ARMSX2 might be the future of PS2 emulation on Android

While it’s certainly playable, PS2 emulation on Android has largely stagnated since AetherSX2 was abandoned in early 2023. Other devs have done an incredible job tweaking the closed-source code to add new features, but those tweaks can only go so far. After all, it’s based on a PCSX2 build from nearly five years ago.

But now, a new PS2 emulator on Android is finally gaining steam. The team behind ARMSX2 has been quietly plugging away in the shadows to bring the latest version of PCSX2 to Android devices. This week, they began releasing test builds on Discord, and things appear to be moving rapidly.

The latest test build 0.5.4, posted to Discord just last night, features a reworked GL renderer that promises a 15 to 40% increase in performance. The developers also plan to add one-click migration from NetherSX2 in a future update, which should make swapping over as seamless as possible.

But before you overhaul your PS2 emulation setup, keep in mind that this is still a very early build. For the time being, performance will almost assuredly be worse than AetherSX2/NetherSX2 since it’s still using x86 to ARM64 translation rather than native ARM64.

That said, it’s under active development, and it has the potential to overtake NetherSX2 as the best PS2 emulator on Android. Early testers can help squash bugs and bring technical issues to light.

At the moment, the test builds are only available on the official Discord. However, the team will publish the 1.0 release on the project’s GitHub, alongside the full source code, fully complying with PCSX2’s GPL 3.0 license. Stay tuned for more updates as the emulator progresses.