5 Best PS2 Emulators of 2023

If you’re looking for the best PS2 emulators to play your favorite PlayStation 2 games on, you’ve found the right article. We’ve covered the best emulators for many different consoles at this point, but in this post, we’ll be breaking down the best emulators you can install to start reliving some awesome games from Sony’s past on other platforms.

The good news is that these days there are some excellent PS2 emulators available. By now they can run many games with great performance and the compatibility with titles is higher than ever.

Without further ado, let’s jump in!

What Are The Best PS2 Emulators?

As a fan of Sony PlayStation games, you may be wondering what PS2 emulators are the best for playing games on your PC. While the PlayStation 2 can be a bit more taxing than other earlier retro systems to emulate, most PCs that aren’t too old shouldn’t have too much trouble.

PC Options

PCSX2

When it comes to emulating that classic PS2 experience on a PC or laptop, PCSX2 is just about as good as it gets. Game compatibility-wise, none of the other emulators can match what PCSX2 has achieved. The library of PS2 titles that run well on it is rather high. The emulator also has features such as anti-aliasing, texture filtering, and can even output games in custom resolutions up to 8192×8192, making your favorite titles look better than ever before.

PCSX2 is still being actively developed and maintained to this day, with updates to the software being pushed out to users regularly by the development team. This is even more impressive when you realize that the PCSX2 emulator is nearly just as old as the actual console that it’s emulating. Not only does this emulator have a ton of history behind it, but the fact that it’s still being updated regularly and improved all these years later is a testament to the dedication that goes into it behind the scenes.

PCSX2 cheat codes are available to use, but setting them up requires a bit of know-how. Check out our PCSX2 cheats guide for a quick how-to and get them all set up.

Running now for almost an entire 20 years, PCSX2 is a free and open-source PS2 emulator that emulates the PlayStation 2 hardware, allowing it to run PS2 games.

Several features of PCSX2 are:

• Custom resolutions and upscaling available
• Virtual and shareable memory card functionality
• Save states
• Patches
• Gameplay recorder

You can also play your favorite PS2 games as originally intended using an external controller. Be sure to check out our PCSX2 controller setup guide to get started.

A larger portion of the official PS2’s game library is either in a perfect or playable state. You can see a full list of compatible games here.

NSX2: An Open-Source Alternative

NSX2 is an open-source PS2 emulator alternative to the above-mentioned PCSX2. We previously said that PCSX2 is the best emulator that you can use for PS2 emulation, however, we also decided to include NSX2 on this list for those who might be looking for a more hands-on experience.

This emulator isn’t really for you if you’re looking for an out-of-the-box game-ready emulator that can play a ton of different PS2 games. You see, NSX2 was one of the first emulators to arrive on the PS2 emulation scene back in the day and subsequently is quite old. It’s not the most up-to-date emulator and its compatibility list isn’t anywhere near what you’ll get with PCSX2.

That being said, if you want to get your hands dirty and contribute to an emulator’s source code, NSX2 is a great project to consider. Because it’s open source, you can freely grab the codebase from its GitHub and help out. It could definitely use the help as the list of PS2 games that it can emulate well is rather old considering how long it’s been available, but this is likely because it’s often overshadowed by the behemoth that is PCSX2.

Android Options

If you’ve got an Android phone or tablet, you’re in luck. There are a number of options you have for emulating PS2 games on your devices. These emulators have their own set of features and the compatibility and performance you’ll get will vary depending on the emulator you choose.

Let’s look more closely at Android-based Playstation II emulators and discover and see which might be right for you.

AetherSX2

AetherSX2 is one of the newcomers to this list. The developer behind it released a few newer updates that made it a great contender in the PS2 emulation scene, but unfortunately they decided that they no longer wanted to keep up with the project and subsequently stepped away from upkeeping it. The official website reads the following statement from the developer:

AetherSX2 development is indefinitely suspended.

Due to neverending impersonating, complaints, demands, and now death threats, I’m done.

You can still download/use the app and it will continue to work for the forseeable future.

AetherSX2 was always meant to be a fun hobby for me, not profit driven. It doesn’t make sense to continue working on a hobby which isn’t fun anymore.

Stay safe out there, and watch out for scammers, there seems to be a lot of them.

(e.g. there’s multiple people claiming to represent AetherSX2 on various social media – they are not legit)

Thanks to everyone who wasn’t a d*ck for the last year.

Current build downloads are still available at https://www.aethersx2.com/archive/ – please follow good security hygiene and don’t install APKs from random sources.

Update 2023/01/10: I no longer have any active online presence in any community. Anyone claiming to be Tahlreth, or represent AetherSX2, is impersonating and scamming you.
I hope the threats and hate will stop now.

