The best space games on PS5 and what each one costs today

Twenty-two pages in our PS5 catalogue carry Steam's Space tag and have a live offer today. All twenty-two are below, and each name comes with the same two things: the Steam verdict of the PC version, given as a raw count instead of a percentage, and what the PS5 page is charging right now.

Steam does not collect reviews from console releases. The verdict you read here always belongs to the PC version of the same game, never to the PlayStation one, and where the sample is too small to mean much I say so.

The prices come from our own pages, with any discount code we display already applied.

Account, PSN code or disc: what the lowest price actually buys

On PS5 the smallest number on a page is almost never a copy of the game. Three different things sit together in the same list, and it is worth pulling them apart before you look at a single figure.

An offer labelled Account is a username and a password for a PlayStation account that somebody else created with the game already on it. Difmark, GamesPSN, Kinguin and G2A sell most of them, and they are the cheapest thing on nearly every page here. The game never lands in your profile, and the day the owner changes the password you are left with a receipt.

A PSN code is the one you redeem on your own account, and on PS5 it is oddly rare: out of these twenty-two games only three have a code with fresh data behind it, and two of those three are US region, which a European account cannot redeem at all.

Then there is the disc, the box from Amazon, Media Markt, Fnac or PCcomponentes. It is the usual way of owning one of these games on PS5, and often the only one.

The count is blunt. In twenty of the twenty-two the cheapest offer is a shared account, and in three of them - No Man's Sky, Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection and Citizen Sleeper 2 - there is nothing else on the page whatsoever. That is why every entry below carries two prices: the lowest one you will see, and the first one that leaves the game yours.

Co-op firefights a long way from home

HELLDIVERS 2 is the shooter that turned a directional code on the D-pad into a reflex. You punch it in, something falls from orbit, and sometimes it falls on the squadmate who was standing there, because friendly fire never switches off. Four players, a galactic war that keeps moving between your sessions, and a difficulty curve that rewards discipline far more than aim. Mostly Positive on Steam, 636,512 of 837,516. Its PS5 page has 10 offers from 8 shops: the cheapest is a GamesPSN account at €6.37, with Kinguin at €18.90, Difmark at €18.99 and G2A at €19.41. The first disc is Amazon UK at €19.77, then Amazon FR €29.99, Amazon DE €31.99 and PCcomponentes €34.90.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 puts a hundred Tyranids on screen at once and asks you to hold a courtyard with a chainsword and a bolt rifle. Executions hand your armour back, so the whole loop pushes you into the swarm rather than behind a wall. The campaign takes three players and the Operations mode is what keeps people there months later. Very Positive, 140,177 of 166,877. 8 offers from 8 shops. Accounts run from €12.55 at GamesPSN, then Difmark €14.99, Kinguin €19.30 and G2A €19.78. The disc starts at €29.90 on Amazon ES, with Amazon DE at €32.90 and Amazon FR at €35.79.

Returnal is Housemarque's bullet hell rebuilt as a third-person roguelike, and it remains the game that used the DualSense triggers best. Selene dies, the loop restarts, Atropos rearranges itself, and an hour of good progress can end in a single corridor. Nobody should buy it hoping it will be gentle. Mostly Positive, 5,190 of 6,569. 8 offers from 6 shops: account from €4.85 at GamesPSN, Difmark €5.79, Kinguin €10.55, G2A €11.13. The first PSN code is Eneba at €16.79 and it is US region, so a European account cannot use it; Kinguin's at €24.40 is US as well.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is twelve players against the swarm, welding walls, digging in and holding an extraction point until the dropship comes. It is rough at the edges and completely honest about what it is. Very Positive, 23,762 of 29,702. It is one of only two entries here where the cheapest offer really is a copy. Amazon DE has the disc at €10.99 while Difmark's account asks €17.49. Amazon UK lists a UK box at €17.43, Amazon FR €22.23 and Amazon ES €25.20, and Kinguin has a European PSN code at €35.00. 6 offers from 6 shops.

