Can You Play PS3 Games On PS5? Absolutely, Here's How!

Playing the latest titles like God of War-Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West etc can be really fun to play on your PlayStation 5. Yet, sometimes you may want to get back to the older games and play on your PS5 to feel nostalgic.

While the PS5 is known to be backward compatible, there is confusion regarding its ability to run PS3 titles.

So, in this article, I will clear out the doubts—whether you can play PS3 on your PS5 and how.

Let’s begin!

Can You Run PS3 Games on PS5?

Unfortunately, PS5 doesn’t have native support for PS3 games. Meaning you can’t just insert your PS3 game’s disc into your PS5 and expect it to play like PS4 backwards compatible games.

However, you can subscribe to PlayStation Now membership and stream PS3 games on PS5 online. The PS Plus membership in PSN allows you a very limited number of famous PS3 titles— that too is only available for regions 1 & 2 of PSN.

Here are some of the popular PS3 titles active in PS Plus: 

Sony has advertised PlayStation as a backward-compatible console. But unfortunately, it fails to support any physical copies(CD) or digital versions of the PS3 game. It’s mainly due to the complicated architecture of the PlayStation 3.

PS5 finds it extremely difficult to directly run the PS3 titles smoothly. Sadly, Sony does not develop any fixes for this issue.

However, as an alternative, Sony has launched cloud streaming for PS3 games. Though, there are still some obstacles as well.

The main problem is that you can only stream PS3 games from PSN. You can not download them on your PlayStation console. Plus, the internet is a must, and you can never play games offline.

Now that you understand the ability to support PS3 games on PS5 through PS Now, read the next section to know the step-by-step process.

Also, check out the easiest way to fix PS3: error 80028F10 you cannot play.

How to Play PS3 Titles on PS5

You must subscribe to a monthly PS Plus Premium or PS Now plan to play PlayStation 3 games on PlayStation 5. The PSN account must be in regions 1 or 2 and connected to a Stable internet connection. Only then, you can stream PS3 games from the cloud library smoothly.

Let’s discuss all the steps briefly so that you can understand better.

Here are the steps to stream PS3 games on PS5:

Step 1: Get a Stable Internet Connection

As you can not natively download PS3 games and your only option is to stream through the PSN cloud server, a stable internet connection is a must.

Sony officially recommends a broadband connection higher than 5Mbps internet speed in order to use cloud streaming on your PS4, PS5, or PC. Furthermore, they stated that the internet speed for 1080p resolution game streaming should be approximately 15Mbps.

You can either use a Wired connection or Wi–Fi. But my personal suggestion would be to use a cable connection to receive stable latency.

Here’s a complete guide on how to fix PS5 not downloading games.

Step 2: Create a PSN Account in Region 1 or 2

To stream games from the PSN cloud server, you must create a region 1 Or 2 PSN account. Such accounts have the option to buy PS Plus premium tier.

Here are the region 1 and 2 that support the PS Plus Premium tier:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.

If you are not living in region 1 or 2 countries, you can use any certified and trusted VPN to connect to their country’s IP. Then, you can proceed to create a new PSN account.

Follow these steps to create a region 1 or 2 PSN account:

• Set up a VPN connection. The USA is mostly recommended.
• Launch your PS5 and navigate to Home Screen.
• Choose Add Profile button next to Settings.
• Press Get Started and Agree to the Terms of Use.
• Select Create an Account.
• Add the necessary details to open the PSN account.

Note: Region 3 PSN account has PS Plus deluxe subscription instead of the PS Plus Premium tier. There you will get every feature except cloud streaming.

Check our exclusive tutorial on the fastest DNS servers for PlayStation5.

Step 3: Buy PS Plus Subscription

After you have successfully created a PSN account in region 1 or 2, you need to buy a PS Plus monthly subscription.

PS Plus Premium tier costs $18 monthly. On the Premium tier, you will get 500+ games from the PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and even PSP.

The option to purchase the plan is available directly on the PS5 home screen. Go to the PlayStation store and then Subscription. Add your account details and Buy the PS Plus subscription.

Step 4: Browse the Catalog and Start Playing

After subscribing to the PS Plus membership, you can now browse the PS cloud for various games and play your desired games.

Here’s how to play PS3 games from PSN:

• Power on your PS5 and log into your PSN account.
• Choose PS Plus Premium.
• Select Collections.
• Browse the Classics Catalog.
• Choose PS3.
• Pick any game you like and enter the game page.
• Press the Stream button to play the game.

Your selected game will start streaming. As long as you have steady internet, the response time and the delay remain constantly low. Thus, you can enjoy PS5 titles on your PS5 without any lag.

Quickly check out our epic guide on how long do PS5 Controllers last.

FAQs

Why can’t I play PS3 games on PS5?

PS5 don’t support PS3 game discs or Digital version directly. Without the PlayStation Plus subscription, you can not play PS3 games on your PS5.

Can I run a PS3 disc into PS5?

No, you can not run physical disc copies into a PS5.

Can I play PS4 games on PS5?

Yes. PS5 is backward compatible with PS4. So, you can play PS4 games on your PS5 directly through CDs or by downloading digital versions.

Bottom Line

Promised as the Next-Gen gaming console, PS5 was supposed to deliver the best backward compatibility for the PS1.PS2 & PS3 games. Yet, it fails to do so, and you are stuck with streaming the old titles from PlayStation Now.

Hopefully, you found this guide helpful and now know the proper way to run PS3 games on your PS5.

For further questions on PlayStation, feel free to comment down below.