PS Plus Monthly Games for January 2026 Wish List

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With a fantastic year for gaming wrapping up, players are already excited about 2026. While everyone is talking about upcoming games like Grand Theft Auto 6 and Marvel’s Wolverine, PlayStation Plus offers a reliable way to get new games and help pass the time until those big releases. Looking at the last three Januarys, PlayStation Plus subscribers have good reason to expect another strong lineup of games very soon.

As a PlayStation Plus subscriber, I’ve been pretty happy with the free games they’ve been giving away! January 2023 was awesome with Jedi: Fallen Order, Fallout 76, and Axiom Verge 2, and last year’s January lineup – Plague Tale: Requiem, Evil West, and Nobody Saves the World – was great too. Even though Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League was a bit controversial this January, they did add Deathstroke as a playable character beforehand, which was cool. Plus, getting Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe alongside it made for a really fun mix of games. If Sony wants to keep people like me – especially those who just renewed their subscriptions after the holidays – excited, I think the games listed below would be a fantastic choice!

PS Plus Free Games For January 2026 Wish List — Red Dead Redemption 2

Read Game Rant’s Review of Red Dead Redemption 2

While PlayStation Plus will eventually stop offering PS4 games, starting in January 2026 as it shifts to focus on free PS5 games, the beginning of that year could be a great time to play older titles one last time. If rumors are true and a next-gen update for Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming, now is a perfect opportunity to get the game on the basic (Essential) tier of PS Plus. With Red Dead Redemption already added to the Extra tier in December, and Sony’s history of supporting Rockstar games (like with GTA 5), making Red Dead Redemption 2 available to Essential subscribers would make a lot of sense. Whether players are discovering Arthur Morgan’s story for the first time or revisiting the Wild West, it would be a fantastic game to kick off the first Essential lineup of 2026.

So, they gave Red Dead Redemption a little visual upgrade when they brought it to newer consoles, and honestly, it’s just made all of us Red Dead 2 players even more impatient for a version that runs at a smooth 60 frames per second on consoles. We’re really hoping Rockstar hears our pleas!

  • Explore an incredibly detailed open-world on foot or on horseback, complete with third-person shooting mechanics.
  • Experience a master-class story filled with memorable characters, a powerful soundtrack, and emotional moments that hit hard.
  • Enjoy an entertaining multiplayer experience via Red Dead Online, which is fairly deep despite not receiving nearly as much support as GTA Online.

PS Plus Free Games For January 2026 Wish List – Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Check out Kingdom Come: Deliverance on Open Critic

Following the recent Game Awards nominations for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, including a nod for Game of the Year, many players are eager to learn Henry’s story. While a four-hour trial of KCD2 is available for Premium subscribers, it’s best to start with the original game to experience the complete narrative. Kingdom Come: Deliverance recently returned to PS Plus, this time as part of the Essential tier, likely to encourage players to check out the acclaimed sequel. Although the first game’s graphics aren’t as modern as KCD2’s, its strengths far outweigh this minor drawback.

  • Enjoy a unique focus on realism, with difficult sword combat, challenging survival mechanics, and a slow rise from peasant to knight.
  • Explore an immersive Bohemian world that truly nails its goal of historical accuracy.
  • Experience the origins of Henry of Skalitz and his companions, characters that gamers have fallen in love with.

PS Plus Free Games For January 2026 Wish List — The Alters

Read Game Rant’s Review of The Alters

PlayStation Plus usually includes two big-name games and a smaller title, and The Alters would be a great fit for that last spot. This critically acclaimed game is currently on sale on both Steam and the PlayStation Store – often a sign it’s coming to a subscription service. While The Alters takes around 20 hours to complete – much shorter than the other featured games – that makes it a perfect addition, offering a break from longer, more demanding titles. PlayStation Plus benefits from including shorter games, as we’ve seen with some of the free games offered in December 2025. The Alters is an engaging experience, and the different versions of the main character, Jan Dolski, are sure to leave a lasting impression and encourage players to play through it again.

  • Experience a memorable narrative full of difficult choices and mature dialogue.
  • Enjoy stressful-but-satisfying management gameplay where clone needs and resources must be carefully juggled.
  • Explore a memorable sci-fi world that will keep gamers coming back for more.

January 2026 Wish List For PS Plus Extra and Premium

  • Psychonauts — While its Game of the Year-nominated sequel was a PS Plus Essential game in September, the platforming classic that preceded it is currently unavailable in the Classics Catalog. That should change, as the wacky world and characters Raz interacts with deserve to be appreciated by as many gamers as possible.
  • InFamous 1 and 2 — Considering how long PlayStation Plus and Extra have existed, it feels criminal that Cole MacGrath’s story remains inaccessible. With seemingly no hope for remasters or sequels on the horizon, the best fans of these edgy, interesting superhero tales can hope for is that they join PS Plus.
  • Resistance Trilogy — While the first two Resistance games were available on PS Plus for a time, they suddenly left the game catalog in mid-2025. This had some fans hopeful for a Resistance remaster that leverages the DualSense controller, but much like InFamous, this feels like a pipe dream. Hopefully, these memorable FPS games return to the service soon, bringing the satisfying threequel along for the ride.
  • Killzone Trilogy — Not only does the Classic Catalog give PlayStation a chance to do better by humanity’s war against the Chimera, but the Helghast conflict deserves more love, too. Somehow, the PSP game Killzone: Liberation is on the service, but the original—and more importantly, its two spectacular sequels—are nowhere to be found. Before Guerrilla began its work on the Horizon series, it shined with these underrated FPS games, and letting newer fans enjoy some of the studio’s older work would be worthwhile.
  • InFamous: Second Son — While InFamous getting some attention in the Classics Catalog is more pressing, why not go all in and bring Second Son to the Game Catalog? It’s come and gone several times, and currently, only First Light—a short spin-off focused on a Second Son character—is available. This is truly strange, assaid character’s story feels incomplete without the gorgeous game full of bold powers that preceded it.
  • Dead Space — While EA Motive’s brilliant remake of the 2008 horror classic was an Essential PlayStation Plus title back in 2024, significant time will have passed between that point in time and January 2026. Anybody who missed out on the game should get a second chance to snag it via the Games Catalog, as everyone should be able to feel the awesome power of the Plasma Cutter and the unbridled fear of encountering the Regenerator.
  • Furi — This brilliant indie from Cairn developer The Game Breakers was free for PS Plus nearly a decade ago, meaning it’s long overdue for a second coming on the platform. A bold mix of bullet hell and action combat, the game is essentially a challenging boss rush with a brilliant art style. It also received a PS5 upgrade a few years back with a DLC and several improvements, ensuring that a re-release via the Game Catalog would be justified.
  • Nex Machina — A very different bullet hell experience from Housemarque, the developer of Returnal and upcoming PS5 exclusive Saros. Before the studio was making big-budget titles, it was the king of small-scale twin-stick shooters, with Nex Machina being a swan song for this era of Housemarque games. Brilliant music and responsive controls come together to make this shmup a forgotten gem that the Games Catalog can shed some new light on.

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2025-12-19 16:05