Split Fiction screenshot
Split Fiction screenshot

What Are The Best Coop Games To Play In 2025?

Coop Games provide memorable gaming moments because they allow you to laugh, cry, or celebrate with someone else; however, finding the right game for a group can be challenging. At polarservicecenter.net, we understand the importance of finding the right game to enjoy with friends. Our goal is to help you discover exciting coop games that suit your group’s preferences, enhancing your gaming experience and making it more enjoyable. With our help, you can optimize your leisure activities and create lasting memories with friends, while also ensuring your Polar devices are always in top condition with our reliable support services.

1: The Best Dirt-Cheap Coop Games

These coop games are affordable and perfect for those spur-of-the-moment gaming sessions with friends.

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1.1: Coop Games Your Whole Group Chat Will Buy

Finding a game that everyone in your group chat agrees on can be tough. Here are some great coop games under $10 that make it super easy to just drop the link in your group chat on Friday afternoon and say: “Everyone buy this. We’re playing tonight.” Be warned, some are more friend group PvP than strictly co-operative, but they’re all good for gaming together.

1.2: Coop Games To Snag On Sale

Aside from those eternal freebies, there are a few more coop games we recommend that have higher normal prices but go on sale all the time. Here are great coop games and the price that you’ll often see them discounted to:

Game Discounted Price
Portal 2 $5
Don’t Starve Together $7.50
Overcooked! 2 $12.50

2: What Are The Best Two-Player Coop Games?

These games are perfect for duos looking for engaging and immersive experiences.

2.1: Split Fiction

This is another great coop campaign game from Hazelight Studio.

Split Fiction screenshotSplit Fiction screenshot

In Split Fiction, you play as two pals who are aspiring writers, one fantasy fanatic and one sci-fi freak who wind up stuck together in their respective stories. Like Hazelight’s prior coop adventure It Takes Two, Split Fiction swaps up what genre of game you’re actually playing constantly and somehow pulls off that breakneck pace. One minute you’re solving puzzles in a fantasy realm by shape-shifting into apes and fairies, the next you’re space marines in a 2.5D sidescroller using your guns and the power of friendship to bust into a futuristic prison.

Just like Hazelight’s prior games, only one friend needs to own a copy of the game while the other can download the “friend pass” version for free to join in.

Read more: Split Fiction review

2.2: Styx: Shards of Darkness

The second Styx game is a real rarity: a coop stealth campaign.

Styx: Shards of Darkness - Styx hides behind a crate holding aknife while a guard looks out over a dock at night.Styx: Shards of Darkness – Styx hides behind a crate holding aknife while a guard looks out over a dock at night.

It’s like 2-player Hitman but full of sweary goblins. Each level is a big map patrolled by various enemy types where you can choose your own approach, whether that be poisoning food and dropping light fixtures on heads or going for a loud kill before running away into the crawl spaces. It’s a great romp with a friend as you each take different skill unlocks for new stealth abilities and start pulling off simultaneous kills.

Read more: Styx: Shards of Darkness review

2.3: We Were Here

The We Were Here is a puzzle adventure series designed entirely around coop.

Best coop games - We Were Here - A player holds a walkie talkie and candle while looking at a contraption with several levers.Best coop games – We Were Here – A player holds a walkie talkie and candle while looking at a contraption with several levers.

The puzzles are inspired by escape rooms and games like Myst, and you and your coop partner have to talk each other through what you’re seeing and doing to get through together. As we wrote about one of the sequels, you and your partner are the real puzzle—figuring out how to communicate is the challenge and satisfaction of this trilogy.

The first game, We Were Here, is free, while sequels We Were Here Too and We Were Here Together are each under $15. There’s also now a spinoff series of short puzzle experiences similar in length to the original game called We Were Here Expeditions.

Read more: So far, coop puzzle game We Were Here Forever is the best in the series

2.4: Outward

Outward provides an RPG experience like few others on PC.

