PlayStation Plus May 2025 Monthly Games: ARK, Balatro, Boltgun

Sony has officially revealed the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup for May 2025. This month, subscribers will get access to ARK: Survival Ascended, Balatro, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun.

All three titles are solid additions to your PS Plus collection. ARK: Survival Ascended is a full remaster of the 2015 survival game ARK: Survival Evolved. Then there’s Boltgun, a fantastic first-person shooter that fully embraces the classic DOOM aesthetic. Lastly, we have Balatro, one of the nominees for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024. It may sound like a simple card game on the surface, but once you understand its mechanics, it’s easy to lose hours to its addictive loop.

PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for May 2025

Here’s a quick summary of each title, courtesy of PlayStation:

Ark: Survival Ascended | PS5

Are you ready to form a tribe, tame and breed hundreds of species of dinosaurs and other primeval creatures, explore, craft, build, and fight your way to the top of the food-chain? Your new world awaits in this survival sim, reimagined from the ground-up with Unreal Engine 5, with high-end graphic features, advanced physics systems and quality of life revamps in every area. Ark: Survival Ascended includes access to all of Ark’s worlds, including Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, Ark Genesis Part 1, Ark Genesis Part 2, and more. The game supports public online multiplayer for up to 70 players, private-session multiplayer for up to 8 players, and local split-screen for 2 players.

Balatro | PS5, PS4 

In this poker-inspired roguelike deck builder, it’s all creating powerful synergies and winning big. Play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers and trigger outrageous combos in this roguelike strategy experience. Combine valid poker hands with unique joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante and secure victory.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun | PS5, PS4 

Load up your Boltgun and plunge into battle headfirst! Experience a perfect blend of Warhammer 40,000, classic, frenetic FPS gameplay and the stylish visuals of your favourite 90’s retro shooters. Play a battle-hardened Space Marine on a perilous mission across the galaxy, as they battle against the Chaos Space Marines and daemons of Chaos. In glorious boomer shooter style, unleash your devastating Space Marine arsenal as you blast through an explosion of sprites, pixels and blood. Run, jump and charge across huge levels to shoot, shred and slice the worst heretics across the galaxy!

These games will be available to all PlayStation Plus subscribers from May 6 to June 2.

If you haven’t already, be sure to grab April’s PS Plus Monthly Games — RoboCop: Rogue City, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory — before they leave the service on May 5.

What’s the Difference Between Monthly Games and the Game Catalog?

It can still be confusing, so here’s the breakdown:

• Monthly Games are available to all PlayStation Plus subscribers (Essential, Extra, and Premium). Once you claim them, they’re yours to keep in your library for as long as you remain subscribed — there’s no expiration date.

• The Game Catalog (and Classic Catalog) is only available to Extra and Premium subscribers. These libraries offer a rotating selection of games, which can be played while they’re available. However, unlike Monthly Games, titles in the catalog can leave the service, meaning you lose access even if you’re still subscribed.

For May, over 20 games are set to leave PS Plus — so be sure to check what’s on the way out.

In case you missed it, here are the new games added to the Game and Classic Catalogs for April 2025.

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