Baldur's Gate 3
2023Baldur's Gate 3
A tabletop campaign given a budget, where almost every stupid idea you have actually works.
RPGStrategy
The best co-op games to play with friends
24 hand-picked games
Games built for playing together rather than games that tolerate a second player. Some are two-player only, some take a full squad — the length estimate assumes you're playing with someone.
Stardew Valley
2016Stardew Valley
Inherit a farm, meet the neighbours, lose four hundred hours. One developer made all of it.
SimulationRPG
Minecraft
2011Minecraft
The default answer to "what should we play together" for an entire generation.
SandboxSurvival
Grand Theft Auto V
2013Grand Theft Auto V
Still the benchmark for a city that feels like it was running before you arrived.
ActionOpen World
Terraria
2011Terraria
Looks like a side-scrolling Minecraft, plays like a boss-rush RPG with a construction habit.
SandboxAdventure
Rocket League
2015Rocket League
Car football. Explains itself in ten seconds and takes a decade to get good at.
SportsRacing
Monster Hunter Wilds
2025Monster Hunter Wilds
The most approachable Monster Hunter yet, which still means the first ten hours are a tutorial.
Action RPG
Apex Legends
2019Apex Legends
The battle royale with the best movement, and a ping system every other game copied.
ShooterBattle Royale
Split Fiction
2025Split Fiction
Two-player only, from the It Takes Two studio, and it throws away each good idea before you tire of it.
PlatformerCo-op
Deep Rock Galactic
2020Deep Rock Galactic
Four dwarves, one cave, no map. The best drop-in co-op shooter nobody talks about enough.
ShooterCo-op
Monster Hunter: World
2018Monster Hunter: World
Fight a big animal, wear the big animal, fight a bigger animal. Deeply satisfying loop.
Action RPG
Sea of Thieves
2018Sea of Thieves
The sailing is a four-person job, which is exactly why it works with friends.
AdventureCo-op
Valheim
2021Valheim
Viking survival with genuinely good building. Made by five people, sold millions.
SurvivalSandbox
Mario Kart World
2025Mario Kart World
Mario Kart with the tracks joined into one open world you can just drive around.
RacingParty
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
2018Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Every fighter from every game. The definitive four-people-on-a-couch machine.
FightingParty
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
2017Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
The one game in this list your entire family will agree to play without negotiation.
RacingParty
Elden Ring Nightreign
2025Elden Ring Nightreign
Elden Ring restructured into three-player roguelike runs. A strange idea that mostly works.
Action RPGRoguelike
No Man's Sky
2016No Man's Sky
The redemption arc is real — years of free updates turned it into what it claimed to be.
SurvivalExploration
It Takes Two
2021It Takes Two
Two-player only, start to finish, and it invents a new mechanic roughly every ten minutes.
PlatformerCo-op
Portal 2
2011Portal 2
Fifteen years on, still the gold standard for teaching mechanics without a tutorial.
Puzzle
Don't Starve Together
2016Don't Starve Together
Harsh, funny, and much easier to stomach with friends dying alongside you.
Survival
Overcooked! 2
2018Left 4 Dead 2
2009Left 4 Dead 2
Ancient and still unmatched at what it does. Four people, one hallway, escalating panic.
ShooterCo-op
Untitled Goose Game
2019Untitled Goose Game
You are a horrible goose. That is the entire pitch and it is entirely sufficient.
PuzzleSandbox
How this list is put together
Every game here was added to the PlayNext catalog by hand and tagged individually. The order is editorial — a popularity weight set by a person, not an aggregate review score — so the games most people are actually looking for come first rather than whichever obscure title happens to have a 9.4 average from forty ratings.
Length estimates are how long the game takes to finish, or to feel done with if it doesn't end. Use the game finder to narrow any of these lists further by time and budget.
Other moods
Story-driven games
Chill / cosy games
Competitive games
Quick, pick-up-and-play games
Big time-sink games