Outward - A player stands at the base of a purple mountainOutward – A player stands at the base of a purple mountain

You’re a truly fragile nobody. There are no map waypoints to guide you where to go, and no level-ups to raise your stats and make you stronger. You can’t fast-travel across the world. You have to navigate by landmarks and play as cautiously you would in a real adventure across the world, and that’s a really fun experience with a friend by your side.

As Chris wrote in his Outward review: “It makes minor setbacks feel like major obstacles to overcome and it makes small victories feel like utter triumphs. Outward is harsh and occasionally frustrating, but it does what so few games do. It requires you to put real thought into the choices you make, and it makes those choices feel like they really matter.”

Read more: Playing Outward with a reckless coop partner is a good way to test your relationship

2.5: Portal 2

There’s no denying the raw quality of Portal 2’s distinct coop campaign.

Portal 1 - 2 robots carrying portal guns leap across a test chamber roomPortal 1 – 2 robots carrying portal guns leap across a test chamber room

As the two testing robots Atlas and P-Body, you and a friend get to explore the darker, more dangerous side of GlaDOS’s testing routines—the stuff that’s too dangerous for (non-protagonist) human testers. The three-dimensional spatial thinking that makes the Portal series so addictive is only magnified when there’s another friend getting stumped at the puzzles with you.

Portal 2’s coop is strongest when neither of you know the answer: if your partner waits patiently for you, you feel like a moron; if they don’t, they’ll be rushing you through all the discovery that makes the game great. Several years after release, though, finding two fresh players would be a rare trick indeed. Luckily, Valve’s excellent map editor community has created a full array of excellent new maps to explore, and get stumped in, together.

Read more: Portal Reloaded is the closest we’re likely to get to Portal 3

3: What Are The Best Four-Player Coop Games?

These games are perfect for friend groups looking for action-packed adventures.

3.1: Monster Hunter Wilds

Monster Hunter may have a reputation for clunky multiplayer but Monster Hunter Wilds multiplayer is, at least, less fiddly than in the past.

A hunter poses with a large hammer as their palico cheers nearby in Monster Hunter Wilds.A hunter poses with a large hammer as their palico cheers nearby in Monster Hunter Wilds.

Wilds supplants Rise on this list thanks to the new link party system that makes heading out on free-roam hunts and sticking together with friends just a bit easier than in Rise.

Wilds is way more approachable game overall than other parts of the series, so it’s a good entry point to drag friends into as they learn to fight giant monsters with their choice of oversized weapon.

Read more: Monster Hunter Wilds review

3.2: Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 absolutely took over the first half of the year when it launched in 2024.

A squad of heroic helldivers stood back-to-back, firing weapons at bugs in Helldivers 2.A squad of heroic helldivers stood back-to-back, firing weapons at bugs in Helldivers 2.

It’s a fast-paced, third-person squad shooter ideal for for players. The intergalacic war needs you to defeat horiffic bugs, bots, mechs, and other extra-terrestrial threats. But you’re not some undefeated hero, you’re just a bunch of grunts doing your damndest not to get impaled by giant bugs and eke out a victory in each mission.

One of the most incredible parts of Helldivers 2 has been its evolving galactic war in which an actual Helldivers 2 “Game Master” at Arrowhead Game Studios is in charge of the meta narrative. The studio has surprised players with tweaking difficulty on certain planets behind the scenes and interrupting a planned offensive in one part of the galaxy with the sudden appearance of Automatons on another front. Arrowhead likens it to running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for millions of people.

Read more: Helldivers 2 review

3.3: Palworld

The Pokémon-imitating crafting game Palworld was a smash hit when it launched and for good reason.

An image of two Palworld trainers seated by a campfire while their pal breaths a jet of flame onto the logs.An image of two Palworld trainers seated by a campfire while their pal breaths a jet of flame onto the logs.

