Every PlayStation Console, Ranked

Photo by Nikita Kostrykin on Unsplash Published Aug 9, 2026, 8:21 AM EDT Writing from the Chicagoland area in Illinois, Robert is an avid movie watcher and will take just about any excuse to find time to go to his local movie theaters. Robert graduated from Bradley University with degrees in Journalism and Game Design with a minor in Film Studies. Robert tries his best to keep up with all the latest movie releases, from those released in theaters to those released on streaming. While he doesn't always keep up with the latest TV shows, he makes it a goal to watch nearly every major new release possible. He has been honing his craft and following any and all movie news all his life, leading up to now, where he has a vast knowledge of film and film history. He also logs every movie that he watches on his Letterboxd page, and has hosted a weekly online movie night with his closest friends for over 6 years. Sign in to your Collider account Sony's distinct line of PlayStation consoles has proven to be some of the most important and massively successful video game consoles of all time, with many of them completely revolutionizing their industry in the wake of their success and influence. Between the five home consoles and two handheld consoles, PlayStation has cemented itself as one of the pillars of the video game industry that has largely continued into the modern day. However, not every console with the PlayStation banner is created equally, as certain consoles have had an overwhelmingly larger staying power and impact on wider culture and video games as a medium. Whether it be the varying quality of the game releases or the impact of the technological improvements upon release, there are many different facets that go into the lasting legacy and strengths of each PlayStation console. Each console has its fans, as none of these consoles are truly bad; it's just that some of them are clearly more well-regarded by gamers and the public at large. 7 PlayStation Vita (2011—2019) Photo by Aleks Dorohovich on Unsplash The PlayStation Vita is a sad case of potential that was simply outmatched by the offerings of other handheld consoles. PlayStation's final handheld console certainly has its strengths, with some good tech and memorable cult classic indie games, but in terms of what Sony envisioned the console to be, it severely underperformed. The hardware was too expensive, the prospects of backwards compatibility weren't nearly explored, and so much of the console's hopes and dreams were placed on the performance of middling, unenjoyable AAA experiences. Especially with the increasing dominance of mobile games, the Vita's failures proved to be enough of a reason for Sony to completely abandon creating true handheld consoles, focusing entirely on home console experiences. Still, the handheld has its dedicated fans for this game, with a comfortable controller and a digital storefront of top-notch indies giving gamers a great high-end portable gaming experience before the likes of the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck. 6 PlayStation 5 (2020—Present) Photo by Amanz on Unsplash It's hard to get a full grasp on the legacy of the PlayStation 5, considering the fact that the console is still getting releases as the current PlayStation console. However, shifts in the gaming industry and confusing decisions by Sony have really put a damper on the staying power of the console, especially when it was already following up the massively memorable PlayStation 4. So much of the console's difficulties trace back to the larger focus on PC gaming than ever before, as nearly all the PlayStation 5 exclusives have managed to find their way to PC after enough time. It's proven to largely eliminate the identity of the PS5 as its own entity, as while it may be outperforming the Xbox Series X, that only goes a long way when 90% of its best games can be played by other means. What really cements the lower placement of the PS5, however, is Sony's recent shift away from physical discs and leaning into an all-digital strategy that has resulted in overwhelming backlash from all fronts. It isn't without its great games — and, in fact, offers some of the best PS games of the 2020s — but it's a far cry from the legacy that PlayStation has maintained throughout the years. 5 PlayStation 3 (2006–2017) Photo by Nikita Kostrykin on Unsplash The PlayStation 3 is the perfect example of how the launch of a console does not paint the entire story of a console's lifespan, as the console transformed and evolved after one of the worst console launches of all time into a genuinely respectable competitor to the Xbox 360. With a shockingly high initial price point and a lack of real system-selling experiences, early impressions were certainly lackluster, with Sony actually losing their dominance in the console market to Microsoft for the first and only time. The PlayStation 3 soon grew to be an exceptional competitor thanks to a wide array of great first-party experiences as well as more third parties growing used to the initially difficult confines of the PS3 development hardware. Games like The Last of Us, LittleBigPlanet, and the Uncharted Trilogy helped save the reputation of the console and ushered in a new generation of PlayStation fans. Its initial hiccups prevent it from having a higher place, but the console still has a special place in the hearts of many PlayStation gamers. Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would BeYour Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️Rambo 🍸James Bond 🏺Indiana Jones 🔧John McClane 🎭Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of. ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up. NEXT QUESTION → 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together. AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one. AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse. RamboYour partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. James BondYour partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing. Indiana JonesYour partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them. John McClaneYour partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay. Ethan HuntYour partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 4 PlayStation Portable (2004–2014) Photo by Dennis Cortés on Unsplash PlayStation's first foray into the handheld gaming marketplace, the PlayStation Portable, proved that Nintendo wasn't the only capable of creating a great portable gaming experience, creating a more gamer-centric handheld experience that held its own against the monolithic titan of the Nintendo DS. The PSP is defined by its surprisingly effective tech for a handheld as well as its great library of original games, with several of these games proving to be so great that they eventually got ported over to home consoles. The console also had a built-in interface and hardware that allowed users to not just play games on the device, but also watch movies, listen to music, and view photos to create an effective all-in-one experience, especially in an era before true smartphones. There is a great deal of nostalgia and passion for the PSP as it was truly pushing the potential of handheld consoles forward in the wake of its success, even if it never ended up being as successful as the Nintendo DS. 3 PlayStation (1996–2006) Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Unsplash PlayStation as a brand simply wouldn't exist without the console that started it all, as the strengths and dynamic features of the console took the world by storm and made for a true competitor to the pre-existing titans of the industry. With dynamic 3D 32-bit graphics and a catalog of some of the absolute greatest video games of the '90s, a massive chunk of PlayStation's legacy stems back to just how well they captured the hearts of gamers on their first console outing. Many fan-favorite PlayStation franchises saw their first entries on this console, while many highly celebrated third-party franchises reached new heights of quality on the console as well. The console still has an undeniable legacy all these years later, not just because it's the first PlayStation, but because of just how timeless and exceptional so many of the gaming experiences on the console were and still are today. Any console would be considered one of the greatest of all time when it features games like Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and Crash Bandicoot. It speaks volumes that despite being their first console, the original PlayStation still managed to be the best-selling console of the 5th generation of consoles, with its focus on young adults instead of children paying dividends to the PlayStation brand as a whole. 2 PlayStation 4 (2013—2024) Photo by Fabian Albert on Unsplash With Microsoft arguably winning the previous console generation, Sony had a lot to prove with the PlayStation 4 to prove that they were still one of the masters of home console gaming. What resulted is one of the most shining and impactful eras in PlayStation history, pushing the brand and reputation of the console to new heights and with a glorious upgrade in graphical fidelity. For many modern gamers, the PlayStation 4 is the defining PlayStation console, as it featured many of Sony's most celebrated gaming experiences and overwhelmingly dominated the eighth generation of consoles. The console did an exceptional job of appealing to exactly what gamers were wanting out of the industry at the time, with an embracing of third-party and indie games while also supplying its own array of top-notch first-party experiences. It's an absolute classic console that was the premier way to experience many of the best games of the 2010s. It easily deserves a placement ranking among the greatest consoles of all time, although it only comes just short of the peak of what PlayStation is capable of as a dominating force in home console gaming. 1 PlayStation 2 (2000–2013) Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash It's impossible to understate just how much of a cultural powerhouse the PlayStation 2 was, being so effective as a home console that it almost single-handedly reshaped the industry in the wake of its success. With so many great games, massive leaps in technological capabilities, and the versatility of having a built-in DVD player, it's no wonder the console became the best-selling video game console of all time. Even after the PlayStation 3 had been released, many gamers continued enjoying playing on the PS2 and utilizing it, as it really did have everything one would want out of a PlayStation experience. PlayStation's legacy and reputation as a titan of the industry may not have started with the PS2, but it was absolutely cemented in the wake of its success, proving that they were far from a one-time fluke but a continuous, dominating force in the industry. From system-selling exclusives like God of War and Ratchet and Clank to amazing third-party games like Resident Evil 4 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the quality on PS2 was simply unmatched.