You Can Now Rent a PS5 in the UK—Should You Rent or Buy?

Sony just announced the launch of its PlayStation 5 rental model to the UK, starting at £11 a month.

The service, which lets consumers lease Sony’s home console on a monthly plan, debuted in Japan in late February and is already a massive success. Bolstered by the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds, the service is so popular that all rental units are booked through to mid-April across Japan.

Now that renting a PS5 is officially an option to consider, the million-dollar question is: Should you rent, or should you buy?

PS5 rental pricing schemes

Sony’s UK rental pricing schemes per month start at £11 per month for 36 months with a PS5 Digital Edition all the way up to £35.59 per month for a PS5 Pro on a monthly rolling plan. All prices are in £.

You can also rent PlayStation 5 accessories to go with your console. Here are the details:

Current Cost of PS5 Models and Accessories

And here are the latest prices for these devices per PlayStation’s UK website:

Cost comparison of renting vs buying a PS5

Clearly, if you’re only planning to play one or two games, then renting is the way to go. Starting at only £21.95 a month, you’ll be able to enjoy any game until it’s well done and dusted and save hundreds over buying your own machine. But how do the two options compare over a longer period of time?

Let’s compare the different rental schemes based on how much they will cost you over time. The “break-even point” would be the point in time that renting costs more than the buying the device. Again, all prices are in £.

PS5 Digital Edition Rent vs Buy Cost Over Time

PS5 w/ Disc Drive Rent vs Buy Cost Over Time

PS5 Pro Rent vs Buy Cost Over Time

PS VR2 Rent vs Buy Cost Over Time

Both the standalone device and the Horizon: Call of the Mountain Bundle cost the same price.

PS Portal Rent vs Buy Cost Over Time

DualSense Edge Rent vs Buy Cost Over Time

So, should I rent or should I buy a PS5?

The answer to this will depend on your budget and how long you plan to keep playing PlayStation 5 games.

If you’re on the fence, for PS5 models, our final recommendation is to rent for no longer than 3 months. By then, you should know whether you want to buy a PS5 or rent one for a longer period, and you’ll have only spent around 15% of the machine’s retail price to find out.

For those who know they’ll never buy a PS5 but want to enjoy the device for a while, skip the monthly rolling and go straight for at least the 12-month plan.

Here are some other recommendations to take away from this:

• This one is obvious, but never take the monthly rolling plan if you’re going to rent for more than 1 year.
• For all devices, the 36-month plan will end up costing you at least 97% of the cost of the device. For accessories, it will cost 16–36% more than just buying the device.
• The PS5 w/ Disc Drive for 36 months is the same price as the Digital Edition for 24 months.
• Always choose the Disc Drive model over the Digital Edition unless you’re absolutely certain you won’t be playing physical copies of games.
• For all models and accessories, 9 months on a monthly rolling plan is roughly the same cost of one year on a 12-month plan.

The PS5 Pro is now affordable

The announcement of the PlayStation 5 Pro in September was met with widespread criticism from both consumers and analysts, with its high price point receiving particular criticism.

Sony’s new rental model instantly makes the PS5 Pro into a very enticing option. At £19 a month, it’s the same monthly price as a Premium Netflix subscription.

PSVR2 is instantly enticing

According to a survey by Security.org, cost was the primary reason 65% of people surveyed don’t own a VR device. The study found that the majority of US adults have tried VR but only 23% actually own a device. Meanwhile, only about 6% of people in the UK own a VR headset.

Being able to test drive PSVR2 for a month at only £20 is great value and might be enough to encourage purchase for those who may otherwise be on the fence or uninterested in the medium.

Xbox All Access is better if you decide you want to eventually own your console

While Xbox All Access is more expensive on a monthly basis, Microsoft’s lease-until-you-own model guarantees you will own the console after two years. Sony offers no such ownership option.