Friends or foes, the best multiplayer games let you explore your interpersonal relationships, putting them to the test in droves of challenging and often humorous ways. Whether it be through cooperative team-based challenges or combat-heavy PVP modes, playing with friends is a great way to catch up and unwind, depending on what you’re playing, of course.
With intense multiplayer mayhem, these games and the ones on our best PS5 multiplayer games guide are worth checking out. These will undoubtedly occupy your time and give you a wide variety of titles to play.
The 21 best multiplayer games are:
- Minecraft
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Destiny 2
- Stardew Valley
- Grand Theft Auto 5
- Sea of Thieves
- Fortnite
- Rocket League
- Overcooked All You Can Eat
- Apex Legends
- Hunt Showdown
- Ultimate Chicken Horse
- Super Smash Bros Ultimate
- Minecraft Dungeons
- Remnant 2
- Fall Guys
- Exoprimal
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Splatoon 3
- Diablo 4
1. Minecraft
They say teamwork makes the dream work, and that couldn’t be more true in the blocky sandbox biomes of Minecraft. Build your dream base and search for resources across an evolving map at your own pace.
A great first-time multiplayer game for groups finding their social feet, Minecraft has an extremely forgiving difficulty curve that puts player imagination at its forefront. There’s nothing you can’t build or break together. Just watch out for those creepers, of course.
2. Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2 may be nearly fourteen years old, but it still remains one of the most engaging multiplayer games on the market. Grab your three best allies and take them with you as you attempt to survive the end of the world, one safe room at a time. To make it through, your close group will need to balance ammo, guns, healing items, and throwables to oppose the AI Director’s plans and take down the Special Infected across a variety of mission types, putting communication, egos, and skills to the test.
With a multitude of zombie challengers to defeat across several diverse campaigns,s, Left 4 Dead 2 always finds a way to feel new, even after hundreds of hours of playtime.
3. Destiny 2
Explore and defend space with your best buds in the sequel to Bungie’s post-Halo hit, Destiny 2. This action-packed FPS MMO will let you work with or against friends to unearth secrets across vast planetary expanses, testing your aim and loadout-building abilities along the way.
With no shortage of quirky gear and loot to find across the stars, it’s incredibly easy for you and your team to sink hours into Destiny 2’s raids, strikes, and gauntlets, especially given that the base game is free to play.
4. Stardew Valley
Not all multiplayer games have to be about fighting off an apocalypse or taking on your teammates. Sometimes, it can just be about farming peacefully and exploring a lavishly-animated pixel town.
Stardew Valley’s single-player campaign can be made richer with the inclusion of up to four players, allowing your group to plant, pick and play in peace. Though, if you want to seek out some action, the mines are always an option for some intriguing combat and deep rock exploration.
5. Grand Theft Auto V
Have you ever wanted to play competitive darts with your friends, but instead of darts, you use cars, and instead of a dart board, it’s precariously small platforms on a lake? Thanks to GTA 5’s multiplayer, you can do just that and more in the form of one of its many great minigames, Overtime Rumble. And that’s just scratching the surface of what fun can be had in Los Santos with your friends.
Outside of the minigames available, players can also take on heists, which allow you to work together tactically to get in, get out, and get paid. And, once finished with all the activities available, you’re welcome to make trouble in the overworld, taking on other players and getting in the way of law enforcement for even more unbridled chaos.
6. Sea of Thieves
Pick your best crewmates and get to plundering in this seafaring open-world multiplayer adventure. This pirate tale lets you join hands and make the open water your home as you seek out treasures and take on other teams for nautical glory.
With a brand new DLC adding a Monkey Island-themed campaign to the game world, there is no better time to take to the open ocean. Maybe your pirate troupe can even solve the eponymous island’s famous secret
7. Fortnite
A titan in the battle royale world, Fortnite is also one of the most popular multiplayer games on the planet, and for good reason. Across an impressively detailed map full of combat compounds, your squad will need to take out other players shot by shot to achieve a coveted Victory Royale.
For a more bespoke touch on multiplayer, Epic Games has introduced a custom editing tool that lets you create obstacle courses and challenges to share with friends and the community, adding a new layer of chaotic fun to the Fortnite world.
8. Rocket League
When the weather is too bad outside to kick a football around, Rocket League, the car-based soccer competition, is sure to fill the void. No ordinary car, of course, these vehicles are hitched to some significant horsepower pushing your cohort to flip, drift, and jump around a giant football field, smashing giant balls into the back of futuristic nets.
Much like other games in this list, Rocket League features a season pass that updates all the time giving your party access to all sorts of prizes as you nutmeg your way to victory.
9. Overcooked All You Can Eat
If mayhem is in your wheelhouse, then Overcooked: All You Can Eat is the multiplayer game for you. Endeavor to save a kingdom one meal at a time, working as a team to keep things running smoothly. Where other cooking simulators might stay close to reality, Overcooked throws moving platforms, complex dishes, and clumsy physics-based movements into the pot, some additions that make succeeding more difficult than at first glance.
The All You Can Eat edition consolidates all the best features of the series into one chaotic game, meaning there’s no lack of delicious content to dig into with your team. Plus, being able to customize your little chef into all kinds of fits offers some additional silliness to saving the realm.
10. Apex Legends
Respawn Entertainment’s battle royale shooter Apex Legends is a high-intensity competition that’ll put your teamwork to the test against other groups of players online.
In Apex, everyone can pick a hero that suits them and collaborate on their tenuous survival, using individual talents and sharp gunplay to create situations where your group ends up on top. With seasons releasing every three months, there is more than enough content to keep you busy.
