# PlayStation 2

> The PlayStation 2 is one of the best-selling consoles of all time. The PCSX2 emulator can now play almost its entire library on PC, often in HD.

Web page: https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/
Page updated: 2026-09-30

- Developer: Sony
- Released: 2000
- Processor: Emotion Engine (128-bit)
- Processor Speed: 294.912 MHz (Original) | 299 MHz (New)
- Co-Processor: Floating -point unit (FPU) (32-bit)
- Co-Processor Speed: 147.456 MHz
- RAM: 32 MB DRAM
- GPU: Graphics Synthesizer
- GPU Speed: 147.456 MHz
- Video RAM: 4 MB
- Resolution: 256 x 224 to 1280 x 1024 pixels
- Audio Processor: SPU
- Audio Processor Speed: 8 MHz
- Audio Processor RAM: 2 MB
- Audio Channels: 48
- Audio Sample Frequency: 44.1 kHZ or 48 kHZ

The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a sixth-generation console and Sony's successor to its hugely successful PlayStation. It became one of the best-selling consoles of all time, selling over 155 million units during a long lifespan that ran from 2000 to 2013.

The PS2 faced some of the stiffest competition in gaming history, including a new entrant, Microsoft. Its rivals were SEGA's final console, the Dreamcast, Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox.

A key feature of the PS2 was backward compatibility with PlayStation games, so buyers of the new console did not have to abandon their game library or keep their old console. This was unusual at the time, when a new console generally meant starting again with a new library. The PS2 also supported the original PlayStation's DualShock controllers.

PS2 emulation owes its success largely to the PCSX2 project, which was started by members of the team behind the PlayStation emulator PCSX.

PCSX2 proved that PS2 emulation was possible, and after many years of development it has matured exceptionally well. Almost every game is now playable, with good accuracy and speed.

## PlayStation 2 Emulators

- [PCSX2](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/emulator/pcsx2/index.md): PCSX2 is the leading PlayStation 2 emulator. It runs almost the whole PS2 library, often in HD, on Windows, Linux and macOS.
- [Play!](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/emulator/play/index.md): Play! is an open source PlayStation 2 emulator that doesn't need a PS2 BIOS, with builds for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and the web.
- [NeutrinoSX2](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/emulator/neutrinosx2/index.md): NeutrinoSX2 was one of the first open source PlayStation 2 emulators. It never ran commercial games, but its code helped others understand the PS2.
- [PS2emu](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/emulator/ps2emu/index.md): PS2emu is an experimental PlayStation 2 emulator used to test ways of speeding up PS2 emulation. It cannot run any games and is no longer developed.

## PS2 Games

- [Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/games/dragonquestviii/index.md): Dragon Quest VIII is Level-5's 2004 PS2 role-playing game for Square Enix, the series' first fully 3D entry, with Akira Toriyama's characters cel-shaded in a vast open world.
- [Fatal Frame](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/games/fatalframe/index.md): Fatal Frame is Tecmo's 2001 PS2 survival horror game in which Miku searches a haunted mansion for her brother, fighting ghosts with an antique camera.
- [ICO](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/games/ico/index.md): ICO is Team Ico's 2001 PS2 adventure in which a horned boy leads Yorda, a girl he finds caged, out of a vast castle while shadow creatures try to take her back.
- [Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/games/jakanddaxtertheprecursorlegacy/index.md): Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is Naughty Dog's 2001 PS2 platformer in which Jak and Daxter, turned into an ottsel, cross an open world to find a cure.
- [Ratchet & Clank](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/games/ratchetandclank/index.md): Ratchet & Clank is Insomniac Games' 2002 PS2 platformer in which a Lombax mechanic and a small robot cross the galaxy with a growing arsenal of gadgets.
- [Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/games/slycooperandthethieviusraccoonus/index.md): Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is Sucker Punch's 2002 PS2 stealth platformer in which master thief Sly Cooper recovers his family's stolen book.
- [Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike](https://emulationking.com/sony/ps2/games/streetfighteriii3rdstrike/index.md): Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is Capcom's 1999 2D fighting game, known for its parry system; the PS2 version followed in 2004.