What’s the difference between PS Now and PS Plus?

PlayStation Plus News

PlayStation Now (also known as PS Now) and PlayStation Plus are both subscription services offered by Sony. However, many PlayStation owners get them mixed up and subscribe to the wrong service by mistake; especially given that both services have the same pricing ($9.99 per month; $24.99 every 3 months; $59.99 per year). This article explains what both services offer and how they are different.

PlayStation Now

PS Now is often summed up as “Netflix for games.” It allows you to stream games from a library of over 800 PS4, PS3, and PS2 titles to your PS4 or PS5 console, or your PC. Unlike Netflix, it also allows you to download all PS4 and PS2 games on the service to your console (not your PC), which is handy if your internet connection is slow. New PS4 games are added each month, although a few titles are made available on a time-limited basis, usually 3-6 months.

To summarize, PS Now offers:

  • A library of over 800 PS4, PS3, and PS2 games to stream to your PlayStation console or PC (note: the number of games available differs based on the country of your PSN account).
  • All PS4 and PS2 games available on PS Now can be downloaded to your PlayStation console (about 400 titles in total).
  • 4-6 new PS4 games are added to the service each month.
  • Online features (e.g., competitive multiplayer) of PlayStation Now games are available without requiring an additional PS Plus subscription.
  • All games are only available to play while you have an active PlayStation Now subscription.
  • PS Now is currently available in North America, Europe, and Japan (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA).
  • PS Now offers a 7-day free trial to give the service a test drive.

PlayStation Plus

PS Plus enables access to online multiplayer gaming along with additional benefits, such as monthly free games, discounts on the PlayStation Store, and cloud storage for game saves. PlayStation 5 owners also get access to the PS Plus Collection; a curated library of 20 AAA games, with more games planned to be added in the future.

To summarize, PS Plus offers:

  • Access to online multiplayer gaming (note: not required for free-to-play games such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, World of Tanks, and Spellbreak).
  • 2-3 free PS4 and PS5 games per month, which are available to download and play while you have an active PS Plus subscription.
  • Access to the PS Plus Collection of games for PlayStation 5 owners (not available on PS4).
  • Access to exclusive PlayStation Store discounts.
  • 100GB of cloud storage for game saves.
  • Access to in-game help for PS5 games that support this feature.
  • Exclusive content for free-to-play games, such as cosmetics, skins, and other bonuses.
  • Share Play, which enables a friend to view your game from their PlayStation console for up to 60 minutes at a time.
  • PS Plus is available worldwide.
  • PS Plus offers a free 14-day trial to try it out.

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