20 Best PS3 Sports Games

Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds is the North American name for Everybody's Golf 5, the first game in the series on the PS3. Clap Hanz released it in Japan on 26 July 2007 for the series' 10th anniversary, and it reached the rest of the world in March 2008. It changes the old three-click swing. You set the power by watching your golfer's swing, then the gauge disappears and accuracy comes down to your timing when the club hits the ball.

There are six courses at the start and a pro golfer, Shigeki Maruyama, to play as or carry your bag. The North American release swapped the female golfers' underwear for biking shorts, which is a sentence we never expected to write about a golf game. Players call it a fun golf game. It is also the easiest game here to hand to someone who never plays sports games.

Top Spin 4 came out on March 15, 2011 in America. It was made by 2K Czech, after the previous Top Spin developer, PAM Development, closed in 2008. The team wanted controls that were easier to learn without losing the depth of the simulation. Optional on-court aids show you shot timing and placement while you learn. The PS3 version supports the PlayStation Move and stereoscopic 3D.

Game Informer gave it 8.5 out of 10. One reviewer called it the standard later tennis games would be judged against. Players call it the best tennis game ever made, and they say nothing since, on PS4 included, has beaten it. Our guess is that it sits this low because fewer people play tennis games than football games.

FIFA 15 has Lionel Messi on its cover, and it was the first game in the series to be fully licensed by the Premier League. It received positive reviews on every platform. The bugs critics complained about were in the PC version, which makes the PS3 copy the calmer way to play it.

FIFA against Pro Evolution Soccer has been called the greatest rivalry in the history of sports games, and FIFA 12 holds the record for the fastest selling sports game ever. By FIFA 15 the series was a giant. Players who still play FIFA on the PS3 name this one. It is the newest game on this list. Start here if you want a football match that feels close to modern on old hardware.

Sports Champions 2 is the sequel to the Move launch game, made by San Diego Studio and Zindagi Games and published by Sony. Sony announced it on the PlayStation Blog on May 31, 2012, with a trailer, and it came out in North America on October 30, 2012. The new events are boxing, golf, bowling, skiing and tennis, the familiar sports the first game left out. It needs the PlayStation Move, like the first one.

Players rank it well below the first game. That is no great insult, since the first game is third on this list. Boxing is the event we would try first. If the first game wore out, this is the next one to buy.

WWE All Stars is the cartoon cousin of the serious wrestling games. THQ released it on March 29, 2011, and it plays as a mix of a fighting game and a wrestling game, with combos on the ground and in the air. Wrestlers have exaggerated bodies and the animation is over the top. John Cena leaps high into the air for his Attitude Adjustment, and Triple H's Pedigree sends shock waves across the ring.

Fantasy Warfare is the mode to play. It is 15 dream matches, each one pitting a legend from the past against a similar modern star, and every match opens with a video promo. Players still put it on their lists of PS3 games worth owning. It is the wrestling game for people who find the other two on this list too slow.

NCAA Football 14 was made with a mantra to "keep things fast" and "keep things moving", and a lot of the work went into the menus and presentation. Metacritic gives both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions an aggregate score of 77. Unofficial roster updates kept it current for the seasons that followed.

Critics were not all sold. GameSpot gave it 6 out of 10 and called the experience system unnecessary. Players disagree and call it one of the best sports games of its generation. The game stayed popular for over a decade after release, which is a long life for a sports game with a year in its name. If you want college football on a PS3, this is the one.

WWE '13 came out on October 30, 2012, in North America, and it was the last WWE game THQ published before the company went under in January 2013. Its big idea is the Attitude Era mode, which replaces Road to WrestleMania. You play through six storylines from that period, with 35 superstars and over 60 cutscenes. Universe Mode was built with help from Paul Heyman.

Matches in Universe Mode can branch, and during cutscenes you choose how to attack or whether to attack at all. It was nominated for the Spike Video Game Award for Best Individual Sports Game. Wrestling fans keep it on their lists right next to WWE 2K14. If the late 90s are your favourite years of wrestling, start here.

NBA 2K11 came out in October 2010 with Michael Jordan at the centre of it. It has two new modes built around him, and it adds 18 classic NBA teams to the current ones. It was also the first game in the series to work with the PlayStation Move. By August 2011 it had sold over 5.5 million copies worldwide.

Critics liked the gameplay and the Jordan modes but complained about technical problems, mostly online. One review said "No hoops junkie should miss NBA 2K11". Basketball players on the PS3 pick it far more often than any later 2K. Players recommend it as the basketball game to own on the PS3, and it is the most serious game on this list after NCAA Football 14.

FIFA Street is a 2012 reboot of the series, the first one in almost four years. Some of the FIFA 12 team made it on the FIFA 12 engine, and it drops the cartoon look of the older games for a more realistic one. Matches are fast and small, five or six players a side, with one-on-one, panna and futsal modes too. It has twice as many tricks as FIFA 12.

Its line producer promised "the first true quality street football experience." The arenas run from the streets of Amsterdam to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, and it is the first game in the series with both national and club teams. Football fans still play it alongside the main FIFA games. It is the football game here for players who care more about tricks than league tables.

NBA Jam came back in 2010 with 3D bodies and big photographed heads on top, which is the most NBA Jam way to do HD. The PS3 version was first planned as a download you would get with NBA Elite 11. Elite was delayed and then cancelled, so NBA Jam came out on its own in November 2010. A remastered download, On Fire, followed in October 2011.

The Campaign has one-on-one boss battles, and Elimination lets up to four players compete until the lowest score loses. The game is also full of secret players you unlock with initials or button combinations. Players who want silly arcade basketball over a simulation still point to NBA Jam. It is the best game on this list for people who do not care about basketball.

