How much does it cost to run a PS5?

WITH the cost of living crisis people are staying home more, and looking for ways to keep themselves entertained. 

In the run up to the holiday period, more of Sony’s latest console, the PS5, will be released than ever before.

This includes bundles like the God of War Ragnarök PS5 bundle, with the aim of giving more people the chance to purchase a PlayStation in time for the big releases.

Many people think of gaming as high on energy consumption, but it doesn’t have to be.

Find out how much it costs to run a PlayStation 5 console, and how you can make it even cheaper.

How much does it cost to run a PlayStation 5?

The PS5 is one of the cheaper consoles on the market to run.

While the Nintendo Switch is by far the cheapest console to run, the PS5 beats out competitors such as the Xbox Series X|S and the Steam Deck in terms of energy efficiency.

When plugged in on standby, the PS5 costs approximately £4 a year to run after the price increase.

How much it costs while running a game varies on the game you are trying to play.

The more intense the game is to run, the harder components such as the fan has to run in order to keep the console working.

If you hear your PS5 about to take off, that means you are running an energy intensive game.

Running the most energy intensive games on your PS5 will cost you around 10p per hour of gaming, which can add up over time.

How to cut to cost of using your PS5

There are various ways to cut the cost of using your PS5, and some of them you can implement straight away.

The most obvious is to make sure that your console is in standby mode every time you walk away from your game. 

However, there are also a number of lesser known changes, which are easy to make and can save you money.

Here are our best tips to save money while using your PS5:

Check your settings

Your television likely costs a lot more to run than your PS5, so you should check the settings on here first.

Turning up your TV’s brightness not only eats up energy, but also wears your screen out faster.

Make sure to set your TV to as low brightness as you are comfortable watching.

Next, you can check your console settings. There are a number of settings you can change here depending on your preferences.

If not downloading games or playing online, turning off the WiFi will save you money.

When downloading a large game, put your console in rest mode via the settings.

Not only will the game download faster, but it will save you money as well.

Those who are sensitive to vibration, or aren’t a fan of haptic feedback, can also turn this off in the settings to save some money.

Check the games you play

Less graphically demanding games will cost less to run on your PS5, than ones with more hi-tech visuals.

Any 2D game or older game will be cheaper to run than the latest triple-A blockbuster.

However, you can still save money while playing the most recent games.

Uncapped frame rates are one of the highest consumers of energy for games.

Running games at a stable 60fps — if you aren’t too discerning 30fps — can help your console run more cheaply.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.