Coop crafting remains super compelling and so does creature collecting, and wouldn’t you know it? They’re great together too. It’s all about the resource gathering grind to unlock new structures and crafting stations in a tech tree while upgrading your ever-expanding base. You’ll also have boss battles against other Pal tamers to pursue as you explore.

It’s specifically excellent in coop because having several players and their Pals all working together alleviates a bit of the resource grind that would otherwise encourage you to participate in Palworld’s weird Pal labor exploitation side. If you need a new open world to build a base in with your group chat, check out our details on Palworld multiplayer to get set up.

Read more: Palworld breeding guide

3.4: Lethal Company

One of the latest viral hits in the genre of wacky social horror games that Phasmophobia popularized, Lethal Company is another one that’s best when listening to your friends die.

Scientists in a labScientists in a lab

Like Phasmo, the humor here comes from proximity-based voice chat in which hearing a friend’s muffled voice from the room next door suddenly becomes screaming for their life.

On its face, Lethal Company is a run-based game where you and your unlucky pals need to loot scrap from abandoned spaceships to hit the company-set quota. Except the thing’s haunted. It’s always haunted with horrifying monsters.

Read more: Lethal Company is a viral hit in no small part thanks to all the intense shouting

3.5: Satisfactory

Satisfactory gives the first impression of a galactic survival sim in the vein of No Man’s Sky, but play for five minutes and you realize that it’s actually a very pretty, very satisfying cooperative logistics game.

Satisfactory - two players co-op while standing at the top of a large factory contstructionSatisfactory – two players co-op while standing at the top of a large factory contstruction

After several years in early access, Satisfactory has finally launched its 1.0 version, so it’s a great time to finally try it.

Players start from the ground up gathering resources and building machines that will help you build more useful machines and automate the whole process. This can be fun alone, but in group play you really feel the benefit of extra pairs of hands.

Eventually, you can make fully automated planetary factories with AI assistants, self-driving delivery trucks, miles of conveyor belts, and train networks.

Read more: After 5 years in early access, Satisfactory is finally out—here’s what’s new in 1.0

3.6: Don’t Starve Together

Klei fought shy of adding coop to its brilliant game of goth survival whimsy for a couple of years, reasoning (not unreasonably) that the addition of other people might break its esoteric spell, which relies on feelings of isolation and discovery.

DonDon

Turns out the developer needn’t have worried, because a disaster shared is even more fun. The mutual blame when a deerclops stomps through your camp, ruining days worth of winter prep, is a strategy game in itself.

In keeping with Klei’s attention to detail and balance across its games, the core Don’t Starve experience is tweaked across Together’s three modes—Survival, Wilderness, and Endless—to ensure revival items and certain character abilities aren’t overpowered. It’s Endless mode that you’ll likely find most enjoyable, chilling out on Discord with a friend whilst pooling your resources to try to keep each other alive against the increasingly brutal effects of the seasons.

Remember: Happiness is a fridge full of frogs legs.

Read more: Don’t Starve Together — the first five days

3.7: Back 4 Blood

Back 4 Blood proves that there’s more life to squeeze out of coop zombie shooter.

Back 4 Blood - four players stand together with weapons ready to enter a door labeled Back 4 Blood – four players stand together with weapons ready to enter a door labeled

Turtle Rock’s spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead drags the genre into the 2020s with modern conventions like aim-down-sights, sprinting, mantling, and a card-based progression system. Amazingly, it all works pretty darn well.

Back 4 Blood is perfect for a crew of four that’s tired of playing through Left 4 Dead 2 for the billionth time, but what it gains in depth it loses in simplicity. There is really good, mindless zombie shooting to be had here, but only after spending a few minutes fiddling with cards and deciding on a loadout.

Read more: Best coop 2021: Back 4 Blood

3.8: Deep Rock Galactic

Deep Rock Galactic is like procedurally generated Left 4 Dead with bits of resource management and open-ended exploration.