Horror with a hull around it

Dead Space rebuilds the Ishimura as one continuous ship with no loading screens between decks, gives Isaac a voice and keeps dismemberment as the only thing that actually kills anything. The zero-g sections are proper flight this time. Very Positive, 56,337 of 62,597. 8 offers from 7 shops: GamesPSN account €5.36, Difmark €6.39, Kinguin €13.14, G2A €15.44. The disc starts at €20.80 at PCcomponentes, then Amazon FR €27.99 and Amazon DE €28.27.

The Callisto Protocol is the best looking prison in science fiction and the most repetitive fight in this section. The dodge-and-swing melee has you waving a stun baton at the same three creatures for hours, and Steam is not kind about it: Mixed, 23,163 of 35,095. Only 3 offers. Difmark's account is €5.99 and G2A's €8.90; the single copy that ends up yours is the Amazon FR Day One edition at €29.61.

System Shock keeps Citadel Station's maze exactly as unhelpful as it was, with no quest markers, wireframe cyberspace and SHODAN sneering at you from every screen. Nightdive rebuilt the art and left the design alone, which is the brave choice. Very Positive, 8,781 of 9,757. 4 offers: Kinguin's account is €12.20 and Difmark's €12.49, while the disc starts at €25.54 on Amazon DE with Amazon FR at €34.62.

Fort Solis is four hours on a Mars station with Roger Clark and Troy Baker carrying the dialogue. It looks superb and it walks very slowly, and the Mixed verdict - 1,568 of 2,272 - comes from people who sat down expecting a game rather than a performance. 6 offers from 5 shops: Difmark's account is €10.49 and Kinguin's €13.17, the Limited edition disc at Amazon DE is €20.14, Amazon ES asks €39.50 and Amazon FR €44.71.

The Star Wars shelf

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is bigger than its predecessor in every direction: Koboh is a real open area, the five stances genuinely change how a duel goes, and the traversal finally stops fighting you. It also launched with performance problems that the Steam sample still remembers. Mostly Positive, 56,605 of 79,725. 9 offers from 7 shops: GamesPSN account €5.41, Difmark €6.45, Kinguin €11.24, G2A €14.41. The disc starts at €17.43 on Amazon UK, with Amazon ES and Amazon DE both at €19.99.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the one that got the formula right first: planets built like a Metroidvania, a stamina duel every few minutes, and BD-1 clicking on your shoulder. Very Positive, 135,152 of 153,582. Only 3 offers, and the spread is the widest here by far. Difmark's account is €5.99, Kinguin's €7.87, and the only box left is Amazon FR at €50.99. Forty-five euros between somebody else's login and a copy of your own.

Star Wars Outlaws lets you be a small-time crook between the films, with Nix lifting things off tables and four syndicates keeping score of who you have annoyed this week. The stealth is stricter than most players want it to be. Mostly Positive, 8,620 of 12,141. 7 offers from 5 shops: GamesPSN account €12.35, Kinguin €13.73, Difmark €14.89. Media Markt ES has the disc at €18.99, which is €6.64 above the cheapest account: for a game this recent, that is a short gap to close.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is the shooter that introduced Kyle Katarn and the first Dark Trooper, brought back by Nightdive with modern resolutions and a controller layout that works. The level design is pure key hunting from the era before mouselook was standard, and it holds up better than that sounds. Very Positive, 1,101 of 1,223. 3 offers: Difmark's account is €14.99, Fnac ES has the disc at €19.99 and Media Markt ES at €22.99.

Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection is the worst verdict on this page and it earned it: Mostly Negative, 1,638 of 7,123. The collection arrived with servers that did not hold, content missing from the box and a technical state nobody had signed off on, and the goodwill of two very well liked shooters went with it. There are 2 offers and both are accounts, Difmark at €23.99 and Kinguin at €31.65. At that money, with that verdict and with no copy you can keep, my advice is to skip it.

Staying alive out there

No Man's Sky shipped broken and spent a decade being repaired in public, one free update at a time, until the survival loop, the freighters, the base building and the multiplayer all worked. Very Positive now, 259,088 of 312,154. Buying it on PS5 is the awkward part: 3 offers and all three are accounts, Difmark €10.49, Consogame €17.89, G2A €23.87. Neither a code nor a disc with fresh data appears on our PS5 page.