Blitz: The League II is American football from Midway's NFL Blitz series, played with made-up teams. It came out on October 13, 2008, with five new teams, among them the Los Angeles Riot and the Vancouver Beavers. Lawrence Taylor is back as Quentin Sands. The story pokes at real-life scandals involving NFL players and teams, from Michael Vick's Ron Mexico controversy to the Patriots' Spygate.

The plot is pure soap opera. The commissioner forces a trade that puts Sands on your team to sabotage it. Sands spikes your star player's drink, and Kid Franchise ends up in prison, where the warden promises an early release if he can win a game against a rival prison. Players keep recommending it to football fans. One player called it "the most brutal football game I've played." Madden this is not.

Skate is where EA's series started, and it was built around one idea: skating should feel like skating, not button mashing. You move the right stick in patterns to pull off tricks, and the physics-driven animations mean no two tricks come out the same. Pros like Danny Way and PJ Ladd are in it, and the city of San Vanelona reacts to what you do.

Critics praised the controls and the soundtrack. The soundtrack leans on hip-hop after an early plan to use "Roadhouse Blues" by The Doors was dropped. Players rank it below both sequels, which is fair, since the sequels built on everything it started. It is still the place to begin if you want to play the series in order.

WWE 2K14 is the first game in the WWE 2K series, made by Yuke's and published by 2K. It was the first WWE game after Take-Two picked up the licence from THQ in a bankruptcy filing. It came out on October 29, 2013, in North America, with The Rock on the box. Its big single-player campaign is 30 Years of WrestleMania.

Under the hood it is mostly an update of WWE '13, but a smart one. Wrestlers move faster than before. Chain reversals now end in an attack, which stops matches turning into endless reversal stalemates. Create-a-Superstar has room for 100 wrestlers. Wrestling fans recommend it before any other wrestling game on the PS3, and it ranks highest of the three wrestling games here.

Yes, it is a mouthful. Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars is a vehicular soccer game from Psyonix, released on the PS3 in North America in October 2008 and in Europe in February 2009. You use your car to hit a soccer ball much bigger than the car and try to score a goal. Each goal is worth one point, and the team with the most points after 5 minutes wins.

You can double jump, which gives you more speed in the air, and the air is where the good players spend their time. The campaign is a set of mini-games and tournaments against the computer. Players who found it remember it as some of the most fun they had on the console, especially with four people. Its sequel, Rocket League, came out on July 7, 2015. The rest of the world caught up then.

UFC Undisputed 3 is the third and last game made under THQ's 2007 deal with the UFC, and Yuke's developed it. It came out on 14 February 2012. The big addition is Pride Mode, with Pride rules and fighters. Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros do the commentary, and Lenne Hardt announces the fighters.

There are two control schemes, Pro and Amateur, a nod to the increased accessibility THQ promised. The submission system is brand new. THQ's servers for online play have closed since the company shut down, so this is an offline game now. For MMA on the PS3, players point to this one, and it ranks well above any other fighting sport here apart from Fight Night Champion.

SSX brought the snowboarding series back, and it swapped the made-up courses of the old games for real locations. There are nine descents, and the story is a race against a former SSX rider, Griff Simmons, who wants to conquer them all himself. You can use buttons or the analogue sticks, and there is an option for the classic controls of the earlier games.

Explore Mode lets you ride the mountains freely and take on challenges. EA later added Mount Eddie, a mountain full of large jumps and fireworks that calls back to the earlier games. Players who want snowboarding on the PS3 point to SSX. We agree with them, because nothing else on the console makes going downhill this much fun.

Fight Night Champion came out in March 2011, the fifth and last game in the Fight Night series. It was the first EA Sports game with a full Hollywood-inspired story mode, called Champion Mode. The story follows a boxer named Andre and his brother Raymond, a rising heavyweight. Cutscenes carry the story between fights, and sometimes a cutscene shows up between rounds.

Damage builds up into cuts, and the referee can stop a fight. Critics praised the new direction, and the game got positive reviews. It was also one of the first games EA released without a paper manual. Players still name it among the PS3 sports games they love most. Eliza Dushku voices one of the characters, if you need one more reason.

Sports Champions was a launch game for the PlayStation Move, and in several regions it came bundled with the controller. It mixes modern and medieval sports across six events. Alongside table tennis and beach volleyball, it has uncommon picks like disc golf and bocce. There is also a Gladiator Duel, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Table tennis is the showpiece. The Move tracks the paddle closely enough to put heavy spin on the ball, and the PlayStation Eye watches where you stand. Up to four people can play together. Players still recommend it as one of the best sports games on the PS3. Disc golf is the event we would start with.

Skate 2 came out in January 2009 and moved the series to New San Vanelona, a city with a "skateboarding is a crime" attitude. The Flickit controls from the first game are back, and your points grow with a trick's height and complexity. Career mode is the main way to play. The map in the pause menu lets you teleport straight to any challenge.

There is downloadable content too, like a Filmer Pack with more replay editor options for people who cut their own skate videos. A big group of players calls Skate 2 the best of the three. Skate 3 still finished far ahead of it here, and the argument between the two camps will outlive all of us.

Skate 3 came out in May 2010 and moved to Port Carverton, a city that embraces skateboarding. It is a more colorful and friendlier place than Skate 2, and the gameplay has a similar feel to the first two games. Your goal is to build a team of skaters and sell over a million boards. Pros like Chris Cole and Andrew Reynolds are in the game.

It adds a co-op mode where teammates complete challenges together, and a beefed up Hall of Meat that rewards your worst bails. The skate.Create tools let you make your own graphics and skate parks. Players who have tried both sequels say Skate 3 plays better. They recommended it far more often than any other sports game on the PS3. A new Skate came out in early access in 2025, and it still has this one to beat.