Sony’s PlayStation Tournaments are finally available to play on PS5, and the biggest upgrade may simply be the greater chance of joining an event. The eSports-for-everyone feature now centers around shorter tourneys at regular intervals — it should be easier to find a competition that fits your life. Sony will even create multiple brackets to keep the duration in check. You can sign up directly from your console, too, so you won’t have to head to another device just to get started.
The new PlayStation Tournaments system also boasts a revamped interface that takes advantage of PS5 activity cards and notifications to help you find events, track (automatically updated) results, and let you know when it’s time to play. You can locate competitions from games’ home screen sections. And if you’d like to do more than just compete, a Discord community hub promises both chat as well as hosted interviews and game sessions.
Anyone in an eligible country with a PlayStation Plus membership can join, with the first PS5 tournaments focusing on FIFA 23, Guilty Gear Strive and NBA 2K23. Prizes range from in-game currency through to cash, PlayStation hardware and “experiences.” To reel you in, Sony is running a “Win-A-Thon” leaderboard event between December 1st and January 31st that rewards you the better you fare in regional tournaments. The promo will also be available to PS4 owners.
As with Microsoft’s Xbox Live tournaments, the PlayStation eSports offering is meant to keep you engaged and spending money. You might be more likely to buy the latest sports title if you know you can win real-world rewards. Even so, the PS5 expansion might be helpful by making eSports more accessible to current-gen console owners.