6 Reasons Why You Should Buy A Used PlayStation 5 In 2026

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The first half of 2026 was a roller coaster for the gaming industry. While this year is littered with a bevy of incredible titles that are more than worthy of being Game of the Year (GOTY) contenders, not everything has been sunshine and roses. The trend of layoffs continues to plague the AAA industry, and the AI boom has turned once-affordable parts like RAM and graphics cards into ultra-luxury products that will cost an arm and a leg to acquire. If you haven't upgraded your gaming system in a while, then the prices for the latest hardware will make your eyes water because of how ridiculously expensive things have become. The $1,049 price for the Steam Machine is just absurd — although it's hard to blame Valve for this. The continuous price hikes for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X — along with an announced price hike for the newly released Nintendo Switch 2 as well — aren't great news for any gaming enthusiast, either.

However, there's a way you can circumvent these massive price leaps and get your hands on an affordable PS5, as long as you don't mind purchasing a secondhand product. If you have any reservations about forking out money for a used PlayStation 5, keep in mind that most reliable resellers perform quality checks and give guarantees to ensure that your investment in a cheaper gaming console doesn't go to waste within a few weeks. In fact, an argument can be made that buying a secondhand PlayStation 5 may just be the smartest decision you can make right now to enjoy your hobby, especially given the current state of the gaming industry. Here are some of the reasons that may be true.

We've already mentioned how expensive gaming has become for a regular customer, but the sheer intensity of these price hikes is genuinely staggering to behold. The global RAM crisis is so acute that, by the middle of 2026, the price of these parts had exploded to almost four times what they cost a year earlier. That's especially worrying given how prices had already been increasing for the past few years, anyway! GPU prices have also fallen victim to this AI boom, with most flagship graphics cards seeing a price hike of around 50 percent when compared to their launch MSRP. Even solid-state drives (SSDs) aren't safe, costing 20 times more than their HDD counterparts. We wouldn't blame you if you decided that longer loading times are worth the money you save, but this isn't ideal when you just want to get on with playing your games.

However, when it comes to secondhand PS5s, it's entirely possible to find people selling models that they bought at the launch of this console. It's a device that has faced two price hikes over the course of its run, but you may just find a secondhand seller who is willing to sell their older unit at its launch price or lower. As long as the console runs smoothly — which it should, since most PlayStation 5 owners say the system lasts for a long time — and can play all your favorite games, age shouldn't be a real deterrent. Manage those expectations, and you just may end up with a powerful console, which happens to run a state-of-the-art SSD, for a price that won't make you tear your hair out.

Sony's goodwill in the industry has never been lower, courtesy of their infamous blog post in early July 2026 declaring that the company will stop releasing games on physical media starting in 2028. It's a horrible anti-consumer decision that puts the very notion of game ownership in doubt, with people being forced to rely on digital purchases that Sony — or any company that owns these games — could potentially make null and void at any given moment. Many consumers feel that purchasing digital media should be a choice, instead of something that gamers are forced into, which has led to tremendous uproar. While industry backlash to this announcement has been immense, Sony may just wait for this wave of criticism to blow over as they pursue their original plan.

For what it's worth, January 2028 is still relatively far off, so anyone who wants to enjoy the last Sony generation that supports physical media will be more than happy with their investment in a secondhand PlayStation 5 Disc Edition. Alternatively, a used PlayStation 5 Pro with the disc drive is arguably the best model you can buy. This way, not only can you get your hands on physical copies of the latest games — including any valuable Collector's Editions — but you can also dip your toe in an active secondhand market for PS5 games that will let you play quality titles at dirt-cheap rates. It's this very market that Sony is threatening to kabosh in 2028, so there's no better time than now to maximize your savings and play a bunch of secondhand PS5 — or PS4 — games before the company closes the chapter on physical media for good.

With multiple controllers, consoles, and other accessories that people buy and discard, the unfortunate reality is that the gaming industry contributes a significant amount to the world's growing e-waste problem. Almost 54 million metric tons of e-waste were generated in 2023 alone, with industry analysts predicting that this amount will cross the 80-million-ton mark by 2030. Every customer can play a part in reducing e-waste, and purchasing secondhand electronic goods instead of shelling out a ton of cash for a brand new product is a great way to adopt a sustainable approach.

Even if you think that your contribution is minimal, every little bit helps. The current pricing practices in the tech industry seem unsustainable and, coupled with the ongoing RAM shortage, will make the launch of any new product a tougher sell than normal for console manufacturers. Chances are, then, that the used PS5 you get your hands on will remain a premier product for quite some time, with some analysts continuing to predict a 2028 (or even 2029) launch date for PlayStation 6.

Most people who sell their PS5 usually go all out. Unless they're planning to upgrade from the base PS5 to a PS5 Slim or Pro, there's no point in keeping the DualSense controllers, all the physical games they've purchased, and any other accessories they've acquired to get the most out of their PlayStation 5. What this means is that most people sell a used PS5 along with all the additional goodies for a very attractive overall price, wanting to either go cold turkey and leave gaming altogether or focus on an entirely different gaming platform instead.

Either way, it's a win-win situation for you. Instead of having to spend a small fortune on a PS5 console, multiple controllers, and the games you want to check out, you can just snag a good bundle deal while helping the seller move on to their next gaming endeavor. If you want, the money you save on extras can help you upgrade your system later on, as we'll discuss next.

Most of the secondhand PS5s you'll find on the market are the standard 825-gigabyte model that came out at launch, which may seem like a decent amount of space for your games ... until you remember that most modern AAA games are so massive that 100-gigabyte file sizes have, unfortunately enough, become the norm. Couple this with the fact that only 667 gigabytes of space in the base model is actually usable for game storage, and you'll eventually find yourself in a situation where you can barely fit six or seven high-profile games before your PlayStation 5 begs you to either free more storage space or abandon the idea of installing a game you paid money for.

Thankfully, one thing you might not know your PlayStation 5 can do is let you expand its storage if you decide to install a compatible M.2 SSD (solid-state drive). Even though the prices of SSDs are currently on the rise, spending $320 on a high-quality 1-terabyte Samsung 990 Pro isn't totally unreasonable, especially if you've saved money on a good deal for a used PS5. In fact, you could even go a step further to unlock even more storage space with a 2-terabyte or 4-terabyte variant of this SSD, though you're then looking at prices in the range of $600 to $1,100. Whatever size you pick, though, your savings from buying a used console will help offset the cost.

It's not unheard of for gamers to buy a console just because they want to play one title. There's a reason why many people believed that the release date of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was pushed so that it became a launch title for the Nintendo Switch. The company needed to knock it out of the park with its new console after the colossal failure of the Wii U, and Breath of the Wild was such an incredible game that people flocked in droves to get their hands on a new Switch just so they could enjoy this masterpiece.

So, with the impending release of Grand Theft Auto 6 around the corner, even people who don't consider themselves gamers may be entertaining the idea of getting their hands on a current-gen console just so they can play the latest entry in this legendary franchise. After all, this game will be a console exclusive for the foreseeable future until Rockstar deems it appropriate to finally grace the PC crowd with a port.

Sure, you can opt for a secondhand current-gen Xbox ... but the volume of exclusives, coupled with the allure of playing GTA 6 while holding the immersive DualSense controller, makes it far more prudent for most to purchase a used PlayStation 5. That way, you can play the biggest game of this console generation without having to deal with the disadvantage of buying a brand-new PlayStation 5, which is already expensive enough as is with all the price escalation  going on in the industry.