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The PS5 is going to be a one-stop shop for most of your entertainment needs, as a nice collection of streaming apps will be hitting the console on day 1 alongside launch day games.
While you’re not busy using your PS5 for trudging through Demon’s Souls or swinging through the streets of New York City in Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales, you can watch a little TV or a movie or two using the streaming apps you can find available.
As noted by Sony in its UI demo in October, all of your media apps will even have their own tab. This will make it easier to find what it is you’re wanting to watch. Also worth noting is that this is not an exhaustive list of all the streaming apps hitting the console.
For now, this is just what’s been confirmed for the PS5 release, providing day 1 access. There will be more streaming apps added to the PS5 in due time. As such, we’ll be updating this article as Sony makes them available.
Streaming apps coming to PS5 on day 1
As noted above, we’ll keep this post updated with which apps you can stream content from right away on November 12. As more apps come to the platform or as more are confirmed for availability, they’ll be added below.
Streaming video apps
Crunchyroll
This one is for the anime fans. Crunchyroll is the biggest platform for streaming anime in the US and has just about every anime you could imagine. With more being added as time goes on and more anime series are released.
You can watch Crunchyroll anime for free, but there are limitations. For starters, you won’t have access to all the anime. Some are available to premium members only.
Crunchyroll also restricts the latest episodes to premium members for a short period of time. So whenever new episodes of your favorite ongoing anime come out in Japan, only premium members get to watch those episodes right away, while free members have to wait.
Regardless of whether you subscribe to Crunchyroll Premium or not, this is an excellent streaming app for the PS5 if you love anime.
Apple TV Plus
If you’re not familiar with Apple TV Plus, you’d be forgiven for it. The service is not so new that it that launched this month, but it hasn’t been around for five years either.
As such, there are going to be plenty of people that aren’t aware of its existence. That also might be limited to people who don’t own an Apple TV, as many Apple customers are already aware of what the company offers.
Apple TV Plus is filled with original content. This includes both TV shows and movies, as well as documentaries and other types of entertainment. What you won’t find generally is blockbuster films or TV shows from broadcast networks like abc and others.
If that’s what you’re looking for, then there are other apps to choose from which offer that.
Disney Plus
Disney Plus is the streaming service that’s perfect for three groups of people. Those that love Disney films both animated and live-action, those that love Star Wars, and those that love Marvel movies and soon Marvel TV shows.
Disney has made it so that almost every movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is on this service. And now it even has them listed out in chronological order. It’s only missing a few films due to licensing contracts with other studios. Like both Hulk movies and the Spider-Man films. And, out of all of those only three films are considered canon for the MCU. The second Hulk film, and the two most recent Spider-Man films with Tom Holland.
As for Star Wars, you’ll find a lot of the Star Wars flicks here. Including every film from all three trilogies. For most people though, Disney Plus is a way to check out The Mandalorian which has been the company’s most popular offering since it launched last year.
Netflix
Netflix is the biggest streaming app of the bunch. And for good reason since it’s been around the longest. That also gives it a massive subscriber base and plenty of money to play around with original content.
Netflix has steadily been increasing its original content offerings. Just about every single month it adds more original TV and movies to the mix.
For instance, The Crown season 4 which releases on November 15. You’ll also find The Witcher, which might be Netflix’ most popular show to date, as well as other top hits like House of Cards and Stranger Things. Then there’s broadcast network shows like The Blacklist and many others, as well as a increasingly large list of anime shows and films.
Twitch
Twitch is where you go if you’re looking to either livestream yourself, or watch people livestream themselves.
It’s the platform that is built for gamers and although these days it does have livestreams of non-gaming related content, the majority of it is people playing games of all genres and on all platforms.
Twitch is even working to release its own collection of original content. So keep an eye out for that down the road if you tend to frequent the platform.
YouTube
Another option for streaming your gameplay (this is on a PS5 after all) is YouTube. While there is plenty of non-gaming content on YouTube also, the gaming content is is there if you want it whether you’re trying to stream yourself or watch others.
In addition to all that you can watch any other number of things that you may already experience via the site or mobile app. From cooking to vlogs.
And since it’s tied to your account all of your recommendations should be there. And if you have the PS5 Media Remote, navigating this app and the others is going to be much easier. Not to mention it will be easier to launch YouTube since the remote has a dedicated button for it.