Breathedge is Subnautica in orbit with a comedian at the wheel. You scavenge a debris field around a funeral ship with an immortal chicken for company, and the jokes never stop, which will either carry you through or wear you out by the second hour. The crafting underneath is solid. Very Positive, 11,926 of 14,544. 4 offers: Difmark's account is €7.49, the disc starts at €19.90 on Amazon FR, then Amazon ES €29.65 and Amazon DE €43.96.

Terraformers is a compact strategy game about warming Mars: you place cities, pick leaders, spend a limited number of turns on oxygen, temperature and pressure, and lose runs to arithmetic rather than to bad luck. Very Positive, 2,663 of 3,026. 5 offers, and the region matters. Difmark's account is €4.09; Kinguin lists a PSN code at €6.99 but it is US region, and the European one, also Kinguin, is €13.29. That is the cheapest PSN code on this whole list that a European account will actually take.

The Alters hands you one survivor and a base full of alternative versions of him, each grown from a decision he did not take. They cook, they argue, they hold grudges, and the management layer works because every worker is an argument you are having with yourself. Very Positive, 13,628 of 15,142. 5 offers: Difmark's account is €27.49 and the disc starts at €29.98 on Amazon FR, with Amazon UK €34.92 and Amazon ES €39.77. Saving €2.49 is not worth somebody else's password.

Slower science fiction, the kind you read

The Invincible adapts Stanisław Lem and keeps the part adaptations usually drop, which is the argument. You are a scientist on Regis III with valve radios and reel-to-reel tape, and most of the game is walking, looking and deciding what to say over the radio. Very Positive, 8,584 of 9,867. 5 offers: Difmark's account is €23.49, the disc starts at €33.44 on Amazon ES, then Amazon FR €33.66 and Amazon UK €38.70.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is dice, clocks and contracts. You wake in a body that legally belongs to a corporation, roll your dice at the start of each cycle and spend them on jobs that decay while you work, and the crew you assemble is the real progression. Very Positive, 2,122 of 2,332. It has exactly 1 offer and it is an account, Difmark at €12.49. On PS5, through our comparison, there is currently no way to own it.

STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R rebuilds a PlayStation RPG in 2.5D, sprites on modelled dioramas, and keeps what made the original odd: real-time battles you can break wide open, and private actions between towns that quietly decide which ending you get. Very Positive, 2,963 of 3,221. Only 2 offers: the account at €23.39 and the disc at €33.90.

Two big names that come with warnings

Starfield has Bethesda's largest map and its most divided audience. The ship builder is genuinely good and the gunplay is the best the studio has written; the loading screens between everything and the procedurally filled planets are what dragged it to Mixed, 66,757 of 115,099. 5 offers from 4 shops: Difmark's account is €32.99 and Kinguin's €33.45, the disc starts at €38.19 at PCcomponentes and Fnac ES asks €44.99. Kinguin also lists a European Premium Edition at €99.00, which at that price has no defence.

Surviving Mars: Pioneer is a colony builder trimmed down for a controller: drones, domes, oxygen and the slow arithmetic of keeping people breathing. The Steam verdict is Very Positive but it rests on 64 reviews out of 77, a sample small enough that I would treat it as an opinion rather than a consensus. 2 offers, and here the account is the expensive one: the copy costs €13.60 and the account €19.99.

If you want one thing from all of this: read the word next to the price before you read the price. Account means somebody else's login and a game that never becomes yours. A PSN code means a region, and the region has to match your account. A disc has neither problem, and on PS5 it is very often the only honest way in.

For company, Helldivers 2 is still the easiest recommendation on the list, and the Amazon UK disc at €19.77 is the number I would pay rather than the €6.37 account above it - buy HELLDIVERS 2 key only when the offer says code or box. On a small budget, Starship Troopers: Extermination at €10.99 and Surviving Mars: Pioneer at €13.60 are the two games here where the cheapest thing on the page is already a copy you keep.

Luis Abrines

I have been a gamer for as long as I can remember, and for the last 14 years I have been making life easier for other gamers. CEO and co-founder of Gocdkeys.

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