The Best Games for Couch Multiplayer, According to Our Readers

Top Product: Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime | $15 | Microsoft Store

Video games serve many purposes. Their wide range of genres and appeal span far and has only gotten more expansive over the years. A video game can be a massive open world to explore in solitude. A video game can be a high-0ctane shooter facing off against other players across the globe. A video game can be a heartbreaking, personal story where the only interaction is the house you’re walking around in. A video game can even be a simple puzzle app on your phone you click around in when you have 5 minutes to kill. But when I hear the term “video game,” what I picture first and foremost is sitting on the couch with three other friends having a few laughs at some silly competitive or cooperative shenanigans happening on screen.

We asked our readers to tell us their favorite local multiplayer games. Whether your chucking shells at your buddy’s kart or ripping their spine out as your brutally murder them. Here are the best games for couch multiplayer.

You play with your screen showing your opponents POV instead of your own. Believe it’s available on multiple platforms.
–ImALeafOnTheWind

For pvp, Towerfall is a great time; it’s simple, and there’s enough randomness to make it fun even for groups with different skill levels. Fights are quick and engaging. The maps are varied enough to keep the game fresh, and there’s some character customization elements as well.
–Dvana

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It takes two is a two-player couch co-op game (also online co-op). It is made by the same folks who made A Way Out (Hazelight), another stellar two-player co-op game. It Takes Two put you in the shoes of a married couple who become characters in a fantastical journey to turn themselves back into their human forms (they’ve become, like, miniature toy versions of themselves) but ultimately find greater meaning by working together.
–ShadowofTime01

Had a blast playing this with my kids! It’s refreshing in that it’s collaborative instead of competition type of game.

Rewards players for communicating to survive and excel and players can kind of choose their levels of difficulty/engagement depending on the station they manage on the ship.
–ImALeafOnTheWind