Streaming music apps
Spotify
So far, just like with the Xbox Series X, Spotify is the only streaming music app that’s been confirmed to exist on the PS5 on day 1. There will probably others down the line, but for now Spotify is your choice.
It makes sense too. Both Sony and Spotify have a partnership that led to you being able to stream your Spotify playlists from inside of the games you’re playing. Which is a pretty neat feature. This feature already exists on the PS4 and PS4 Pro. So it should be available on the PS5 right away too.
While Spotify does have an ad-supported free version of its service, you can get rid of ads by subscribing to Spotify Premium which is $9.99 a month.
Streaming apps coming to PS5 but not necessarily on day 1
Below are a list of apps which may make it to the PS5 on day 1, but won’t necessarily, as Sony hasn’t confirmed it. What it has confirmed is that these apps are coming to PS5 without specifying whether or not it’ll be on day 1.
With that said, unless Sony confirms these services will be available on launch day before launch day arrives, you won’t know if you can access them from the console until you or other consumers get their hands on one.
Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is the home to many great TV shows and movies. Whether it’s a big budget Hollywood film that you want kick back and watch or one of the many (and growing) Prime originals. Such as The Expanse, like you can see in the trailer above.
In fact Prime Video has quite a lot more on its shelves than you might think. In addition to hit original shows like The Expanse, The Man In The High Castle, The Boys, Jack Ryan, and Hanna, You have hit original movies like Borat Subsequent Movie Film, Black Box, and My Spy.
Those are just a few of the movies and shows that are originals, too. On top of all that you have a boat load of other TV shows and movies that come from other networks or studios, both old and new, which you have access to with Prime Video.
If you prefer to throw a little money at what you’re watching, you can do this as well. As Prime Video offers plenty of recent TV shows and movies that you can rent or buy. Basically if you already subscribe to Amazon Prime, then there’s no reason you shouldn’t be enjoying Prime Video.
Because a lot of the stuff on there to watch is available at no additional charge.
Hulu
Hulu for a while was perhaps the biggest competitor to Netflix. And for a little while it was really the only competitor. Hulu offers up both on-demand and live TV services.
So if you enjoy live TV, then you can pay a little bit extra for access to it as part of your Hulu on-demand subscription. With that live TV you get most of the mainstream channels you’d find on other live TV services.
And with on-demand, you get a variety of shows from various networks, as well as anime, movies, originals and more.
Hulu also offers features like Watch Party, which other services on here also offer, so you can watch the same content in sync with friends and family. During a time when many people are stuck at home and not able to physically spend as much or any time with friends and family, this is a pretty nice feature to have that can add some normalcy back to your life.
Because at least you can still enjoy watching your favorite shows with loved that ones that also enjoy them.
Peacock
If one of your favorite networks is NBC, then Peacock is for you. Even if it’s not one of your favorite networks but some of your favorite shows are on the NBC network, then Peacock is for you.
Because Peacock is the official NBC streaming service and it has all the popular content from it like Saturday Night Live, Parks And Recreation, 30 Rock, and much more.
There are thousands of shows and hundreds of movies to dive into. If that isn’t enough, Peacock also gives you access to a collection of live TV programming like sports, newscasts, and other entertainment.
You can watch Peacock content for free, but if you go for the $4.99 Peacock Premium option you unlock all of the content on the service as opposed to just some, and you get ad-free viewing.
MyCanal
MyCanal is one of the localized options for streaming TV content in France. So this isn’t something you can generally access if you’re in the US, at least not officially or without some workarounds.
It includes everything from blockbuster movies to large network television to originals. It also includes sports and news. The interesting thing is that MyCanal is basically a unified hub for content from multiple services. Including Netflix, Canal Plus, Disney Plus, FOX, Cine Plus, Eurosport, OCS and more.
It isn’t just one service. And that makes it a valuable one to be subscribed to if you live within its supported region.
And more…
While this list of streaming apps on PS5 is a great start, there are still many that are unaccounted for. Pandora, HBO Max, and many others are likely to make their way to the console.
But as of right now it doesn’t appear that there has been any mention of them arriving at any point in the near future.
That being said, Sony may just be holding these close to the chest for the time being. Perhaps it’s not ready to confirm what additional services will be available. Maybe it still has to finalize licensing deals.
There are numerous reasons why more streaming apps for the PS5 haven’t been announced. But all of that aside more of them will eventually hit the platform. Which is something to keep in mind if you don’t see your favorite streaming service on the list.