What are the best open world games on PS5? One of the most common ways a game is structured these days is with an open world setting, giving you the freedom to explore its map with no restraints. They're very popular and have been for years, the result being a tonne of large scale, free-roaming titles with lots to see and do.
Open world games can come in all shapes and sizes, whether it's an enormous, sprawling epic like Elden Ring or GTA 5, or a more condensed sandbox experience like Judgment. The common thread, however big the games are, is an immersive world to get lost in, usually with no loading screens, letting you soak in the sights and explore at your own pace.
Some of them take you to real-world locations, such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla's tour of ninth century England, while others will immerse you in fantastical landscapes — Skyrim, Immortals Fenyx Rising, and many others fill that role. Whatever your choice, the best open world games on PS5 offer unparalleled freedom to toy with your surroundings and just exist in these virtual spaces.
While we can talk up the benefits of an open world all day, you're on this page for a reason: you want to know which are the best PS5 has to offer. Fortunately, we have a list just below that ranks the best open world games on PS5. The best part is that this list is driven entirely by you, our readers. You can find your favourite PS5 open world games with the search bar below and rate them accordingly, and these ratings will directly influence the order of titles on display.
It's worth noting that a game will need at least 50 ratings before it pops up on this page. If there are any glaring holes in this list, it might just be that the game hasn't been rated enough times yet.
Let's waste no more time: here are the best open world games on PS5, as rated and ranked by you.
20. Riders Republic (PS5)
A game that brings something a little different to the sports genre on the PS5, Riders Republic is a Ubisoft open world game with a cycling/skiing/wingsuiting skin. A massively multiplayer online sandbox, filled with both silly and serious challenges, this game is colossal in scale – something it underpins with its outrageous Mass Race competitions. It can look a little ugly and its too-cool-for-school style will grate, but cycling down mountains at 100kmph is still an exhilarating experience.
19. Far Cry 6 (PS5)
After a few forgettable entries, Far Cry 6 found the fun again. Of course, there’s an undeniable familiarity here: you play as Dani – either male or female – and must work alongside a ragtag group of guerrillas to liberate the beautiful landscape of Yara from the rule of a menacing dictator named Antón Castillo. But while the core formula remains intact, there’s fun to be found in the emergent combat gauntlets and DIY armaments, with a backpack rocket launcher and Walkman assault rifle among some of the highlights. If you’re ever in need of open world comfort food, then you can’t really go wrong here.
18. Dying Light 2 (PS5)
The original Dying Light game might have gone under the radar critically, but it certainly sold impressively well on PS4. As such, expectations were high for this PS5 sequel, with developer Techland promising all sorts of narrative choices and intriguing story beats. And while the finished product didn't live up to those claims, the actual open world title is still a fun one. Looking for something to turn your brain off to and start slicing and dicing the undead? You can't do much better than Dying Light 2. Complete with an awesome parkour moveset, traversal has never felt this good.
17. Assassin's Creed Valhalla (PS5)
In a lot of ways, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is like a blend of Origins and Odyssey. Like Origins, there's much more focus on storytelling in this epic Viking saga. But like Odyssey, Valhalla leans heavily on expanded RPG mechanics, such as levelling up, equipment, and skill trees. You play as Eivor, a vision-haunted Viking warrior who leaves Norway to establish a new home in 9th century England. Featuring a lush open world stuffed with all kinds of landmarks and secrets, Valhalla is a real time-sink of a game, but its story-driven acts offer up some of the best characters and narrative beats in the entire series.
16. The Pathless (PS5)
The Pathless lives up to its name with a gorgeous open world to explore, but it's how you get around that sets this adventure apart. Playing as an archer, firing arrows at targets dotted throughout the map provide you a speed boost, letting you blitz through the natural environments and mysterious ruins with amazing flow. This traversal leads you to discover the secrets of a corrupted world, and you'll solve puzzles and tackle fearsome creatures in your quest to cleanse the land. A beautiful game in many ways, this is quietly one of PS5's best.
15. Immortals Fenyx Rising (PS5)
Developed primarily by the team that crafted the gigantic Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Immortals Fenyx Rising is an open world fantasy RPG with an emphasis on fluid combat and puzzle solving. You play as the customisable Fenyx — a hero tasked with ridding the realm of a corruption spread by Typhon — a key figure in Greek mythology. In fact, Immortals is heavily based on Greek myth, but the story's told through humorous character interactions and offbeat narration. As such, it can be a fun adventure for players of all ages.
14. No Man's Sky (PS5)
The initially rough reception of No Man's Sky can safely be put to bed. Hello Games has stayed fully committed to its procedurally generated space exploration adventure, fleshing it out with a staggering number of huge updates. Not only does the game look and run much better these days, it's bursting with things to see and do, and that's without considering the 18 quintillion planets waiting to be discovered. The PS5 release is the best version you can play on console, too, with minimised load times, great DualSense integration, and now even optional PSVR2 support.
13. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition (PS5)
One of the most enduring games in history, Bethesda's iconic RPG comes to PS5 with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Anniversary Edition. What's more, it's quite simply the best version of Skyrim to ever grace a PlayStation console. This is a real cut above previous versions (which were often riddled with bugs), offering a mostly locked 60 frames-per-second at 4K resolution. It's taken a decade, but Bethesda has finally delivered a smooth experience with this PS5 release — and crucially, the game is still a fantastic, enormous RPG well worth playing today.
12. Cyberpunk 2077 (PS5)
Following a disastrous PS4 launch, Cyberpunk 2077 might as well have been a brand new game on PS5 over a year later. CD Projekt Red stuck to its guns, delivering a much improved version of the open world RPG on Sony's current-gen console, free of the game-breaking bugs and crashing issues that plagued the initial release. The result is memorable and often engrossing dark future title, peppered with great characters, punchy combat, and some excellent freeform mission design. Better late than never!
11. Metro Exodus (PS5)
4A Games' post-apocalyptic adventure Metro Exodus feels like it was meant for PS5, with silky smooth performance, great looking ray-traced graphics, and complete DualSense functionality. While some flaws of the original release do persist — those accents! — there's a lot to like about this game on Sony's current-gen system. Featuring loads of tense story moments and some super atmospheric exploration, this train ride through the Russian wasteland makes for a memorable journey.
Comments (43)
Personal Top 5
1, Horizon Forbidden West
2, Elden Ring
3, Ghost of Tsushima
4, Tales of Arise
5, Immortals Fenyx Rising
Also Atelier Ryza 2 deserves a mention
For me it's Spider-Man by a mile. It's the only game that I've fully completed and still play just to travel around the world for 10-15 minutes of relaxation.
I need to play so many of these games! I'm currently playing through AC Valhalla & absolutely love it 😍
I personally think HFW has a great story. Clocked more then 200hr now. At my second run through and still discovering new things. Can’t stop playing. Doctor I have a problem! 🙃 Edit: 200hr in total that is.
Yonder the Cloud Catcher Chronicles: Enhanced Edition PS5
Cartoonish Open world game by indie developer Prideful Sloth with beautiful environments without any violence at all, totally 100% Safe for kids. 🤟
Metro Exodus is a cracking Game.....No Man's Sky good too...but my fav open world game has to be Fallout 4.
I can't see how elden ring is not the number one title on every list. It's virtually flawless in my opinion and the only game to really hook me in years
I've really enjoyed HFW for the most part. Loved the story and it looks amazing. Going for the Plat though and really not liking some of the side contact. Genuinely detest melee pits and hunting grounds.
@BadPlayerOne such a great game and I really like what they did this time around. The platinum was easy too! I still have my fingers crossed for some co-op!
I’m really enjoying Ghostwire: Tokyo as an open world game. Tons of collectibles and exploration. And the variety of side missions is very nice. 26 hours in and not even half way on the spirits collected.
So no gta v? Now there is a ps5 version shouldnt it have made the list? And before anybody says "this is a ps5 list" no mans sky is on there...as much as i think gta v has been milked to death its still the most fun open world enviroment on the ps4/ps5..
I have no idea how Ghost and Spider-Man which are both really great games are ahead of Horizon Forbidden West and and Elden Ring. If anything Ghost and Spider-Man should be 3 and 4 with Horizon at 1 and Elden at 2.
@LazyLombax yeah same here that should have def made the list. It’s open world is so unique and the sidequests stories range from funny and quirky to dark and depressing and are well worth doing
@Pinkman yeah no it’s not flawless no game is. The open world did more harm than good,it’s gets super repetitive halfway through because all you’re doing is fighting,the bosses are some of Froms worst and range from mediocre to outright bad especially the final final boss,tons of repeated bosses and content and it’s janky as heck. Now with all that said it’s still a great game that I throughly enjoyed getting the plat for in 105 hours doing almost everything there is to do and should have been at number 2 on this list right behind Horizon but just like Horizon it’s not flawless.
@BadPlayerOne yeah the story is absolutely great and the main premise is so damn unique for a sci fi story I just love that game to death.
@UltimateOtaku91 almost my same list except Spider-Man is at number 4 and Miles at 5 for me.
A bit unfair towards Elden Ring and Horizon FW, imo, they are rather new and possibly missing some votes (my guess is not all people finished them, they didn't have enough time to enter the gamers "Preference" department, to replace some of the older titles people are still fond of).
It's surprising to see Immortals Fenyx Rising topple AC Valhalla and Skyrim... unexpected.
