The Best is a Sony PlayStation budget range in Japan and parts of Asia. Similar budget ranges include Greatest Hits in North America, Essentials in PAL regions and BigHit Series in Korea.

For the PlayStation, The Best was followed by PS one Books when the PS one was released in 2001. These games were top selling popular titles that were made available again in a low-priced version under this new label. Games released under the PS one Books label did not come in standard jewel cases like other PlayStation games, but instead came packaged in slim jewel cases. The games' instruction booklets were typically placed outside of the case, with both booklet and case sealed in plastic packaging. The software contained on the discs was usually the original retail game, however bug fixes were applied for a few titles. PS one Books titles were still being released until late 2006.

The first PlayStation 3 The Best titles were released on March 19, 2008.^[1] However Armored Core 4 had been prior released as early as January 10, 2008 in the Best Collection.^[2]