PlayStation Plus Essential’s October Monthly Games are F1 25 (PS5), Hunt: Showdown 1896 (PS5), and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 (PS5/PS4), according to the PlayStation Blog (Adam Michel, September 30, 2026). Members can claim all three from Tuesday, October 6 through Monday, November 2. Gematsu’s same-day roundup matches the lineup and October 6 start.
F1 25 is the official game of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship. Sony’s write-up highlights Career and My Team 2.0 single-player paths, plus online racing that includes a new F1 World multiplayer mode where friends race as a squad against AI drivers.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 is Crytek’s extraction shooter update for the series — PvPvE bounty runs against monsters and rival Hunters in a corrupted late-19th-century setting, solo or with up to two teammates.
Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 returns the voxel EDF spin-off to both PS5 and PS4, with team building from rescued soldiers, redesigned voxel enemies, four-player online co-op, and two-player local split-screen.
September’s Monthly Games — Sniper Elite: Resistance, MLB The Show 26, Wobbly Life, and Chained Echoes — stay claimable through Monday, October 5.
The same Blog post notes two shorter Plus extras around the October 6 date: limited-edition Spider-Man: Brand New Day avatars for Plus members on Sony Pictures Core (the film lands on Core that day; promo ends October 20, 2026), and October HorrorFest item packs that include a Call of Duty: Warzone Horror Bundle (October 1), a Hunt: Showdown 1896 Starter Pack (October 6), and an Overwatch 2 Dragur Reinhardt + 5 Tier skips pack (October 7). Base games must be owned for pack contents.
Sony’s usual caveat applies: Monthly Games lineups can differ by region, so check PlayStation Store on release day. Active Plus membership is required to claim and play under the Essential Monthly Games terms.
