NBA THE RUN Open Beta Hits PS5, Xbox, And Steam On May 30 With Full Cross-Play
NBA THE RUN's first open beta lands this Saturday, May 30, and for the first time, console players will also get to try. Play by Play Studios, the NBA, and the NBPA are opening the 3v3 streetball game up on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam from 10 AM PDT to 6 PM PDT, with cross-play fully enabled and no sign-ups, waitlists, or game keys required.
It is an eight-hour window, so there's a lot of time to queue up and play. If you were waiting for a hands-on without strings attached, this is the one. Our earlier hands-on preview walked through what the streetball loop feels like at full tilt, and another playtest let us experience single-player 3v3 earlier this month, so this Saturday is the public's turn to find out what NBA THE RUN is all about.
What's Playable in the NBA THE RUN Open Beta
Two modes are in the beta. Knockout Squads drops you onto a three-player team where you control a single character, leaning into the cooperative side of streetball. Knockout Solos hands you all three players on your team, the 3v3 solos I mentioned earlier, which is closer to how a hardcore 2K player would naturally want to read the court.
At the center of the full game is the Run the World Tournament, a four-round knockout where teams of three move through iconic streetball courts and close each tournament out on one of four designated finals courts, with the Run the World trophy on the line. Launch day rolls out with 30-plus NBA stars and five fictional streetball legends, each handcrafted with their own playstyles, and the whole thing runs on true rollback netcode so the crossovers, dives for loose balls, and alley-oops sync clean across players.
The beta roster is stacked. Here's a full list:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo
- Scottie Barnes
- LaMelo Ball
- Jalen Brunson
- Stephen Curry
- Anthony Davis
- Luka Dončić
- Kevin Durant
- Anthony Edwards
- Cooper Flagg
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- LeBron James
- Damian Lillard
- Donovan Mitchell
- Ja Morant
- Victor Wembanyama
- Street Legend Destiny "DJ" Jackson
"DJ" Jackson rounds out the playable cast as the beta's flagship fictional player, a preview of the five legends Play by Play has built for launch. Expression is the headline mechanic. Players will get to try four different advanced dunks and matching taunts, plus the initial implementation of style moves: crossovers, Shammgods, Slip 'N Slides, and more. This is where Play by Play seems to want NBA THE RUN to live, in the gap between an NBA Live arcade game and a serious sim, where every bucket gets to look like a clip, and defending is just as fun as the offense.
NBA THE RUN Launches June 9; Standard & Deluxe Editions Explained
The open beta is a runway for a June 9 launch. The Standard Edition is $29.99 USD. The Deluxe Edition is $39.99 USD and unlocks three rookie-era variants out of the gate: Stephen Curry in his '09 Warriors uniform, Luka Dončić in his '18 Mavericks debut fit, and Kevin Durant in the '07 Seattle SuperSonics uniform. Deluxe also bundles in 1,000 CRED, the in-game currency that buys alternate jerseys, dunk animations, taunts, badges, and banners from the shop. Worth noting that CREDs are earned through in-game play, and apart from purchasing the Deluxe Edition, CREDs cannot be acquired through any additional purchases in the game.
Play by Play Studios is a small independent shop staffed by veterans who shipped some of the biggest sports games of the last two console generations, and NBA THE RUN is their first game as a studio. Play by Play describes their pitch as "the golden age of sports games, made for today's players," and Saturday is the first time the wider public gets to test whether that pitch holds.
The NBA THE RUN open beta runs Saturday, May 30, from 10 AM to 6 PM PDT on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam. The full game launches June 9.
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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 9:00 AM.