And if you’re looking for multiplayer games in particular, whether co-op or competitive, the selection doesn’t become much less daunting. Xbox Game Pass has a wide range of games covering nearly every potential taste or style — but if you’re looking for the absolute gems among its multiplayer selection, you’re in luck. Today, we’re curating the best multiplayer offerings that the service has to offer.
Don’t yet have Xbox Game Pass?
Click here to join Xbox Game Pass and get your first month for $1.
Despite multiplayer games having the tendency to cater to groups of friends looking to have a great time, some diverge from this goal. Instead, they focus on breaking friendships by pitting everyone against each other in games of fair/unfair and ingenious competition.Ultimate Chicken Horsejoins the likes ofSpeedrunnersandGang Beastsas a multiplayer game clearly geared toward testing the bonds between you and your friends. All in the name of that competitive spirit.
You and your (for now) friends essentially have to create platforming paths to reach the end of a level. However, you don’t just lay out platforms. You can place spike traps, inconvenient gravity holes, slippery ice, and more in your quest to make the journey difficult for your compatriots. After laying the groundwork, no matter how treacherous, you all have to race to the finish line. Whoever doesn’t die and gets there first wins. It’s a simple objective, made difficult by your friends.
There is nothing quite like playingGTA Onlinein the world. Of all the multiplayer games someone could dip into that are available on Xbox Game Pass,Grand Theft Auto Onlinegives players more depth and freedom to live a life outside of their own. You can start a career in crime, engage in a list of side activities bigger than your arm, build a thriving, heist-minded enterprise for you and your friends, and basically just get up to so many shenanigans.
If you loved even a fraction of the freedom that the base story ofGTA Vgave you, then ignoringGTA Onlineis a crying shame. Some multiplayer games are all about the skills you can display and competition; some are about the grind for loot.GTA Onlineis all about fun.
The premise of33 Immortalscaught my eye the minute I saw the first trailer. A roguelike boss-rush-like, bullet hell-like that features up to 33 other players is intriguing, you’ve got to admit. After playing it in early access using Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, I can now confirm that it is not just an intriguing premise. It’s a hella good one. (Forgive me the use of “hella,” please.) After picking up a weapon, customizing your little damned soul, and equipping any ability-enhancing Relics you have acquired, you head out into a purgatory landscape alongside 32 other damned souls.
Once there, you fight battles in various locations to unlock one mega battle against a big bad. The joy in33 Immortalstruly comes from the multiplayer aspect of the game. You get the feeling of being in an MMO boss fight without the accompanying hassle of level grinding; it’s a streamlined version of the best parts of an MMO. There’s nothing more enjoyable than to rush toward a giant skeletal devil and see dozens of people doing the same thing.
And the moment when everyone uses their cooperative powers (each weapon type gives you a different one) against a boss makes the joint effort both a visual delight and a powerful gameplay incentive to work together. It’s overall fantastic and worth dipping your toes into at least once, though you’ll probably stick around for a while after that first taste.
Supporting both local and online multiplayer,Kingdom Two Crownsis a fairly mellow experience you can share with your friends. Situated in a two-dimensional side-scrolling environment, the game has you and one other friend roam the land, gathering resources to make your initially small kingdom larger. You build it bit by bit, exploring the areas to either side. You occasionally encounter night-driven enemies who will attack you on your expeditions or swarm the defenses of your blossoming kingdom.
Eventually, when the bounds of the land become too small for your now expanded realm, you’re able to set sail to a new country and expand there. It’s an enjoyable experience, made even better by having a friend by your side as you conquer the known and unknown world.
Not everyone plays a multiplayer game for tension. Some people play just to have a chill time with the bros. Laidback and fun.Hunt: Showdown 1896is not for those people.Hunt: Showdown 1896is for the people who love to sweat bullets, knowing there are drastic repercussions for every in-game decision you make.
Sure, you can hunt down terrifying monsters of legend with a couple of friends, having a jolly cooperative time, but the main draw of the game is the complete and utter tension that blankets the whole experience when you fear another player is somewhere around about to a) steal your bounty or b) kill you. If that kind of nail-biting, brow-moistening, palm-sweatening gameplay sounds up your alley, thenHunt: Showdown 1896is just the multiplayer game you’ve been looking for.
When you’re picking games to play with friends, it’s always nice to have a diverse array of options to pick from. A never-ending supply of battle royales or hero shooters would make game nights feel a little stale. So when browsing through Xbox Game Pass for new multiplayer games, imagine our delight upon landing onCrash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
It may seem like an obligatory inclusion — I mean, how exactly do you expect to get through a “best multiplayer games” roster without the most recentCall of Dutyrelease making an appearance? It’s like eggs without bacon, peanut butter without jam, dinosaur teeth without… look, you get the picture.
In most respects,Black Ops 6doesn’t break the mold. It packs in the game modes, loadout options, and progression systems you’d expect — and it does all of those definitivelyCODthings exceedingly well to begin with. But its biggest bit of polish (as you’ve surely seen in every bit of promotional material) is the new-ish “omni-directional” movement system, which allows for a ton of John Wick-esque parkour gunplay shenanigans that will take a good long while to get old. And that’s just the core multiplayer. We haven’t even touched zombies yet. Anyway, if you likeCOD, or really just FPS games in general,Black Ops 6deserves more than a bit of your time.
Sometimes, you can’t go wrong with a classic — at least id Software seemed to think so when it surprise-dropped an updated and repackaged port of its classic suite ofDoomandDoom IIduring 2024’s Quakecon.
In addition to everyDoomepisode released to date,Doom + Doom IIalso hosts an updated and rerecorded soundtrack courtesy of Andew Hushult, modding support, a brand-new cooperative and single-player episode, and perhaps most relevant to this particular article, full online multiplayer support alongside a host of brand-new deathmatch maps.
It’s no Zandronum or Zdoom, but the matchmaking is fairly smooth, and the new multiplayer maps are great. The fast-paced arenas are a perfect salve for your boomer-shooter fragfest itch.
The wait is finally over;Valorant(at the time of this writing) has moved to console spaces. And wouldn’t you know, it’s available on Xbox Game Pass.Valorantis a highly competitive shooter that will feel like a second home to anyone who has enjoyed a round ofCS:GOin the past few years. However, there’s a dash of “hero shooter” thrown into the mix as well.
You play as one of 24 available Agents, each of which has unique abilities that make them suited to playing the role of a controller, duelist, what-have-you, on a team of five against five. You then take turns attacking and defending as you would in a regularCounter-Strikegame. However, the hero shooter elements really come into play as you strategically engage in team fights for control of pathways. If our current selection of multiplayer games on Xbox Game Pass felt too cooperative in nature, then the addition ofValorantis a definite competitive feather in our cap.
Most often, the joy you find in multiplayer games comes not from the competitive element, but from the cooperative one. And nothing screams jolly cooperation like gathering your friends to be part of an interdimensional moving company.Moving Out 2is the sequel to the delightful physics-based first game, in which you and your friends play as movers. Together, you help the denizens of a town gather their belongings and toss them onto a moving van. Yes, there are fragile items, but you’re paid for speed, not caution.
You’re technically not paid at all; this is a video game.
In this fun-filled second title, your company has expanded beyond the merely local, and you can take portals to strange new places and help those people with their moving needs. No matter where you and your pals are working, it’s going to be hilarious as you need to work independently to move smaller items more quickly and cooperatively to heft larger pieces of furniture onto the truck. And while your customers might not yell at you for damaging their goods, your friends certainly will, as you incorrectly toss chairs where they shouldn’t go, accidentally slide on slippery surfaces, and jostle your way to messy victories.
