PS Plus Essential Gets 2024’s Award-Winning Hit in May

Now that another month has passed, another slate of free PlayStation Plus games has been announced. Available for all subscribers, May 2025‘s additions feature a solid list of PS4 and PS5 games, one of which is an award-winning game from last year.

What are the PS Plus Essential freebies for May 2025?

The free PS Plus games for May 2025 are Ark: Survival Ascended (PS5), Balatro (PS5, PS4), and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (PS5, PS4). Essential, Extra, and Premium subscribers can grab these three games at no additional cost beginning on May 6. The offer ends on June 2.

Balatro is far and away the most exciting game that is part of the PS Plus free games lineup for May 2025. Developed by LocalThunk and published by Playstack, this poker roguelike has garnered critical acclaim since it launched last year. According to review aggregate site Metacritic, it received an average score of 90 across 32 critic reviews.

Balatro also received several awards by the end of 2024. At The Game Awards 2024, it won Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, and Best Mobile Game, as well as getting nominated for Game of the Year. It actually won the coveted GOTY award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. Considering how well received it was last year, this is a welcome surprise for PS Plus subscribers.

Ark: Survival Ascended is a remaster of Ark: Survival Evolved. It may not be as lauded as Balatro, but it is an incredibly popular survival game that might get PS Plus subscribers excited. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a first-person shooter clearly inspired by the 1993 classic Doom and was generally received well when it was originally released. All in all, May 2025 seems like a pretty decent month for the PS Plus free games lineup.

As three games enter, another three leave. The April 2025 lineup, which included RoboCop: Rogue City, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory, can still be redeemed until May 5. Then, the offer will no longer be available.

It was recently leaked that the Until Dawn remaster would be a PS Plus game. With today’s formal reveal, that does not seem to be the case.

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