Your PS5 can now run Android, Switch 2, and PC games, if you get your hands dirty

The PlayStation 5 homebrew scene has steadily transformed Sony’s flagship console into an absurdly flexible gaming rig beyond anyone’s imagination, managing everything from PS2, PS3, Wii U, NDS, 3DS, to even Windows 7 and Nintendo Switch emulation. Now, the boundaries are being pushed even further: developers have unlocked native Android game execution on the console, alongside an experimental Nintendo Switch 2 emulator port and polished launchers that run your PC and Steam games.

Hydroid brings native Android games to your PS5

The standout development on the mobile front is a new open-source project called Hydroid. Created by developer ZiZc3, Hydroid lets you run 64-bit Android games directly on a jailbroken PS5 without setting up a resource-heavy Linux dual-boot environment. Instead of booting an entire virtual machine, it runs a game’s compiled ARM64 code using a dynamic recompiler (dynarmic) and translates Android subsystem calls for graphics, audio, DualSense controller input, and storage.

Several popular mobile games, including Subway Surfers, Sonic Dash, Shadow Fight 2, and Jetpack Joyride, are already playable, with support seemingly extended to engines such as Unity, Unreal Engine, and others.

Switch 2 emulation is also available on the PS5 now

If you’re wondering if you can play Switch 2 games on the PS5, the answer is now yes (with experimental strings attached). Developers heydemoura and team have been working on EglantinePS5, an experimental PS5 port of Eglantine, which in turn is a fork of the Eden emulator with early architectural scaffolding for the Nintendo Switch 2. Building on earlier milestones like ProsperoEden, this early alpha delivers up to 4x resolution scaling, DualSense rumble and motion support, and experimental frame generation.

If you want to test it, you can try out mucahidkambur’s fork of the v1 release of EglantinePs5. Some Reddit users report that Pokémon Pokopia works, though others report that they’ve not had such good luck with titles like Mario Kart World and Splatoon Raiders. As is usually the case with early-release “experimental” homebrew projects, your luck could vary.

You can even play PC games on your PS5

Meanwhile, PC gaming on the PS5 has also steadily matured into more user-friendly front ends. Two standout projects, Playden and PC5, harness a native Wine stack (through prospero-win) to run Windows titles.

Playden signs directly into your Steam account to install and manage games with dedicated home-screen tiles and cloud save sync, while PC5 lets you install your own offline PC games directly from an exFAT USB drive, complete with adaptive triggers and cover art.

Your PS5 can run these projects only when it is jailbroken

As always, taking advantage of these new homebrew tools requires a jailbroken PS5 running older system firmware (v13.60 and below), firmware that Sony has long since patched for online play. But for those of us who have resisted upgrading to the later firmware and are looking to take a plunge into the deep end, there’s now even more reason to consider jailbreaking your PS5 and converting it into the ultimate living-room gaming console that can play just about anything and everything.