Summary
In recent years, co-op has been left behind by the gaming industry. There was a time when split-screen gaming was an essential part of any game’s design, but lately, it has been treated less like a feature and more like an addition, an afterthought for once the single-player campaign and online multiplayer components have been completed. While somegames likeIt Takes Twohave made co-op their selling point, overall, cooperative play has become a dying art.
Open-world co-op is even harder to come by. While Battle Royale games likeFortnite, Apex Legends,andWarzoneare designed around the idea of squads (which lend themselves to party play), they take place in enclosed arenas. Granting players the freedom an open world provides while still allowing them to team up with their friends to explore it is a tall order, especially when those games typically need to use perspective tricks tohide their loading screens.That’s a hefty task when dealing with more than one perspective. Some games have pulled it off though, and on occasion, it’s been a huge success.
Updated on March 9th, 2025, by Evan Regan:No one can ever say they have too many co-op games to play because it’s simply not possible. Teams of friends are always looking for new ways to squad up and take on new virtual challenges, explore new worlds, and generally have fun hanging out without necessarily having to be in the same room. With that in mind, this list has been updated with a few more open-world co-op games for friends to try out together. Only one is a recent release, but all of them offer a great co-op experience for players looking for more reasons to drag their friends into a new game.
While it’s still in Early Access,Enshroudedalready shows a ton of promise. It’s got a nice blend of familiar mechanics, fromBreath of the Wild-esque gliders toMinecraft-like mining and building, along with some dungeon crawling and puzzle solving. It also features a consistently entertaining musical instrument system where players equip their preferred instruments and join together in making melodic harmonies, for which they are rewarded with stat buffs.
The building systems inEnshroudedare stellar, working similarly to what’s seen in other survival-crafting games but with the added detail of consistently and seamlessly meshing with the environment. It makes structures—and especially interiors—feel incredibly authentic, and it’s a deeply rewarding system. Meanwhile, the game’s dungeons often feature tunnels that can be mined to uncover treasure, which makes for an added layer of cooperative gameplay as players must work together to excavate these passages and uncover the loot within.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandorais probably not the first game players think of when they’re looking for co-op. It’s an open-world Ubisoft game, which are traditionally well-known for being mainly single-player experiences, but in this case, two players can take on the RDA together in this stunning video game.
to access co-op,both players need to complete the first four main missions of the campaign, ending with a quest called “The Aranahe Clan.” After this point, a “Co-Op” option will appear in the game’s System Settings menu. From here, players can invite anyone on their friends list (who also owns the game) to join them on Pandora, allowing them to clear out RDA Outposts and Mining Installations together, as well as tackle quests.
While not everyone will agree thatSaint’s Row 4is the series' best entry, it’s unquestionably the most modern entry in the series—barring the 2022 reboot that was missing every aspect that made the original games special. This series is at its best when the satirical self-referencing and absurdist comedy are cranked to 11, and this entry, where the main character is elected President before being trapped in a simulation, has all of that in spades.
The entire campaign can be played in co-op with two players. Characters can be imported into other players' games with all their customizations and stats, allowing players to share their hilarious and zany self-expression with each other. They can also matchmake and join a stranger’s game, although the server population currently isn’t what it once was in 2013.
Zombie survival and co-op have gone hand in hand for ages, dating back to the originalLeft 4 DeadandDead Islandgames. However, few games capture the feeling of surviving (and thriving) in a zombie apocalypse quite like theDying Lightseries.
The parkour mechanics are what truly elevate this franchise, and they do the same for the co-op gameplay. Players can take on missions together and approach them from vastly different angles. They can race up tall structures or through the streets, try to rack up a kill count or see who can survive the longest at night. The variety of builds offered makes combat different for every player who approaches it and allows for some cool synergies between teammates.
While the comparisons toPokemonwill never go away, the fact is that, outside the superficial monster-hunting aspects that the two games share,Palworldis otherwise an entirely different game. This is an open-world survival game and a third-person shooter. Players seek out and collect Pals to join them in battle or to send them home so they can be put to work on the player’s base.
