game is about is to simply check the genre. While there's no reason why a game that's not like anything you've played before won't be to your tastes, it's worth checking what type of game each title labels itself as. It will give you a good idea of what mechanics to expect, so you aren't blindsided by a complicated combo system or left unsatisfied by a simplistic control scheme.
Some games give you everything they have to offer from the start, and hope you like them enough to spend some real money on them. Others are cut-down versions of paid products, which may result in locked-off content. Either way, it's likely that going for the free option means missing out on something If it's going to bother you not having access to all parts of the game, then steer clear or keep your credit card handy to rectify the situation.
The most crucial tip however is: don't get invested if it isn't fun. These are the best free PS4 games after all, with an emphasis on free. There's no price to pay and no consequences if you don't like one of these games after trying it out. Don't feel committed to a game you're not enjoying especially when you've not paid upfront.