It really is a shame because AetherSX2 had so much potential! Its Google Play listing page shows that over 5 million users downloaded the emulator and it has an average star rating of 4.4 stars. Reading through the recent app reviews, it seems that some people are saying that the app was recently purchased by another company that added ads to it and are still releasing updates for it.

We’re not sure how true all of that information is, but from what we can see on the Google Play Store, the app does seem to now contain ads.

To play PS2 ROM on AetherSX2, you’ll need a BIOS file dumped from your own PS2 console using a homebrew application. The recommended app to use for this is biosdrain. You’ll also want to have a performant Android device, the higher end the better, to ensure games run at a decent performance. It’s recommended that your phone or tablet is at least a Snapdragon 845 equivalent.

Notable features of the AetherSX2 emulator:

• System simulation
• OpenGL, Vulkan and Software rendering
• Upscaling of games to 1080p+
• Widescreen gameplay for games that don’t usually have native support
• Save states
• Touchscreen and external Bluetooth controller support
• Games can be loaded from iso, chd, and cso disc images
• Individual game settings

Be sure to read our review for a full breakdown of the AetherPS2 PS2 emulator Android app.

DamonPS2

DamonPS2 is another PS2 emulator for Android smartphones that was actually created by the Chinese company DamonPlay Technology Co. Not only is this emulator fast, it also boasts that it has a staggering 90% compatibility with PS2 game ROMs. We haven’t tested this bold claim ourselves and can’t verify how accurate those numbers are, but it is listed on the app’s Playstore page.

Because DamonPS2 was created by a company and not just passionate retro gaming fans, you’ll notice that some of the UX choices made aren’t exactly user-friendly. A prime example of this is the sheer number of ads that you’ll see when trying to do just about anything in the app alone with all of the features that are hidden behind in-app purchase paywalls.

If you look at the recent ratings and reviews for the app you’ll see a ton of people mention app crashes, slower speeds while running games, and the overwhelming number of ads just to play a single PS2 game. One user said that the performance of the games they ran wasn’t great and it took watching a total of 5 ads just to be able to access a single game.

There’s also a pro version of the app, but because of everything we previously mentioned and more, while we did decide to put DamonPS2 on this list just to add it as an alternative option, we don’t necessarily recommend you check it out. You should probably just steer clear of it as there are better alternatives out there to it that not only have a better user interface and user experience, but that will likely run your games better as well.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Emulating PS2 Games

Depending on the type of gamer that you are, you may prefer emulating your PS2 games from the comfort of your desktop PC or laptop. If you’re someone who prefers more of a handheld experience, using an Android phone or tablet allows you to have the added portability that you can’t necessarily get on a computer.

That being said, in terms of performance and experience, playing on a computer is likely the best you’ll get, although these days Android PS2 emulation is surprisingly good as well granted your phone or tablet is powerful enough.

With certain emulators like PCSX2, users even have the ability to improve the game visuals by taking advantage of anti-aliasing and texture filtering options.

Unfortunately, performance problems may occur when using low-specification machines or where compatibility is limited and this ultimately can lead to slow gameplay speeds along with graphical glitches and crashing. The world scenario is having to play through poor performance and frame rate issues.

If possible, it’s best to be selective with the devices you emulator on and emulators you choose to use to ensure that games like Final Fantasy can run properly and at full speed.

Summary

Playing PlayStation 2 games on emulators is a great way to play through beloved childhood memories and relish classic titles. These classic PS2 games can look better than ever before thanks to emulation.

As you saw from this list, there are a few different PS3 emulation options available for both PC and Android devices like PCSX2, NSX2, AetherSX2, and more that can provide a solid retro gaming experience.

All of the emulators listed also allow external controller support. So pick out your favorite controller and get comfy because it’s time to relive some classic PS2 games!

Be sure to also check out our guide on how to set up the RetroArch PS2 core PCSX2.

Frequently Asked Questions

What emulator runs PS2?

This list has a few different emulators that run PS2 games. It depends what kind of device you have as to which emulator you should download and use. If you’re playing on the PC, we recommend you use the PCSX2 emulator, but if you’re looking to play games on an Android phone or tablet, you should check out the AetherSX2 emulator which you can grab from the Google PlayStore.

Is PS2 harder to emulate than GameCube?

The Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 are contenders for demanding consoles to run emulation-wise. Speaking strictly from a graphical perspective, the GameCube had better graphics than the PS2, but the PS2 if famously known as the more difficult console to emulate. You’ll need to use a device on the higher end in order to be able to run your games well, whereas you can usually run Dolphin and most games relatively fine on somewhat older hardware.

What are the best PS2 emulators for PC and Android?

The best PS2 emulator for PC is the PCSX2 emulator and for Android, the best emulator is the AetherSX2 app.