Teaming up with others can take the joy of gaming to the next level. Nothing beats winning the World Cup on FIFA with your best mate. Or pulling off an adrenaline-pumping GTA Online heist with your outlaw crew.
In fact, communal play is woven into the DNA of gaming. Back in the eighties, when the Nintendo Entertainment System offered 8-bit escapism, players had to wait their turn to play multiplayer Mario.
Fortunately, those days are firmly behind us. Pick up any new online game, and there’s a big chance you’ll be able to join forces with your friends. Nowhere is this more evident than in the latest crop of survival adventures that have taken the gaming world by storm. The likes of Minecraft, Valheim, Sons of the Forest, and Palworld enable players to build, hunt, and fight in packs.
To think there was a time when you had to invite your best mate over for a Mario Kart sesh. Still, for those who prefer to game with people in the same room, a bounty of local co-op titles await, in part thanks to the Nintendo Switch.
So, whether you’re looking to hang out with your busy mates online or just want to join in with the kids, these are the best co-op games you can play right now. We’ve handpicked 30 titles for consoles and PC and highlighted our top 10 favourites to get you started.
Best co-op games in 2024
- Halo Infinite
- It Takes Two
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder
- A Way Out
- Luigi’s Mansion
- Stardew Valley
- Overcooked
- Diablo 4
- Helldivers 2
- Rocket League
- Remnant 2
- EA FC 24
- Valheim
- Deep Rock Galactic
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure
- Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
- Division 2
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Portal 2
- Gears 5
- TMNT Shredder’s Revenge
- Minecraft
- Resident Evil 5
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Pang Adventures
- Sons of the Forest
- Broforce
- Dying Light 2
- Payday 2
- GTA Online
Halo Infinite
Platforms: Xbox, PC
Type: Online co-op
Staying true to its roots, the latest Halo game lets you play the entirety of its epic campaign in a team of four. Load your buddies into a Warthog offroader and start tearing up the gleaming ringworld of Zeta Halo. Seeing a squad of heavily armed Master Chiefs romping around, laying waste to a battalion of evil aliens, is a blast. When your crew inevitably gets besieged, you can jump in a futuristic Scorpion tank and pummel your foes to smithereens. Split-screen would have been the icing on the cake, but it’s easy to see why it’s absent. This vast, open-world adventure deserves to take up all of the space on the biggest screen in your home. All told, Halo Infinite is the most fun you can have with your mates on the latest Xbox consoles.
It Takes Two
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
Type: Online and local co-op
It Takes Two is a co-op game in the truest sense of the word because it can’t be played solo. Like Honey I Shrunk the Kids meets Toy Story, the platformer stars a miniature husband and wife duo on a dizzying journey to save their failing marriage. Joining forces with another player, you’ll complete a series of nostalgia-filled levels, scattered with mini-games that rely on teamwork. You’ll dash across dusty videotapes and cassettes in the attic, get chased by a mole beneath your garden, and sail a toy ship in your daughter’s room. A game that rewards cooperation like no other, It Takes Two is a marvel of modern gameplay design that’s also a hoot to play.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Platforms: Switch
Type: Local co-op
Mario and the gang returned in spectacular fashion in this candy-coloured platformer. The side-scrolling adventure is hectic enough on your own, but with three others it gets fiendishly chaotic. One moment, you’ll be fleeing blue buffalos, the next you’ll be dodging singing Piranha Plants. All it takes is a mistimed move, and you could be fish food for a giant, saw-toothed Smackerel. Adding to the frenzy, the camera keeps up with the best player in the pack, putting everyone else in peril. Thankfully, the new power-ups can do wonders (ahem), including one that turns you into an elephant with a super-soaker trunk.