My top 7 would be:
1. Horizon FW
2. Elden Ring
3. Spider-Man Remastered/Miles Morales
4. Ghost of Tsushima
5. Metro Exodus
6. Far Cry 6
7. AC Valhalla
Days Gone is superb on the PS5, silky smooth and looks amazing.
@StuartMc1 completely agree with this. Looks amazing on PS5, overall a great game as well, super underrated.
Ghost of Tsushima is the only game I did everything the game had to offer. And I still wish I had reason to come back to the game. Most open world games I just do the main quests, a bit of side stuff, and that’s it. Others I don’t even finish (Valhalla).
I respectfully disagree. Both Horizon Forbidden West & Miles Morales should be higher on the list.
I wouldn't have Ghost of Tsushima top, even on PS4 I preferred Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn and Death Stranding, it had a good main quest but its open world left a lot to be desired with its many bandit camps.
So far on PS5 I've finished Miles Morales but it's incredibly short for an open world game so would have its predecessor above it. I'm very early in Horizon but I'm already really enjoying its combat as much as the first and it looks stunning
How the hell is Elden Ring only 5?!? The best open world game bar none.
@BadPlayerOne I clocked in at 180+ hours in one single playthrough. Easily the longest I've spent in a single-player game.
RDR2 is the best that I've played but HFW is a close second.
If it's all about the actual open world you play in then RDR2 and Cyberpunk 2077 are far beyond all the rest, in my opinion.
Haven't played forbidden west yet but if its story isn't as good as the first that would be disappointing , i thought zero dawn story was weak at times , the frozen wilds dlc was a huge step up in story imo.
I'm probably in the minority but i agree with this list. GoT is just the epitome of a good open world game for me and both morales and forbidden west are great.
I don't really get all the 'elden ring should be 1', i've played it and it's a decent game, but people act like it's the best game ever and it's far from it.
It really does nothing new in terms of open world and it even got quite boring at certain points. I had way more fun playing bloodborne and the demon's souls remake, which makes me believe that open world is actually a step down for souls-like games.
My Top 5:
1. Spider-Man Remastered
2. Spider-Man Miles Morales
3. GTA-V
4. Elden Ring
5. Horizon Forbidden West
Havn't completed all these games but still played enough to know about the game.
@ApostateMage but Cyberpunk's open world is barren and unresponsive ☹️
Got is open world done correctly, when witcher3 comes on ps5 it will definitely be in this list
It would be interesting to see a list of the best "open worlds in games" and not the "open world games".
Metro Exodus is NOT an open world game.
I've come to realize, there are a few, if any, truly open-world or sandbox games. Even games like gta v or fable, give you a starting point, and checkpoints in between to progress the story and finally to a conclusion that is predetermined for us. Its linearity, with wide open spaces. Gta v, for example, could you beat the singleplayer game without ever switching characters?
Will there ever be a game, with thousands of possible endings, all achieved through sheer randomness?
Uh, Metro Exodus is NOT an OPEN WORLD GAME!!!!!!!!! It is still level based with open levels!!!!!!! You can't lose any more credibility by claiming a game is an open world game when it is level based!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I started with Cyberpunk 2077 last week but I’m very overwhelmed to the point of almost quitting. The difficult menus, the gameplay, the confusing story… I just don’t know where to look and what to do. Whereas normally I really like to find my own way in (open world) games.
Elden Ring should be number 1 by far. Only RDR2 and BOTW can compete if we go into other consoles territory.
How is Days gone not on this!
I’m glad the honeymoon shine is off hfw and er so push square is back on Ghost of Tsushima as the best! Crucify me, but I have to agree
@Pinkman Elden ring is not better than ghost of Tsushima….. but, I don’t really agree with the assessment of the writer that it’s on the ps5. It’s optimized for the ps5 but it’s a ps4 game(so is most of this list).
I’d be fine if it were in front of hfw, a great game, but a touch overrated
@godofwarj5 my issue with Ghost of Tsushima was the grind at the end. Its my biggest complaint with most open world games, and is to be expected given the size of them. I never felt that grind with Elden Ring.
@Pinkman I felt the opposite. Every souls game feels like a grind whereas after my first ghost play through I checked to see if the platinum was reasonable (I typically just play the game and then debate if I want to trophy hunt after I beat it) … to my surprise, I only had about 15mins of odds and ends to clean up to platinum. I literally adored every second of it.
I’ll stand by my assessment that ghost is overall a better game but Elden ring is actually a ps5 game and should be above ghost on the list and maybe ghost shouldn’t be on this list
This list is automatically disqualified as legitimate; Metro Exodus is a level based game (though a few levels have open world elements). Who is/are the person/people who put this list together?
Can we please move past Skyrim?
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