Sony has named the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for October 2026: F1 25, Hunt: Showdown 1896 and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2. All three go live for every PS Plus tier, Essential included, on Tuesday, October 6, and can be added to your library until Monday, November 2. It's a spread built for playing with other people: a racing game with a new squad mode, a three-player extraction shooter, and a voxel co-op game that supports couch split-screen.
The October 2026 lineup at a glance
Here is what arrives on October 6, and which consoles each game covers:
- F1 25 (PS5): EA Sports and Codemasters' official game of the 2025 Formula One season.
- Hunt: Showdown 1896 (PS5): Crytek's PvPvE bounty-hunting extraction shooter.
- Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 (PS5 and PS4): the blocky spin-off of the long-running EDF series.
Two of the three are PS5-only, so PS4 owners on Essential get just the EDF game this month. Sony's usual caveat applies too: the Monthly Games can vary by region, so check PlayStation Store on the day to be sure.
F1 25: run the team, or race as a squad
F1 25 is the headline. It's built on the 2025 championship, with that year's cars, drivers and calendar, and it gives single-player fans two long-form modes. Career takes you through the paddock as a driver, and My Team 2.0 puts you in the owner's chair, running a Formula 1 outfit from the budget up. Online, F1 World adds a new multiplayer mode where you and your friends race as a squad against AI-controlled drivers instead of against each other. That's a gentler way into online racing for anyone who has been burned by lobby chaos.
Timing matters here. A new season's game has usually taken over by the time a racing title lands on PS Plus, so F1 25 fits as a low-cost way into Codemasters' handling model rather than the current season.
Hunt: Showdown 1896: bounties, monsters and other players
Hunt: Showdown 1896 is the one most likely to eat your month. Crytek's extraction shooter sends you into swampy, cursed backwaters to track down a boss monster, banish it and escape with the bounty. Every other team on the map wants that same bounty. You can go in solo or squad up in teams of up to three. Dying costs you the Hunter you brought in, and that risk is what makes every firefight tense.
The game is getting a push around its PS Plus debut. Sony's HorrorFest promotion includes a Hunt: Showdown 1896 Starter Pack for PS Plus members, landing on October 6, the same day the game goes free. So new players get the base game and a bundle of extra gear together. Like all the HorrorFest packs, it needs the base game, which Essential members will have that week anyway.
Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2: EDF, rebuilt in blocks
The third pick is the odd one out, and the only one on PS4 as well as PS5. World Brothers 2 turns the EDF formula into voxels: the planet is literally square, your teammates are scattered around it waiting to be rescued, and you build a four-soldier squad from the characters you've collected. The roster mixes soldiers from the mainline EDF games with ones from its spin-offs. Classic enemies return as blocky redesigns, next to new threats made for this game.
It's also the most co-op-friendly game in the set: four-player online co-op, plus two-player local split-screen on both PS5 and PS4. Local split-screen is getting rare, which makes this a good fit for a household with one console.
Last call for September's games
If you haven't claimed the September lineup yet, you have until Monday, October 5. That means Sniper Elite: Resistance, MLB The Show 26, Wobbly Life and Chained Echoes. Once a Monthly Game is in your library, it stays playable for as long as your PS Plus subscription is active.
The other PS Plus extras in October
Alongside the games, Sony is running its HorrorFest packs of horror-themed in-game items for PS Plus members. The Call of Duty: Warzone Horror Bundle arrives first on October 1, the Hunt pack follows on October 6, and an Overwatch 2 Dragur Reinhardt skin with five Tier Skips comes on October 7. Each needs the matching base game.
There's also a film tie-in. Spider-Man: Brand New Day comes to Sony Pictures Core on October 6, and PS Plus members can claim limited-edition avatars from the film in the app at no extra cost until the offer closes on October 20.
So the dates to remember are October 5 to claim September's games and October 6 for October's. All three new games stay claimable until November 2.