A Way Out
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, PC
Type: Online and local co-op
You and another player will pull off a high-stakes prison break and attempt to outrun the law in this co-op gem. Yes, it mirrors the plot of a genre movie that you’d normally catch on a sleepy Sunday night and swear was a forgotten classic. Fittingly, it even stars a couple of hard-boiled leading men with dubious goatees and mutton chops. Of course, the pair form a bond as they try to survive the wild, fix familial crises, and take down cops and criminals. Between the bullets and middle-aged emotional turmoil, they even manage to sneak in a game of Connect Four. The pleasing distractions are par for the course in another top-notch game from Hazelight Studios, the developer behind It Takes Two.
Luigi’s Mansion 3
Platforms: Switch
Type: Online and local co-op
Luigi stopped playing second fiddle to his brother Mario to hunt some ghouls in this delightfully inventive haunted house game. Don’t worry, the cartoonish ghosts won’t scare the kids, and they’ll get a giggle out of sucking them up with their hoovers. Two players can complete the game’s campaign together, although one will have to settle for Luigi’s viscous alter-ego Gooigi. Elsewhere, up to eight ghostbusters can tackle poltergeists online, or split off into pairs for competitive mini-games.
Stardew Valley
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
Type: Online and local co-op
Invite up to three of your pals to help on your placid farm on Stardew Valley. After building their cabins, the four of you can explore the game’s bucolic world, mine, farm, fish and befriend locals from the sleepy settlement of Pelican Town. Just make sure to communicate what you’re doing with your crew using voice or text chat - and a bunch of cute emojis. In the eight years since its release, the beloved cozy game has added multiple activities, pets, festivals, and locations through six major updates - meaning now is a great time to jump in. The last of those recently launched on PC, and allows up to eight players to play at once.
Overcooked 2
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
Type: Online and local co-op
The dishes come thick and fast in Overcooked 2, a busy multiplayer game that’s best played in a group of four. Budding Gordon Ramsays can designate team members a role in the kitchen, from chopping veggies to frying steaks to doing the dishes. Good luck keeping your cool as the timer ticks down and the orders pile up. When the sashimi hits the fan, you can always throw ingredients at each other to get things moving. If you thought cooking in a restaurant was tough, try doing it in a hot air balloon.
Diablo 4
Platforms: PS5, Xbox, PC
Type: Online and local co-op
There’s always time to knock off another dungeon in Diablo 4 - a hellish trawl through a netherworld filled with ghouls, vampires and satanic hounds. It’s enough to make Clive Barker weep tears of blood. The multi-pronged campaign awaits a gang of four online or a duo at home. You’ll hack and slash your way through hordes of nasties on the beck and call of Lilith, the game’s high priestess of evil. Before you know it, you’ll be swapping out blades, armour and potions in your bulging inventory like a pro. Once you master your special abilities, you’ll relish laying waste to the armies of the undead. If you want a meaty RPG to sink your teeth into, it doesn’t get better than Diablo 4.
Helldivers 2
Platforms: PS5, PC
Type: Online co-op
Your friends’ shrieks will ring through your ears for weeks after a bug-filled onslaught in Helldivers 2. The surprise hit of 2024, this explosive shooter sees teams of up to four players liberating planets from the scourge of creepy crawlies and spiky droids. If the enemies don’t kill you, your friends might. Unlike other extraction games, where the goal is to complete an objective and get out alive, here you can easily catch a stray bullet from a teammate. Worse still, you may get blown to bits by a misplaced air strike. It’s all played for laughs, with the satirical tone of a Vietnam war movie by way of Paul Verhoeven - whose Starship Troopers is the template for the game’s ultra-violent hijinks. Call it Post-Apocalypse Now. Remember soldier: Leave no Helldiver behind.
Rocket League
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
Type: Online and local co-op
Ever played a game of five-a-side football and thought to yourself: “This would be even better with cars?”
No? Must just be us then. With its addictive matches set in gravity-defying domes, Rocket League is the best casual co-op game on this list. Fire it up and watch the hours dissipate as your team tries to put more goals past your opponents. We dare you to lose a game and not immediately opt for a rematch. Fist-pumps will fly as you tee up shots, rack up hat-tricks, and crash through rival drivers en route to another victory.