11. Hunt Showdown
Hunt: Showdown is a period-piece first-person shooter that features compelling online multiplayer where you must engage in clever gunplay to defeat nightmarish monsters. Putting your avatar’s body on the line, you’ll need to fight all your fears and pursue a new kind of victory against enemies with your pals in tow. You can’t just enter a firefight with a beast, and you’ll likely want to get your best tacticians on the team when commencing assaults.
Once adept at picking apart the monsters, Hunt: Showdown’s Bounty Hunter mode twists things a little, adding more competition to your hunts. Here you’ll still want to get a prize catch; just be aware you won’t be the only ones and that PVE can turn to PVP very quickly.
12. Ultimate Chicken Horse
If infuriating your friends is your multiplayer currency of choice, look no further than Ultimate Chicken Horse. What can only be described as a vindictive obstacle course builder, UCH offers up a range of stages you and your friends can continually customize round by round.
In Ultimate Chicken Horse, the goal is to make it to the end unscathed whilst also ensuring your teammates take a spill along the way. If everyone makes it, no one wins, so make sure to be as cruel as you can, so long as you can make it to the end yourself.
13. Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Brawl with your besties in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, a PVP fighting game that gives you a chance to pit some of your favorite characters against one another whilst also beating out friends in a brutal blaze of glory.
With a huge range of fighters, stages, and items to choose from, Smash Bros keeps things fresh no many how many grudge matches you and your mates may undertake.
14. Minecraft Dungeons
Dungeon crawlers are always made better in groups, and Minecraft Dungeons, Mojang’s blocky RPG spin-off, is no exception to that rule. Throughout the core campaign and all the DLC, many of Minecraft’s best visual assets are on show, often with some clever tweaks giving them new meaning and isometric interactivity. With all your favorite mobs and icons popping up all over the place, Dungeons balances its new gameplay style with blocky references perfectly.
Much like the fighting found in the original Minecraft game, the combat in Dungeons feels extremely tactile, with every calculated slash and jab bringing you closer to success. Along your paths through levels, there are plenty of adrenaline-pumping boss battles and mini-missions that you’ll be forced to complete to finish, and these tasks create hefty tension as you delve deeper into the game’s world.
15. Remnant 2
“A refined soulslike shooter sequel” to Remnant From the Ashes, according to our Remnant 2 review, Gunfire Games’ latest installment in the RPG shooter series positively iterates on its predecessor in almost every possible way.
If there’s a trio of you looking for something to do, and that something just so happens to be blasting the stuffing out of otherworldly creatures and deities, then Remnant 2 is the ideal way to go about it.
16. Fall Guys
Enter the Blunderdome with your closest crew in Fall Guys, an online multiplayer game that asks you to push through a large and challenging obstacle course to achieve ultimate glory. In the wackiest costumes, you can put together, you and three friends can collaborate and navigate all manner of odd physical puzzles evocative of game shows like Takeshi’s Castle.
With seasonal content updates happening all the time, Fall Guys is sure to keep you and your friends busy for months to come.
17. Exoprimal
Dinosaurs and mechs – what’s not to love? Exoprimal is Capcom’s latest release that takes the fight to the future and the past, as you work in teams of five to complete a wide array of objectives, all while racing another troupe of exosuit-donning dino fighters. Working together fast is key because even though Exoprimal matches begin as a PVE experience, it soon turns to PVP as you progress through its challenges and face your enemies during the final task.
The quicker you take out your prehistoric enemies, the more advantage you’ll have against the other players, making it a formidable challenge, not only of how well your crew can work as a team but how fast they can dispatch other players. You can read our Exoprimal review here.
18. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Notorious for tearing apart friends and families, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe pits racer against racer in gorgeously-animated Nintendo style. Once you’ve picked your driver, from Luigi to Link, you can drift corners around iconic stages and fight to the finish.
But of course, it’s not just the danger-littered courses you need to worry about; racers can pick up all manner of powerups to knock each other off course, from banana peels to blue shells.
19. Mortal Kombat 11
While other games on this list let you solve disputes among friends with healthy competition, Mortal Kombat 11 brings a new level of brutality to finding resolutions. Engage in some bloody gore-filled finishers to steal bragging rights from your mates in style.
Whether you’re a Scorpion stan, a Sub-Zero fangirl or simply someone who wants to button-mash their way to success, Mortal Kombat 11’s beefy roster summons its years of fighting game prestige to deliver a holistic experience with something for everyone. Those with weak stomachs may need to take regular breaks, though, as some of MK11’s finishers are brutal enough to shake even the toughest players.
20. Splatoon 3
Get the band together and paint the town red, literally, in Splatoon 3, Nintendo’s wonderfully messy third-person shooter… Set in a sprawling, stylish metropolis, you’ll need to choose between being an Inkling or an Octoling to fight it out in a wide range of areas, with eight players split into two teams of four. Your party will need to spread your ink and frustrate other plays to gain control of the area and reign supreme.
The added bonus of Splatoon’s character customization is also a key part of the experience, letting you fully embrace your own unique fashion sense and tastes as part of the team, or for those who want to coordinate, you can also match up, showcasing a united fashion front in the battle.
21. Diablo 4
Diablo’s historic multiplayer has long been hailed as a reliable and epic experience that doubles as a fun way to take on the forces of evil with friends. This time around, it’s Lillith poisoning the minds of locals, and with monsters on the prowl, you and your friends can gallivant the land in search of loot, blood, and glory.
Once you get into the meat of the game, you’ll also be able to root out random encounters with evildoers that your group can take on with other players across the world, creating an even more collaborative way to dungeon crawl.
There is our list of the best multiplayer games. Whether you’re logging into your PC or powering on your PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo Switch, we’re confident you’ll find something on our list to satisfy all your multiplayer cravings.
