If couch co-op play helps friends join together for a fun night, online co-op games make sure that link is maintained even when friends are in faraway places. It’s the perfect game category when looking for a fun time, and a great opportunity to create stronger bonds with new and existing acquaintances.
With friends backing you up, rather than blasting you in the head, co-op games also give you a great path to discovering new genres, as the learning curve feels easier. What I love most about co-op games is their potential for creating hilarious moments that bring a smile to your face every time you remember them.
Co-op games can also offer a highly competitive experience, but even then, it’s you plus your team against the game or another team. In other words, you’re never alone against the world. From zombie bashing to pirate sailing, here is my list of the best online co-op games. As usual, feel free to share your favourite picks on our social media.
Left 4 Dead 2
Release date: November 16, 2009 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360.
Also one of the best zombie games ever, Left 4 Dead 2 is a fantastic co-op title with a great focus on teamwork and communication. Its AI Director balances gameplay really well between frantic combat and resource availability, making each game feel unique without overwhelming new players.
By adjusting the zombies’ spawn rate and location, this game forces you to remain close together, encouraging you to share scarce medical supplies while always checking that nobody is left behind. From bashing hordes of brain-eating zombies to surviving the special infected attacks, there’s no shortage of action in Left 4 Dead 2. I especially like the Versus mode, which puts real players in control of said special zombies, making them deadlier than before.
That said, co-op vs AI play still offers more than enough fun, with plenty of unique maps to play through with your friends, including multiple difficulty levels to suit your skills.
Portal 2
Release date: April 18, 2011 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch.
Portal 2 elevates cooperative puzzle-solving into a masterclass of spatial logic. At first glance, you may think having a second portal gun will make things easier, but the game quickly reminds you that you will need not only two guns, but also two brains to solve some of its puzzles. Thankfully, you’re not alone, as you can play with one friend.
Unlike Left 4 Dead 2 and many other games on this list, Portal 2 requires flawless communication and trust between you and your teammate. Depending on the level, you may need to synchronise your movements, manipulate interconnected portals, or transfer objects using your portals.
Often, timing is of the essence, as any delay means a door closing or a bridge collapsing, forcing you to start all over again. That said, the game never feels unfair, encouraging you to retry as much as many times as you like, instead of reprimanding you for your failure.
What makes Portal 2 an even greater co-op game is its easy-to-understand mechanics and controls, which create an ideal playground even for someone holding a controller for the first time.
Payday 2
Release date: August 13, 2013 | Platforms: PC, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch.
Payday 2 takes the co-op principle and fuels it with high-adrenaline heists, requiring require extreme levels of coordination and task allocation skills. Regardless of the heist location you select, your team must stay in perfect sync, all while remaining undetected by guards and security apparatus.
While you can go in guns blazing, the game encourages stealth tactics, where each member of the team takes a specific small objective that forms part of a greater common goal. For example, when robbing a bank, one player may be tasked with keeping hostages under control; an easy-sounding task until one hostage finds an opening to call the police.
When things don’t go as planned, which happens more often than you might expect, coordination remains paramount. Whenever the alarm rings, your team enters a race against the clock, where both individual skills and teamwork become mandatory for surviving the overwhelming police assaults. If you want to test your team’s coordination skills, this is the game to play.
Helldivers 2
Release date: February 8, 2024 | Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S.
Helldivers 2 delivers chaotic, cinematic sci-fi warfare where accidental friendly fire is a core mechanic. In this one, your squad must coordinate its advance through infested alien territory, where Left 4 Dead 2 zombies would look like harmless training dummies.
Due to the game’s active friendly fire, each grenade throw or orbital strike must be coordinated to avoid inadvertently killing a teammate. So, on top of keeping your location vis-à-vis your friends in mind, you must also remember the position of their explosive attacks, unless you don’t mind becoming the gazillionth war casualty.
If you keep these simple rules in mind, Helldivers 2 becomes a highly addictive alien onslaught battle, with plenty of replayability and fun moments. And to top it off, you can do so even if your friends play on different devices and consoles, since the game supports cross-platform play.
Sea of Thieves
Release date: March 20, 2018 | Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5.
Unlike the other games on this list, which all force you into a strict gameplay trajectory with objectives to accomplish and a finish line to reach, Sea of Thieves instead fosters an open-ended adventure where you decide what to do and when to do it.
Feel like hunting a phantom ship? Go ahead. Your friend is scared of ghosts? Follow a treasure map instead. Want to let loose your inner pirate? Go hunt other players and claim their loot. In Sea of Thieves, you are masters of your destiny.
Teamwork is more important than ever in this game, since each part of your pirate ship requires a player to attend to it. Depending on the situation, the same player can be helmsman (steering), a trimmer (controlling sails), or the person trying to keep the vessel afloat by patching hull holes and scooping infiltrated water. With no automated systems, each task must be performed manually, creating a deeply immersive cooperative experience.
The Outlast Trials
Release date: March 5, 2024 | Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2.
The Outlast Trials merges intense psychological horror with cooperative survival in a surprisingly enjoyable package. This time around, your team is encouraged to split up to accomplish different objectives, while avoiding being caught by one of the game’s grotesque monsters.
By doing so, the game maximises tension without hindering the co-operative gameplay element. Like Left 4 Dead 2, you must share attack and healing items, all while covering each other when needed.
While The Outlast Trials has fewer monsters roaming the map than Left 4 Dead, each one is dangerous enough to present a serious challenge. As such, communicating their locations to your friends is highly important, unless you want to have a laugh hearing them scream while asking for help.
Even if you’re not into horror games, I highly recommend testing The Outlast Trials. Before I played it, I would have never guessed this genre could be so much fun to play cooperatively with friends.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Release date: July 16, 2015 | Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Meta Quest.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes creates communication mayhem, thanks to its unique gameplay where only one player visually sees what’s happening. You play as a bomb-defusing squad, where one player has contact with the bomb, while the others help defuse it by reading manuals and identifying disarmament procedures based on the former’s description of the device.
This simple principle turns what could be a basic bomb defusing game into a thrilling puzzle, where short and accurate descriptions are more important than your gameplay skills. By pitting you against a racing countdown timer, the game drives up tension as it goes.
As if this weren’t enough, each mistake, be it cutting the wrong wire or pressing the wrong button, speeds up the timer, which turns the remaining minutes of each round into a frantic, high-speed scramble. The game basically relies entirely on verbal communication through third-party apps like Discord, and it has a unique flavour that’s unmatched by other co-op games – it’s just so reliant on the participants.
I also love the fact you can physically print the bomb diffusion manuals on paper, which extends the game beyond the boundaries of your PC or console, making it feel all the more real when you’re in the moment.
Bonus
If you’re looking for a game that’s more story-driven, or better suited to just two players, It Takes Two, Split Fiction, and A Way Out, which were featured in our best couch co-op games roundup, are also great options to play with a friend or family member.