There is, naturally, also the option for co-op. Players can invite up to three friends to join them in the game world. They can explore together, tackle missions, work on a shared base, or trade Pals among themselves. Players just need to enable multiplayer mode in the World Settings, after which they can invite anyone with whom they share their server code.
For many players, survival games can be a bit intense. The survival mechanics alone, from crafting to resource management to managing thirst and hunger, can be daunting and distract from the more pleasant aspects of adventuring and exploring a vast new world. This is where a game likeAstroneerfills a very important niche. While those survival mechanics are present, they’re extremely casual, allowing players to play and progress at their own pace and focus on doing what they find most enjoyable.
The main goal ofAstroneeris to terraform multiple planets that gradually increase in complexity, and upon completion of this task, they’ll be rewarded with gear and cosmetics. However, this is very much the “pie in the sky” perspective on the game. The reality is that players can do whatever they like. Building, exploring, crafting, or anything in between,Astroneeris a game where a group of friends can jump in and come up with whatever they’d like to do, and then set out and do it, quest goals and campaign progression be damned.
It’s been a minute sinceValheimtook the world by storm in early 2021, but while the hype may have died down, the game itself remains as excellent as ever. The Norse-inspired world is deeply engrossing, the combat is surprisingly satisfying despite its outward appearances, and the settlement-building component places an urgency on teamwork that few other games can mimic.
While word of mouth may not be as strong as it was in the beginning,Valheimhas maintained a consistent player base throughout the last few years. It’s seeing more monthly players now than ever before. With co-op baked into its very bones, whether they’re building a settlement from the dirt up, charging into Purgatory, or tacklingone ofValheim’sterrifying bosses,this game is an experience best enjoyed with friends.
Rock and Stone, brother! Rock and Stone! Sci-fi dwarven mining sims aren’t exactly a common sight in the gaming sphere, andDeep Rock Galacticstands out for that reason alone. As a team of up to four, players descend into a procedurally generated alien mine, using weapons far more potent thanMinecraftSteve’s pickaxe to blast away the surrounding rock and find valuable minerals.
While there is certainly some cathartic joy in blowing through the walls of a level and raking in loot, the real fun comes when players decide to extract. The team will have to make a wholesale sprint back to the entrance of the mine while being chased by alien monsters and goaded by a rapidly decreasing countdown. They all have access to class-specific gear that will make the ascent go more smoothly, but teamwork is still essential in beating out the clock.
The Forestwas one of the better indie releases to launch in 2014, and the developers have been hard at work to bring its sequel to life.Sons of the Forestis the game that many hopeful cooperative open-world fans have been waiting for. The release takes the gritty, horror-inspired survival overtones of the original game and amps them up by adding even more monstrous beings and creepy areas to explore.
Players will be forced to contend with cannibalistic creatures as they monitor their food and water supplies, building structures to keep out of harm’s way while simultaneously exploring a large island teeming with all sorts of hidden gadgets and useful items.Sons of the Forestgreatly improves on the original game while still maintaining the same feeling and gameplay that made the original such a cult classic. Those who are looking for a good horror-survival title—emphasis on “survival”—will find a lot to enjoy withSons of the Forest,which will let them build bases together, survive cannibal onslaughts, and explore freely as a team.
The originalDead Islandwas a huge hit right at the apex of the zombie craze in the early-2010s. The visceral first-person melee combat and array of campy-but-brutal weaponry fed into the zombie survivalist fantasy that so few games had managed to capture.Dead Island 2was announced three years later at E3, and then vanished without a peep for eight years before resurfacing at Gamescom in 2022.
While it was a long time coming, the game that eventually found its way into players' hands was the perfect sequel. All the campiness and brutality were there, but both were given a healthy jolt by the power of modern hardware. Kills are more gory, zombies are more decayed, and the open world is more detailed. Just like the first game,Dead Island 2’scampaign is 99% co-op friendly. Players just have to unlock it by reaching Emma’s mansion, about 20 minutes into the game.
