The PlayStation 5 is officially one year old, though you may not know it by looking at store shelves and online retailers. The console is nearly as hard to find now as it was in 2020, making this generation suffer from an awkward, lurching start. Still, as it turns a year old we can take a look back at its first year on the market, and the parts about it that surprised us the most.

The game library has been surprisingly strong

Before launch there was reason to suspect this launch window would be uncharacteristically weak. The system launched in the midst of a global pandemic, which had already resulted in game delays. It was an open question if many of the next-gen games slated to release within the PS5's first year would actually release at all, but several of them did arrive as scheduled (or with a slight delay).

Cross-gen games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Resident Evil: Village have gotten a notable boost on PS5 compared to their PS4 brethren, and many other games that released near the end of the last generation have gotten free upgrade patches. On top of that, the PS5 has gotten notable and well-reviewed exclusives in its first year, including Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, Demon's Souls, and Deathloop. That's a much more stacked lineup than I would have expected just a year ago at this time.