A screenshot of Deep Rock Galactic showing 4 dwarves in hazmat suits standing in a row.A screenshot of Deep Rock Galactic showing 4 dwarves in hazmat suits standing in a row.

It had its issues when it launched in Early Access in 2018, but developer Ghost Ship Games has spent the last several years bulking it up with new weapons, biomes, enemies, mission types, and challenges. Where before missions felt pointless, you now always have weapon unlocks on the horizon that change up the playstyles of its four dwarf classes. It’s a casual game to go spelunking in together. The shooting feels great and its voxel-based destruction never gets old. Deep Rock has found its groove, and hopefully keeps on growing.

Read more: Deep Rock Galactic is a doorway to infinite co-op adventure

3.9: Warhammer: Vermintide 2

This sequel to Vermintide confidently expands on the Left 4 Dead-alike formula, adding a whole new faction of enemies to fight in addition to the Skaven, and more robust class leveling and loot systems.

Best coop games - Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - A party of four players stands together with weapons drawn.Best coop games – Warhammer: Vermintide 2 – A party of four players stands together with weapons drawn.

It still feels nice and meaty when you smash in a rat man’s face with a giant club, and there’s a welcome build variety now with the game’s five characters. Switching characters or even classes makes levels easily replayable a dozen times over.

If you loved Left 4 Dead but have simply played enough of it for the past decade, this is one place you should redirect your attention. There are newer coop games these days, like Back 4 Blood, but Vermintide is great for a few dozen hours of bloody melee carnage. It’s also gotten a lot of free (and paid) post-release support, adding quite a few levels to an already substantial campaign.

Read more: Vermintide 2: Chaos Wastes feels like a Winds of Magic do-over

3.10: Divinity: Original Sin 2

You can play one of the best RPGs ever made with up to three other friends in online coop.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - a party of three players enters battle togetherDivinity: Original Sin 2 – a party of three players enters battle together

Larian’s newer and bigger RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 is also coop. However, playing as origin characters in BG3 forces you to miss out on story interactions with the characters you’re each playing as, so I’d still recommend going with D:OS2 for coop.

Chaos and player agency reign supreme in such a reactive world, meaning one friend could piss off a guard or reveal their undead identity at an inopportune time—but that’s exactly what makes Divinity 2 so great with friends.

You’re no longer dealing with a loyal party of characters you shape over time. You’re dealing with three other stubborn people, all vying for different outcomes. It’s a beautiful role-playing mess set in one of the most lush, engaging RPG worlds ever. And once you complete the campaign, the Game Master mode lets you create new campaigns from scratch with an extensive D&D-style dungeon master’s toolkit.

Read more: This Divinity: Original Sin 2 total overhaul mod has me itching to play it all over again

3.11: Sea of Thieves

Rare’s swashbuckling sandbox makes for a decent coop game but it really shines as a coop hangout.

sea of thieves bury bootysea of thieves bury booty

Sea of Thieves is one of the most stunningly beautiful open world games and it can be completely undemanding—board a ship with your friends, pick a direction, and just sail around drinking grog until you barf, playing musical instruments, and firing each other out of cannons. Or just chat for an hour while you cruise around taking in the picturesque sunsets. Nowadays, the game is regularly updated with new quests that are sometimes frustrating but frequently serve up some thrilling Goonies-esque moments of adventure, and will make you feel like a brilliant crew of swashbucklers.

For excitement you can chase down other crews for some bracing ship-to-ship combat, hunt for buried treasure, or take down a skeleton fort, but it’s just as enjoyable to treat it like a chat room with beautiful waves and the occasional Kraken.

Read more: Two Sea of Thieves players became Pirate Legends in a single day without getting sunk

3.12: Overcooked! 2

Overcooked is chaos incarnate.

