Best Diving Games for PS5 & PS4

Why it's here: The best diving game on PS5 and PS4, and the one I send everyone to first. By day you harpoon fish down a trench that rearranges itself each dive; by night the catch becomes a sushi menu you have to run as a restaurant. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is pacing, with long unskippable story beats cutting into that rhythm. Rated E10+, 4.79 from nearly 33,000 players, the highest-rated pick on this list. Start here, whatever kind of diver you are.

Why it's here: The survival dive, and the one where the ocean itself is the antagonist. Subnautica trades combat for oxygen: you craft better gear to push past the kelp forests into trenches and open water, and the leviathans down there cannot be fought, only avoided. The recurring caveat in Steam reviews is a mid to late game that sinks into tedious resource runs once the wonder settles. The most-rated game on this list, 4.60 from nearly 88,000 players. If you want a dive with real stakes, this is absolutely worth it.

Why it's here: The relaxing dive, and over in a single evening. ABZU hands you a diver with fluid acrobatics and nothing to manage: no oxygen meter, no inventory, no enemies, just shoals to ride and sunken ruins to drift through while the score swells. Players on Steam consistently flag the length, around two hours, and some find the controls slippery, so judge it as a short piece of atmosphere rather than a game to live in. 4.43 from more than 30,000 players. For an unhurried hour or two after a hard day, the beautiful one on this list.

Why it's here: The arctic sequel, and the pick for anyone who finished Subnautica and wants more of it rather than something new. Below Zero moves the dive to a frozen stretch of the same planet, adds proper base building and a search for a missing sister, and keeps the crafting loop intact. Steam reviews are split, and the recurring complaint is a smaller map and a story that feels rushed next to the original. 4.41 from nearly 18,000 players. Play the first game first, then come here when you miss it.

Why it's here: The story pick: a 1970s North Sea dive about a working diver called Stan and the grief he carried down with him. You get quiet exploration, a small submarine and strange sightings that build toward something I will not name here. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is slow movement, repetitive fetch jobs and some bugs, so the atmosphere has to carry you, and for most players it does. On PS Plus Extra, 4.27 from around 5,500 players. If you care more about whether an ending earns its hours than about systems, this is the dive to take.

Why it's here: The underwater horror pick, and the best story on this list by some distance. SOMA puts you in PATHOS-II, a research station on the Atlantic floor where the machines have started to believe they are people, and the long walks across the seabed between sections are the most frightening stretches. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the stealth, which players find tedious rather than tense. A PS4 release, 4.53 from more than 26,000 players. If a diving game has to ask a hard question to be worth it, this one asks the hardest.

Why it's here: The nearest thing to a nature documentary you can steer. Beyond Blue follows the explorer Mirai on scanning dives through a near-future ocean, and the point is to learn what you are looking at rather than survive it. Steam reviews praise the calm and the real marine science and consistently flag the same two things, repetitive mechanics and a short runtime, so this is a dive for curiosity, not challenge. A PS4 release, 4.36 from around 800 players. For a diver who wants the ocean itself rather than a game wrapped around it, absolutely worth it.

Why it's here: The underwater action pick: a Soulslike set in a tide pool where you play Kril, a hermit crab who lost his shell and fights on wearing litter, a bottle cap, a sauce packet, whatever the current brings. Each shell changes how you defend, and the story underneath is a sharp joke about pollution that lands. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is performance and uneven control response. On PS Plus Extra for PS5, 4.14 from more than 8,000 players. If you would rather fight across the seabed than drift over it, take this one, and use the assist menu without shame.

Why it's here: The pick for playing the predator instead of the diver. Maneater is an open-world RPG where you are the shark: you start as a pup, eat to evolve, and work from bayou shallows out to open ocean while Chris Parnell narrates it all as a snide reality show. The joke outlasts the loop, and the recurring complaint in Steam reviews is crashes and bugs on top of the repetition. On PS Plus Extra, 4.43 from nearly 19,000 players. Around seven hours, and a good weekend as long as you are here for the narration.

Why it's here: The submarine on this list, and the one for a younger diver or a parent reading along. Insomniac's Song of the Deep is a Metroidvania told as a bedtime story: Merryn builds a sub from scrap to go looking for her fisherman father, and a narrator reads the whole thing over her. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is floaty handling and repetitive combat, so treat it as an exploration game with fights in the way. A PS4 release, 4.41 from around 1,200 players. The story is beautiful, and that is the whole reason it is here.

Why it's here: The short dive: a monochrome puzzle game about possessing the creatures of the deep. SILT gives your diver one trick, leaving the body to steer a fish, an eel or something much larger through machinery that wants you dead, then returning. Mr. Mead's artwork is what sells it. Steam reviews are polarized, and the recurring complaint is simple puzzles and a story that never explains itself. 4.13 from 183 players, the fewest ratings on this list. A single evening of atmosphere, worth it for the pictures alone, and not the place to start.