Featured Image Credit: LucasArts / Electronic Arts / Valve
The best co-op games to play are often ones which bring you and your friends closer together, with shared experiences leading to fun memories being created.
Whether you’re a fan of shooters, party games, or platformers, there’s usually something out there for everyone.
If you’re looking for a new co-op game to play with your friends, family, or partner, we have some recommendations here that do a suitable job of filling your evening.
Let’s jump into some of the best co-op games you can play on PC or consoles in 2026.
Portal 2 is often cited as an excellent introduction to co-op gaming, and if you play just an hour of the game’s excellent co-operative mode, then you’ll see why.
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Separate from the main campaign, Portal 2’s co-op mode puts you in the role of two robots who must complete different puzzle chambers littered throughout Aperture Science’s laboratories.
Each puzzle doesn’t pressure you to complete as quickly as possible; you don’t have a life bar to worry about, and the solutions often aren’t too difficult, which makes it a rather relaxing one to complete with your co-op partner, and a fun entry-level game to try.
If you’re after a co-op game with a great story you can both follow from start to finish, we’d recommend checking out It Takes Two.
Each player takes control of one-half of a divorcing couple, who are magically transformed into a set of living dolls who must then set aside their differences and work together to repair their relationship and return to their human bodies.
It Takes Two’s biggest strengths (just as its spiritual successor, Split Fiction, also does well) lie in the game’s wide variety of minigames and playstyles, offering new themes and mechanics with every new level that comes along. It’s a fun experience for couples to play together, provided you’re able to grasp the new ideas that keep being introduced.
Easily one of the greatest co-op games of all time, Left 4 Dead 2’s well-structured campaigns and timeless visuals have proven that you don’t need microtransactions and endless progression to keep a strong multiplayer community going.
With the addition of mods, you’ve got a co-operative experience that allows for unlimited potential, with new maps, game modes, and weapons added by fans almost every week.
The campaigns in the original Halo games are among some of the best stories in video game history, and the best part is they’re also extremely fun to play in co-operative multiplayer.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a great place to start, with six games included that have a mix of 2-player and 4-player co-op modes.
Tune up the difficulty, add some skulls to modify the experience, and turn on 4-player split-screen co-op. Congratulations, you’re about to make some incredible memories together.
One of the better co-operative live service successes to come out of the last few years, Helldivers 2’s repeatable content and huge amount of free post-launch content have made it a favourite amongst co-op players.
The memes and shared experiences that have come out of the Helldivers 2 community made it a viral success when the game first released in 2024, and it continues to go strong with thousands of players online every single day.
Lego games have always been at the heart of collaborative gameplay, and what better place to start than with Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga?
A combination of Traveller’s Tales’ first two Lego games, The Complete Saga consists of the six movies that make up the Star Wars original and prequel trilogy, and is the perfect game for fans of the franchise to check out.
Its two-player local co-op mode only enriches the experience by allowing you both to experience a cartoonish take on the series side-by-side.
13 years on since its original release, Payday 2 remains one of the best co-op shooters you can play today, thanks to a vast number of updates the game has received over the years.
Often described as “Left 4 Dead with cops”, the well-designed levels, difficulty balancing and deep skills system make Payday 2 a highly replayable shooter, whether you want to rob banks with your mates or go on covert missions to recover valuable items.
The open-endedness of Minecraft made it an instant success when it launched back in 2011. On a multiplayer server, it’s even better.
The beauty of Minecraft is the idea of being able to build anything, go anywhere, and essentially form your own stories as you play. The game has a solid foundation for you to do all of this without it prompting you to do so. When you add more players into the mix, surviving and thriving together, you’re onto a winner.
It’s all well and good having stress-free co-operative experiences, but if you wanted something a little more intense, we’d recommend none other than Overcooked! 2.
You and up to three others take part in cooking meals together in a busy kitchen, having to prepare meals by coordinating short orders and making sure each one has the right ingredients and doesn’t burn in the oven.
While it can be fun, we’d exercise caution here and say that you will feel overwhelmed playing Overcooked! 2. But, that’s also part of the fun, isn’t it?
Killing Floor 2’s tight gunplay perfects the wave-based horde shooter cycle, with visceral gore effects and flexible map design also providing an intense experience for players.
Think of it as a class-based version of Left 4 Dead, where six-player co-operative lobbies must repel waves of infected enemies, each with their own design, strengths, and weaknesses.
Untitled Goose Game’s premise of being a naughty goose in a peaceful village is one that became a viral sensation when it launched in 2019.
Less than a year later, House House added a co-operative multiplayer mode, which made the whole thing even better.
In terms of content, there isn’t much new in this mode that can’t be seen in singleplayer, but the opportunities that having two geese bring is often hilarious. One player distracts the groundskeeper while another steals his keys. One causes havoc inside the shop while stealing some of the items for sale.
The looter shooter genre is often a little overlooked, but the Borderlands series has always done a good job at keeping players engaged and allowing them to have a fun time levelling up and collecting better gear.
While even the worst Borderlands game can be a good time, we’d recommend going with the second game if you could only choose one. It has the best story, best version of its characters, and is typically the one that fans point to when they recommend the franchise to newcomers.
One of the best updates Stardew Valley ever got was when ConcernedApe added co-op to the game back in 2018, allowing for up to eight players to share a farm.
While it’s not without its limitations, the co-op mode allows multiple people to work on the same farm together, complete quests, and experience a lot of the other content that can be found in a regular playthrough.
