PS Plus September 2026 already has one launch and ten games leaving

When September's games are announced and when they arrive

Pay for PlayStation Plus in September and you have two deadlines attached to two different lists. Essential's three Monthly Games change on Tuesday the 1st, but Extra and Premium refresh their Game Catalogue on Tuesday the 15th, with ten departures already confirmed and the August catalogue still available until that switch. Sony should reveal the Essential trio on Wednesday, 26 August and make them claimable on Tuesday, 1 September, following the monthly calendar mapped out by NME. Extra and Premium follow later, with an expected reveal on Wednesday the 9th and catalogue refresh on Tuesday the 15th, the date Sony has confirmed for RuneScape: Dragonwilds.

These are not two labels for the same thing. Essential keeps a licence in your library while your membership is active, but Extra works like a video store that can remove a game even after you download it. Our Essential, Extra and Premium comparison explains the rest.

Claim August's three Essential games before Tuesday the 1st

Before waiting for new names, open the app and add August's games. Dying Light 2, Big Walk and Signalis stop being claimable when the 1 September switch arrives, and our August Essential guide has a quick profile of all three.

There is no need to download them or clear space on the SSD, because pressing Add to Library before the change keeps them tied to your account while PlayStation Plus remains active. If the household shares a console, our guide explains how to share PS Plus and games with another PS5 account.

Ten games leave Extra and Premium on 15 September

PlayStation Store's Last Chance to Play section now carries the first September list. These are ten rentals, not ten purchases you can keep, so downloading them today will not preserve access after they leave the catalogue. The Spanish listing for Persona 5 Tactica sets the end at 08:00 UTC on 15 September.

Persona 5 Tactica is the difficult departure because it is the long game on the list and costs €59.99 outside the membership. All three Shadowrun games follow it out at once. September is a poor time to start that trilogy under a deadline. The two Toy Story games belong to Premium and are the unusual part of the clear-out, since classics tend to remain available for longer.

My order is simple. Finish Persona 5 Tactica first if a save is already underway, rescue Toy Story 2 or Toy Story 3 if you pay for Premium, and start nothing else unless you can comfortably close it before the 15th. I would not begin the Shadowrun trilogy now with three weeks on the clock.

• Persona 5 Tactica
• Shadowrun Returns
• Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition
• Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII
• Toukiden 2
• Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue (Premium)
• Toy Story 3 (Premium)

RuneScape: Dragonwilds is the only confirmed arrival

Sony has reserved one launch for Extra and Premium. RuneScape: Dragonwilds comes to PS5 and the Game Catalogue on 15 September, the day it releases. The PlayStation Blog describes a cooperative survival adventure set in Ashenfall, with gathering, building, crafting, skills and a Dragon Queen waiting at the end.

It is a smart fit for the service because a cooperative game needs players during its opening weeks and PS Plus hands it a community from minute one. That does not make it one of the three Essential games. It enters the rotating catalogue and only Extra and Premium members can play while it remains there.

The three names doing the rounds are still predictions

Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition, Star Trucker and The Stone of Madness keep appearing as possible September Essential games. None comes from Sony or a leak. They are the three predictions Echo Apsey published at NME, and the writer presented them as a forecast.

The leak that regularly lands comes from billbil-kun at Dealabs, but at the time of our 24 August review no September lineup had been published there. Until evidence appears or Sony speaks on Wednesday the 26th, Essential's three slots remain empty.

September is already crowded with new releases, but the best move now is not to clear space for a prediction. Open the library, claim August and check whether you have an unfinished Persona 5 Tactica save. That one really does expire on the 15th.