PlayStation Plus Essential Games for March 2026, Explained

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PlayStation Plus members have a special treat in March 2026! Instead of the usual three games, subscribers to all tiers will receive four titles: PGA Tour 2K25, Slime Rancher 2, The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Gold Road, and Monster Hunter Rise. With three of these games offering extensive gameplay, it’s shaping up to be a particularly great month for PlayStation Plus.

Here’s a quick look at the four PlayStation Plus Essential games for March 2026. They’ll be free for subscribers from March 3rd until April 6th.

4) PGA Tour 2K25

PGA Tour 2K25 is a golf video game released in 2025. Critics generally liked it, giving it an average score of 81.

PGA Tour 2K25 is a traditional golf game, which might not appeal to everyone, but it’s a definite improvement over the last version. The game offers all the expected modes, with some nice additions to make gameplay more enjoyable. It’s easier for beginners to pick up thanks to a more forgiving swing, while experienced players can fine-tune their game with advanced controls. While creating your golfer’s personality isn’t the most exciting part, the new courses, increased customization options, and improved graphics are all welcome changes. Plus, you can now skip parts of tournaments or automate holes to speed things up.

As you’d expect from a 2K game, there are many opportunities to make purchases. The game features both free and paid season passes – and you can even buy past seasons whenever you want. These passes unlock cosmetic items and gear that can improve your game. While most seasons offer typical golf clothing, one is themed around 2K’s Borderlands shooter series. Some seasons also add new courses and events to the game.

3) Slime Rancher 2

Slime Rancher 2 is a relaxing and engaging management game. It was first available in early access in 2022, officially launched in 2025, and has since been released on several platforms. Due to this gradual rollout, it’s a bit tricky to get a clear picture of its overall reception, but it currently has an average review score of 76.

This new game follows a similar formula to the first, letting players explore a peaceful world and care for a group of slimes. Players are responsible for feeding their slimes, who then produce a unique resource called ‘plorps’. These plorps can be collected and used to purchase improvements and upgrades throughout the game.

Different types of slimes require different strategies – those that jump high, for instance, need taller enclosures. Slimes can even be combined to create new, hybrid versions. Rarer slimes produce more valuable resources, encouraging players to breed them to afford better improvements. This gameplay focuses on a calming, repetitive cycle rather than difficult combat or building a large army. While relaxing, it can become a bit monotonous due to its straightforward nature, similarities to the original game, and the time it takes to unlock all upgrades.

Honestly, most of what made Slime Rancher 2 awesome was already in the game before it officially launched. But Monomi Park hasn’t stopped! They’ve released a bunch of updates that made things a little easier – like needing fewer materials for crafting, and getting more resources from slimes. They also added different versions of gadgets, more toys for each slime, and tweaked the menus to be way more user-friendly. Plus, they included a ton of quality-of-life improvements, like being able to pin blueprints and even new pots that give you specific rare plorts. It’s all been great!

2) The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Gold Road

The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road, released in 2024, is the latest expansion to the popular online role-playing game. It’s been well-received, earning an average score of 80.

PlayStation Plus members can currently play the standard version of The Elder Scrolls Online at no additional cost. This month’s PlayStation Plus offering includes the 2024 Gold Road expansion, plus all seven previous expansions – it’s a fantastic deal, even though it doesn’t include every single piece of downloadable content for the game.

You can play The Elder Scrolls Online by yourself or with others, and you can choose to play in first-person, though that view can sometimes feel restrictive. Like other games from Bethesda Game Studios, it features a lot of spoken dialogue. Despite being a massively multiplayer online game (MMO), it appeals to fans of Bethesda’s single-player experiences. The game’s expansions introduce new classes, quests, stories, areas to explore, and other content. The Gold Road expansion, for instance, adds a scribing skill that lets you create your own custom abilities.

1) Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Rise, released in 2021, is the latest installment in the popular RPG series. It was later made available on other consoles, like PlayStation, and has been highly praised, earning an average score of 87.

Following the success of Monster Hunter World was a challenge, but Rise successfully delivered. It retains the addictive monster hunting gameplay – players work together to defeat giant creatures and create improved equipment for future battles. Rise introduces the Wirebug and a new mount, both designed to make getting around and fighting more fluid. The mount speeds up travel, while the Wirebug allows players to quickly grapple and move around the environment. While this can sometimes make fights too easy and simplify level design, the increased agility is a welcome addition and fits with Rise‘s focus on refining the core gameplay experience.

Like other Monster Hunter games, Rise received a lot of free and paid updates after it launched. The versions for PlayStation included many of these updates right away, since those versions came out two years after the initial release on Switch. These post-PlayStation updates added things like 3D audio, new monsters and quests, extra gear, a higher level cap, more skills, improvements to the follower system, customizable weapons, a new area to explore, and various other items – all released through several updates.

Rise has a lot of downloadable content, offering things like cosmetic items, stickers, armor, music, gestures, hairstyles, and weapons. However, Sunbreak is a larger, more substantial expansion. This add-on, which costs $39.99 and isn’t part of the PlayStation Plus subscription, includes a new story, a central hub area, new monsters, updates to existing monsters, and many helpful improvements to the gameplay experience.

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2026-03-01 17:12