The Best PS5 Games of 2021
One ranking built from 8 major year-end lists. Every list awards points by position — #1 earns 100, #2 earns 99, and so on — then each game’s points are averaged across all 8 lists to produce its Review Rank Score. This edition keeps the same consensus order and shows only the games playable on PS5.
SOURCES: POLYGON · GAME INFORMER · GAMESRADAR+ · TIME · THE A.V. CLUB · SLANT MAGAZINE · DIGITAL TRENDS · PASTE · COMPILED 2026-07-09 · NON-2021 RELEASES ON SOURCE LISTS EXCLUDED
Points follow position: pts = 101 − rank on each list. The Review Rank Score is a game’s total divided by the number of lists surveyed (8), so missing a list counts as zero — consensus beats a single high placement. Ties break by list appearances, then best single position. Positions were captured to each list’s published depth shown below; games released outside 2021 that appeared inside longer eligibility windows keep their slot on the source list but are excluded here. Platform membership follows RAWG’s platform tags for each game’s matched release — the games from 2021 playable on PS5 today, so later ports count and last-gen-only versions don’t.