How many controllers come with a PS5?


Fighting my way through the line at Microcenter, I was one of the lucky few to get my hands on a PS5 console. I promised my friend that the first game we’d be playing would be Borderlands 3; a split-screen multiplayer.

I was racing back to the checkout line when a thought suddenly came to me, “Will there be enough controllers?”  I quickly checked the box, and this is what I found.

How Many Controllers Come With A PS5? A PS5 console comes with 1 DualSense controller. If you need to connect another controller to the PS5 for multiplayer, you will have to purchase it separately. 

As you may have guessed I still bought the PS5 console, and being the good friend that I am, I allowed my friend to sit and watch me play through Borderlands… It was a new console, I forgot to share – don’t judge me!   

Anyway, back to the story.

Why Did Sony Only Include One Controller In The Box?

There are a couple of reasons: 

1: A second controller would cost too much

Sony was desperate for the PS5 to fall under the $500 price point. To hit this price point sacrifices needed to be made with the hardware. 

However, to meet that sub-$500 price, there was no way Sony could have squeezed a second DualSense controller into the PlayStation 5 box. Not without completely obliterating their budget. 

Think about it, these controllers retail for 70 dollars each. Sony can probably make a single DualSense for $30. So, if Sony added an extra controller into the retail PS5 console package, that’s $30 extra dollars of cost added to every single PlayStation 5 Sony sells. That would equal billions of dollars of extra costs over the PS5’s lifetime.  

Sony has invested a lot of money this time around to create one of the best controllers to ever hit the market. So, to keep things under budget, they chose to include only a single controller.

2: Most gamers don’t need a second controller 

Another reason why only 1 controller comes with the console is that the majority of game developers focus on online multiplayer games as opposed to local split-screen multiplayer modes. 

This means that you don’t really need more than 1 controller, per console, per house. Think about it, most of us play Warzone and the likes online, we’re never actually sitting next to our friends when we’re battling away! So, that’s why the box didn’t need to have 2 controllers in it. 

3: Sony want you to buy high margin accessories

Big companies like Sony want you to keep coming back to them to buy high-margin (large profit) accessories after they’ve sold you a PS5 console. By getting you to go back and buy other gadgets they’re keeping you as a returning customer and increasing your life-time worth to Sony. 

Think about how many extra goodies here and there you’ve bought from Sony over the years, just because it’s from Sony! 

So, what’s so special about this PS5 controller to warrant only having 1 of them in the console’s box? Keep on reading to find out. 

Features Of The PS5 controller

Xbox has always dominated the controller market with its amazing ergonomic designs, and people always opted for Xbox controllers rather than uncomfortable PlayStation controllers – until recently…

The all-new DualSense controller from Sony has given the good ol’ Xbox controller a run for its money! Instead of transforming their PS controller’s design, Sony just made their controller bigger, so that it fits more comfortably in users’ hands and it doesn’t cause discomfort after long gaming sessions.


But the real highlight of the PS5 controller is the adaptive haptic feedback.

This is a feature that makes the controller vibration function far more detailed and nuanced. It works best in the game Astro’s Playroom and the Free-to-download, talk of the town, FPS-shooter; Call Of Duty: Warzone.

Many PC gamers have also opted to buy the DualSense controller to play games on their PCs.

They would’ve used an Xbox controller before this.

The PS5 controller now includes a number of mics built directly into the controller’s body. The reason why there are multiple mics, and not just a single mic, on the PS5 Dualsense controller, is to enhance the sound capture quality and to eliminate noise. With multiple mics built-in at different points of the PS5 controller, there is unbelievable noise cancellation.

So, you can basically chat with your friends without worrying about the noise in your background.

How Do You Get More Controllers?

I enjoy playing multiplayer and single-player games, and I’m not going to lie, I was a little gutted that my friend wasn’t able to join Borderlands with me. So, this got me thinking, ‘How can my friend join in next time?’

The answer is fairly obvious and very simple. 

Buy a second PS5 official controller. 

The only way to play PS5 games with friends sitting in the same room and using the same console as you is to get a second controller. 

You can check out what PS5 controllers are available here on Amazon. 

Can Other Controllers Be Used With The PS5 Console?

You can connect as many as four controllers to your PS5 at a time and enjoy local multiplayer games with your friends. 

You can buy yourself an additional PS5 controller for just $70 from any good electronics retailer. 

But what if you don’t have that kind of a budget? I have the perfect solution for you;

You must have heard about backward-compatible games, but have you ever heard of backward-compatible controllers? If you haven’t guessed it already, let me make it clearer.

Can you connect an old PS4 DualShock controller to your PS5 to get an additional controller? Yes, you can! Connect your PS4 controller with the PS5 with a Micro-USB to USB-A cable. Your controller will be paired and now you can use it wirelessly! But there’s a catch; Your PS4 DualShock controller will only work with PS4-compatible games. 

This will work great if you have a PS4 controller lying around or you can buy one for $10 cheaper than a PS5 controller from Amazon. There’s not that big of a price difference between PS4 and PS5 controllers, so it’s best to opt for a newer controller with much more advanced technology!

Let’s see what’s so great about the PS5 controller!

Nick Sinclair

Nick Sinclair, a gaming aficionado since the Commodore 64 era, studied Creative Computer Games Design in university before founding his own gaming company. Discovering a passion for content creation, Nick now helps gamers squeeze every drop of fun out of their favorite gaming hardware

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