Overcooked 2 co-op - two players collaborate to construct pizzas in a castleOvercooked 2 co-op – two players collaborate to construct pizzas in a castle

It’s the type of coop game where you’re supposed to be helping each other so that you’ll all succeed, but you may never want to speak to the people you play with ever again by the end of it. Overcooked 2 shares the same penchant for destroying relationships, but before you hate each other, you’ll love playing this game together. The sequel adds new maps and new complexity. You can play multiplayer locally or online. Now you can make sushi, and there’s teleportation involved. Just like your standard kitchen, really.

Read more: Overcooked 2 review

4: What Are The Best More-Player Coop Games?

These games are perfect for larger groups looking to share a virtual world together.

4.1: Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley coop now supports up to 8 players all sharing the same farm.

Stardew Valley multiplayer - three players harvest pumpkins and other crops together in a small walled garden outside a cabin with a nearby orchardStardew Valley multiplayer – three players harvest pumpkins and other crops together in a small walled garden outside a cabin with a nearby orchard

Stardew Valley used to support up to 4 players in coop but now allows groups of up to 8 to all share a farm together.

It’s a pleasant place to spend time together, dividing up the endless farm chores and watching your overgrown homestead slowly morph into a thriving veggie kingdom. Multiplayer works pretty seamlessly: you have your own houses, inventories, and relationships with the townsfolk, so your whole crew can mostly do their own thing, then come together for special season events. While you become the master of planting, I’ll be over here catching enough fish to keep us in money during the winter.

Read more: Stardew Valley is so lovely, even its creator spent the pandemic hanging out there

4.2: Valheim

Valheim doesn’t reinvent survival games, but it gets rid of all the stuff we don’t like about them.

Valheim - a player stands in a grassy field hefting a pickaxeValheim – a player stands in a grassy field hefting a pickaxe

This relaxing, but punishing PvE camping trip to Viking purgatory will never let you starve to death, and you’ll never need to pay a dime to repair your items. All the busywork is gone, replaced by a gorgeous, threatening world, and an elegant crafting system that lets you make everything from ugly lean-tos to the flippin’ Eye of Sauron. Teaming up with friends to plan adventures and build a home together makes the experience even better.

In his Early Access review, Chris sums it up nicely: “Valheim is an utterly engrossing experience that blends thoughtfully-designed survival systems with exciting RPG-like adventures, where each small nugget of progress sets the stage for the next.”

Read more: Valheim is making me love survival games again

4.3: Project Zomboid

Apocalypse survival game Project Zomboid has been shambling through early access for years but saw a huge resurgence at the end of 2021 when a major multiplayer update was released.

Project Zomboid - A player on a city sidewalk is attacked by two zombies.Project Zomboid – A player on a city sidewalk is attacked by two zombies.

It may not be a looker, but the simulation in Zomboid is deep and surviving with friends is heart-stoppingly tense. Thanks to a lot of custom game settings, you can trun Zomboid into an intense running and gunning game or dial it all the way back to an apocalypse effectively devoid of zombies where you’ll farm, fish, and fuel up your vehicle to haul across the map.

Read more: How to start a dedicated server for Project Zomboid

4.4: Minecraft

Of course Minecraft makes the list.

Minecraft Realms - various Minecraft characters worship or celebrate a giant LlamaMinecraft Realms – various Minecraft characters worship or celebrate a giant Llama

You probably don’t need us to tell you Minecraft is very fun with friends, but on the off chance you’ve never experienced the joy of creating a little settlement or exploring miles-deep caverns with 8-20 of your best buds, it’s still as good a time as any. The Minecraft of today has hundreds of hours of stuff to do (or thousands if you’re a natural builder).

If you want the quick and easy route to multiplayer with friends, Minecraft Bedrock Edition is the one you want. You can host a game with up to four players or rent an official Realms server that supports up to 11 players at once. If you’re aiming bigger and want to explore the endless world of public Minecraft servers, then you’ll want to go with Minecraft Java.

