What are the best kids games on PS5? Many video games target a more mature audience, but there are just as many aimed at children. The good news is that there are lots of fantastic family-friendly experiences on PS5 that can be enjoyed at all ages.
Whether you're looking for something simple to engage the little ones or a game that kids and grown-ups can enjoy together, there are lots of options and so much variety. In fact, the PS5 itself comes with the brilliant Astro's Playroom pre-installed, and that's a perfect kid-friendly game to start you off. Beyond that, Sony has produced charming, colourful adventures like Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
That's just the tip of the iceberg; other child-friendly games that spring to mind are Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Fall Guys, and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. There are many options to go for — even just in the realm of indie games, we have stuff like Human Fall Flat, Bugsnax, and Overcooked: All You Can Eat.
This list looks at the best kids games on PS5, but we need your help to determine what those are. This feature is fuelled by your user ratings — they directly impact which games appear here, and in what order. You can leave your rating on any game on the site, and these ensure our lists are representative of our community's tastes. Use the search bar below to find some family-friendly games, then use the star to leave some ratings.
A game will need at least 50 ratings before it'll appear here at all. If your favourite kid-friendly game isn't here, it probably just needs more ratings.
Without further ado, here are the best kids games on PS5, chosen by our readers.
15. Sonic Frontiers (PS5)
With Sonic Frontiers, SEGA decided to play with the traditional formula of the hedgehog's 3D outings, and the result is one of his strongest adventures in a long time. While certainly not without its flaws, this open world spin on the speedy character is refreshing, giving him ample room to run and plenty of opportunities to engage in bite-size platforming challenges. Most importantly, Sonic feels nimble and fun to control — most of the time, anyway. There's definitely some rough edges here, but it's ultimately an enjoyable game that fans of the franchise will adore.
14. Bugsnax (PS5)
Bugsnax might have won people over with a catchy theme song, but it's far more than just that. It lures you in with its whimsical style and silly concept, and then quickly subverts expectations with surprisingly emotional story beats. Your main tasks in the game are to catch the titular creatures and find out what happened to the leader of an expedition to the island. Figuring out how to capture each Bugsnak is fun, collecting them is addictive, and learning more about the colourful cast will keep you engaged. It's a unique flavour combo, but it works.
13. Hot Wheels Unleashed (PS5)
If you've ever owned a toy car or two, Hot Wheels Unleashed will hold some appeal. Coming from Milestone, the studio known for its motorbike racing titles like MotoGP and RIDE, this game sees the Italian team go in a brand new direction. This is a colourful arcade racer, pitting those die-cast vehicles against each other on that famous bright orange track across various settings. The handling is excellent and provides some surprisingly competitive and gratifying racing, while the courses are treacherous, winding things that see you driving on the ceiling and through the air. The game is impressively robust too, with a big campaign, split-screen and online multiplayer, a full track editor, and hundreds of cars to collect. If you're a fan of Hot Wheels, or just arcade racing games generally, this is worth checking out.
12. OlliOlli World (PS5)
OlliOlli World is the third entry in Roll7's side-scrolling skateboarding series, and it takes things in a brilliant new direction. The gameplay is about the same, tasking you with pulling off tricks with the left stick as you speed through each level. However, the addictive, score-chasing core that keeps you hooked is wrapped in new layers that make it far more appealing. A cel-shaded look is complemented by a chilled out soundtrack and an eclectic range of characters, making for far more pleasant presentation. Full customisation gives you much more control of your skater's look, and asynchronous multiplayer gives you a practically limitless supply of stages to master. A compulsive and fun-loving take on the extreme sport.
11. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (PS5)
The force is strong with this one. While there have been several instalments in the past, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the culmination of TT Games' previous efforts. Encompassing all nine mainline movies, this is a huge platformer adventure featuring all the most iconic sequences you remember from the big screen. When you're not progressing the story, it turns into a sandbox, letting you explore myriad locations from the films and play as one of hundreds of characters. Its gameplay is also more modern than the older LEGO Star Wars titles, sharpening up shooting and making combat more exciting. There's so much to see and do here that Star Wars fans need not play anything else for a while.
Comments 21
Astro's playroom is a big winner for me. The kids love it!
Great topic and list!
My son loves Astro’s Playroom. He’s gotten over 40 hours of it this year and it’s the first game he’d ever beaten on his own. He was five years old at the time of completion. He still plays it all the time. He plays Sackboy a lot too.
I do think Minecraft should be on this list. If Crash is on here, Psychonauts 2 definitely should be. Wattam and Katamari are good for the kids too. And Dreams has some wonderful stuff for kids, as long as you can find the right stuff. Stray isn’t a bad one either for kids.
It’s really interesting watching kids play. They play to experience worlds so genuinely. There’s no thought about beating things or getting decent scores, but just getting immersed and story sensing. I sometimes wish I was better at that, myself.
Get ready for a detailed explanation from a respected member of this community why at least half of the games listed here are not suitable for children at all, lol.
Sack Boy is an absolute blast. Its such a fun couch co op, and three player games of it are some of the best times I've had in the last few years.
Initial levels are pretty cookie cutter, but later levels introduce some great mechanics and really good level design. A great family game - or even a fun time for a group of 50yo+ adults like you'll find in my front room!
