Sony's PlayStation console is now in its fifth generation, and during the past 30 years, we've seen 3D gaming evolve into offering unprecedented levels of realism, online connectivity become the norm and digital downloads dominate the sales charts.
One thing that hasn't improved all that much is boot time—and by that, we mean the time it takes for your PlayStation console to boot up from a cold start.
On one hand, this is understandable—modern-day consoles are doing so much more behind the scenes than their decades-old counterparts, so it stands to reason that they might need a little longer to warm up—plus they offer 'sleep' modes which allow them to boot pretty quickly, getting you into the game as fast as possible.
Even so, it's amazing to note that the PS2—Sony's second PlayStation, which launched all the way back in 2000—comes out on top when it comes to how rapidly it can be switched on. It boots in a rapid 11.05 seconds.
Next up, amazingly, is the original PlayStation, which boots in 11.13 seconds. Not bad at all in the context of 2025, but it's amusing to recall that, for a generation raised on instant-loading cartridges, this will have felt a long time back in 1995.
Next is the PS5, which is ready to play in 20 seconds from start-up. It is followed by the PS4 Pro, which takes a little longer to boot at 20.24 seconds.
At the back of the pack, we have the standard PS4 (22.24 seconds) and the PS3 (25.07 seconds).
Comments 12
As pointed out, the PS1 felt very slow compared to what we were used to at the time and even today, my modern OLED feels very sluggish when switching inputs or reacting to a console being turned on
Doesn't surprise me that PS2 and 1 are the quickest. They aren't as complex as later PS models.
Bung an SSD in the PS4 Pro and the boot time is, if anything, slightly quicker, than the PS5...
PS2 and PS1 don't have hard drives or network connections and so they're just booting from the firmware OS.
This does seem pretty obvious but it's still cool to look back and remember how it used to feel
The ps1 load time was very slow with a slightly scratched disk. I remember waiting for some games not knowing if they would actually boot at all!
But PS5 has SUpeR MeGa fAsT SSD! Oh, wait...
In any case those boot times are fine.
My immediate guess was that it was actually the ps1. I have a base model ps4 and I find unbelievably slow to boot up and actually get into a game. I never timed it but I find the time reported here to be faster than I expected. I would have guessed it takes a minute or so…
What about PSP or Vita?
Ps2 would have been my guess. Add another couple minutes to ps3 and ps4 because it seemed like I always had to update either the console or the game before they would start. I guess one of the benefits of those consoles being on the way out (or long gone in ps3's case).
@Steel76
The ps1's boot bios screen is the only screen i am even remotely nostalgic for
Nobody ever measured the Nintendo-playstation prototype?
@Blofse
Depends on how much data the laser lens of the PS1 has to read, condition of the laser lens and the disc. A bad lens will read discs much slower if not at all. Likewise with a scratched disc. The more data the laser lens has to pick up, the longer the load time which varies game to game. A laser lens will eventually go bad in time and will need to be replaced. Luckily today, we have gaming enthusists who are also engineers willing to rebuild new laser lens for old hardware...for a price of course.
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