Read more: How to download Minecraft on PC and install the version you need

4.5: Halo: The Master Chief Collection

The Halo series may have the most replayable FPS campaigns ever.

Halo 3 - A damaged sci-fi jeep dodges plasma rounds from an alien tankHalo 3 – A damaged sci-fi jeep dodges plasma rounds from an alien tank

Each game has a handful of levels that put you in wide open spaces, free to tackle enemies when and how you choose. Steal a ghost or warthog and careen around the map running over Covenant enemies are they dive out of the way. Seek out a rocket launcher to blow them to smithereens. Hide behind cover and ping down their shields with headshots. Harder difficulties are made easier with a coop partner, since as long as one of you is alive, there’s a chance to respawn. In the Master Chief Collection, you can even toggle on a scoring mode and modifiers that tweak enemy behavior (or make them explode into confetti). It’s a good time.

Now that every game in the Master Chief Collection has arrived on PC and has crossplay with Xbox, it has become one of the ultimate coop packages in games. And of course, all of the games are on Game Pass, too.

Read more: I wish 343 would leave Halo: The Master Chief Collection alone

4.6: Grand Theft Auto Online

GTA Online has a whole of stuff going on, but the heists bring out the best in Rockstar’s open-world playground.

How to start The Contract in GTA OnlineHow to start The Contract in GTA Online

Four players team up to conquer a series of story-like missions that involve each team member performing a different role building up to a bigger heist. This includes everything from stealing vehicles as part of the setup to assassinations and other interconnected tasks—the missions very cleverly allow everyone to feel like they’re playing a key part in the journey towards that endgame of earning mega money.

When all four players come together in the finale of each heist, making a dramatic escape from the cops as a collective is incredibly exciting and rewarding—more so than anything found in the main story. If only Rockstar would make more of them. They’d be worth paying for.

Read more: How to play on GTA 5 roleplaying servers

4.7: Forza Horizon 5

As has become a habit with the Forza Horizon series, the latest version of Playground Games’ social racer is also the best.

Forza Horizon 5 - a car interior in first person while a player holds the steering wheel in one hand racing on a brick road at nightForza Horizon 5 – a car interior in first person while a player holds the steering wheel in one hand racing on a brick road at night

Horizon 5 makes it super easy to hop into an open world lobby with friends and do whatever the hell you feel like. Out of the box, Horizon 5’s Mexico map has hundreds of races, stunt jumps, drift competitions, and cross-country treks that can quickly devour entire nights of gaming, and that’s if you don’t spend an hour custom tuning its hundreds of cars or creating your own liveries.

If your buds are car people as much as they’re game people, look no further.

Read more: Best Open World 2021: Forza Horizon 5

5: FAQ About Coop Games

5.1: What are coop games?

Coop games are video games that allow players to work together towards a common goal. They emphasize teamwork and communication, providing a shared gaming experience.

5.2: Why are coop games popular?

Coop games are popular because they enhance social interaction, require strategic thinking, and offer a sense of accomplishment when overcoming challenges together.

5.3: What types of coop games are available?

There are various types of coop games, including action, puzzle, RPG, and simulation games, each offering unique gameplay mechanics and challenges.

5.4: How do I choose the right coop game for my group?

Consider your group’s preferences, desired level of difficulty, and available platforms when selecting a coop game to ensure everyone enjoys the experience.

5.5: Can coop games improve teamwork skills?

Yes, coop games can improve teamwork skills by requiring players to communicate effectively, coordinate their actions, and support each other to achieve common objectives. According to research from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Integrative Physiology, in July 2025, P provides Y

5.6: What are the benefits of playing coop games?

Playing coop games can reduce stress and anxiety.

5.7: What are some popular coop game franchises?

Popular coop game franchises include Halo, Left 4 Dead, and Overcooked, known for their engaging gameplay and replayability.

5.8: Are there coop games suitable for families?

Yes, there are many coop games

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