Clearly whoever put up this list has no kids and haven't tried giving them to play some of these games. Some of these are either way too hard, or quite dark for children.
Bit out there but Tren within dreams is abit of a winner in our house. I wish this was released outside of dreams.
Sonic superstars doesn't make the top 15 🤔
Having young children Half those games under 10yr old can't play.
For example crash 4 is way to difficult
@Matter “ has no kids ”
Strong possibility.😂 Plus kids is a broad category, we’re all somebody’s kid, and my kids game a lot different at 18 & 21 than they did at 3 & 6. A lot less Pokemon now.🤪
Roblox not being on the list makes it kind of… outdated? 🤷🏻♂️ Same for Disney Speedstorm which I play too much but my kids won’t play with me.😢
@Dr-zoidburg You’re talking about Crash 4 being too hard, but saying Sonic Superstars should be on here? Crash 4’s levels are harder, but those bosses in Sonic Superstars ruin the game with their seemingly random difficulty spike. Sonic Mania, on the other hand, I’d say is great fun for kids. Sonic Frontiers too. With regards to this list, my son is 6 and has tried all of these games without much difficulty, outside Among Us and Fortnite. He didn’t like them all, but could play them all to the extent where he either liked them or didn’t, based on preference. Kids can learn games pretty quickly, I’d say.
@Afroducc Tren is absolutely a gem for kids (and adults too). Totally agree. I’d have bought this one as a standalone, even after playing in Dreams. It’s definitely making it to my year-end list and my son loves it. We actually ended up playing it collaboratively where he’d play easier levels while I was at work and then show me what he did and then I’d play the hard ones. Really fun! If it was stand alone, I’d argue it being my favorite Media Molecule game of all time perhaps.
@somnambulance I totally agree with you... It's my favourite thing out of Media Molecule aswell.
I actually think this is what that studio should become, releasing super creative smaller titles to compliment the big releases from the other Sony studios. Tren is such high quality fun. I've shown a few friends who are bigger on the PC side and they've all loved it. It's criminal it's not more accessible, I'm positive it would kill on steam.
@somnambulance hi, I was wondering why the user score was so low on sonic superstars! Think it's on 3 or something.
Just shocked me a bit.
Totally agree with what your saying, myself and my daughter had a blast playing streets of rage 4 together, were as some kids would find it too tough.
I guess we all have different gaming abilities no matter what age we are.
I'd still say crash 4 is too tough lol, well it was for me 😂
The later levels of Crash 4 were ‘extreme difficultly’ or something. I almost gave up, it was so frustrating. The early levels are fun though.
Astro’s Playroom is one of my favourite games ever and we’ll deserving of top spot.
I think Fortnite should be higher though.
These games are all regular video games that have a whimsical art design that makes them look unoffensive and suitable for many ages. Some of the games deal with themes that are more for grown-ups and some have very advanced gameplay techniques. I think we need to decide who "children" are when it comes to lists like this.
Granted you can let a young child loose in most of these games without needing to worry about much blood, sex, violence, or scary stuff, but I would hardly call any of them "children's" games
Bluey: The Video Game, Paw Patrol World, Bratz, Inspector Gadget. These are children's games.
Now if we are talking pre-teens and teens up to 15 these games on the list a fantastic if you don't want your kids engaging in video game violence.
@Dr-zoidburg Yeah, Sonic Superstars might be my personal biggest disappointment of 2023. It’s weird though because I love the level design. The co-op is truly awful though and the bosses are bizarrely difficult in comparison to the breezy difficulty of the stages. It’s like whiplash, even in the early levels. I’ve been playing Sonic games for ages and it’s another example of a confused Sonic game. It was so close to great, but so far away. Crash 4 is a bit easier than Sonic Superstars, but only because of the bosses! Lol
@Afroducc 100% agree with everything you said. I feel like the game is so under the radar because it’s in Dreams. If it would’ve gotten a bit more proper press and a standalone, I think it could have been a bonafide hit. Revealing it was made in Dreams rather than saying it’s the final salvo for the app could’ve honestly gotten more people excited about Dreams as a whole too. Honestly feels like Media Molecule didn’t quite know what to do with Dreams to make it hit right. It deserved better.
This list has me Dreaming of a full on 15hr ps5 "astrobot" game.
The installed demo on ps5 is the closest thing to a 3d mario game regarding thoughtful level design that just plain fun that puts a smile on your face
@somnambulance oh really! The kids want to get me sonic superstars for Christmas so got to hold out.
They should have split the screen on co-op, would have changed the gameplay completely
@Dr-zoidburg Totally agree. Sonic Team tends to make bizarre choices that make you wonder if they even tried the game before they launched it. And, if they did try it, did they really like that!? Lol
I played kids games only so I know which kids games to play so ask me if you need some recommendations for kids games on PS5.
all those are adult games, kids nowadays won't play anything not called Fornite, League of Legends or Call of Duty
Meh, okay list but "kids" is a very broad subject. Only like 3 or 4 of these games are what I would consider 'real' kids & family-friendly titles, the rest are too 'dark' and/or too difficult.
I love bugsnax it's not really a kidsgame storywise get the real ending it's so worth it.
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