Optimal Companionship in Couch Gaming: 16 for Next-Gen XBox

Optimal Companionship in Couch Gaming: 16 for Next-Gen XBox

While playing Xbox Series X/S games online is fun, the most joy comes from couch co-op. The experience of sitting next to your friends or family and working together to complete a game is unrivaled.

Whether you’re looking for something fast-paced or relaxing, the Xbox Series X/S has a great selection of local co-op games to choose from. Here, we’ve rounded up some of the best.

1. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Frankly, you could pick any of the Traveller’s Tales LEGO games and have a wonderful time (they all make for excellent LEGO gifts ), but LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is perhaps the best the developer has produced. It collects together all nine Star Wars films in an action-adventure experience designed for co-op, with hundreds of characters and vehicles to try.

2. Rocket League

If you’re looking for some kinetic entertainment, you’ll find it with the free-to-play Rocket League. You control a fast-paced vehicle, whizzing on the ground and through the air to hit a ball into a goal. It’s soccer combined with vehicular chaos. You can either play in couch co-op or against one another.

Rocket League is also one of the best local multiplayer games for PC . In fact, you can compete against PC players online, thanks to the game’s cross compatibility.

3. It Takes Two

Unlike some games that tack local co-op as an afterthought, It Takes Two is exclusively designed for cooperative play. With incredibly charming visuals, It Takes Two sees you and a partner platform and solve puzzles through a variety of interesting locations. If you enjoy this, check out the developer’s equally impressive game A Way Out.

4. Cuphead

Cuphead is a difficult yet rewarding platformer that lovingly recreates the style of old hand drawn cartoons. It’s inventive and charming, with boss fights so tough that you’ll be glad for support from your friend on the couch. Plus, if you enjoy the game, there’s an equally decent Netflix animated series that you can watch together.

5. Overcooked! All You Can Eat

In Overcooked, you and your friends are the cute chefs that must keep up with the demands of the customers, with an onslaught of funny obstacles and wacky scenarios to keep you on your toes. You’ll need to work in perfect sync to ensure your kitchen doesn’t go up in flames. Expect arguments.

6. Portal 2

Portal 2 first released in 2011, but this incredible game stands the test of time. While there is a superb single-player story, the co-op experience is equally fantastic and fully fledged. You and your robot chum must use the portal gun to navigate complex physical puzzles and escape the rooms.

7. Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is a simulation game that puts you in charge of building your own farm from the ground up, looking after crops and vegetables, and exploring the surrounding world and meeting a cast of charming characters. And you can do all of this in couch co-op, with up to four players. It’s a completely relaxing experience, far different from the usual fast-paced shooters.

8. Unravel Two

In Unravel Two, you and a friend take control of Yarnys—two creatures made from yarn, connected by a single thread. You work together to navigate through a series of treacherous landscapes. This is the perfect Xbox game to play locally with someone who doesn’t usually play many video games.

9. Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Whether you’re a Halo novice or veteran, The Master Chief Collection is the ultimate Xbox experience. It bundles six Halo games into a single package. All of them are worth playing—not only to see how they shaped the first-person shooter genre, but just because they’re downright fun, especially when played in couch co-op.

10. Minecraft

If you have a single creative bone in your body, you’ll love Minecraft. Whatever you imagine, you can build in Minecraft. Don’t let its deceptively simple blocky graphics put you off. You’ll end up spending the whole day with your friends building and exploring, since Minecraft supports up to four players in local co-op.

11. Dirt 5

Nowadays, it’s rare for a racing game to offer split-screen, which is why it’s so delightful that Dirt 5 does. It’s a globe-trotting arcade racer that really gives you the sensation of being behind the wheel of some amazing vehicles, skirting across gravel, ice, and sand as you rev your way to the finish line. While playing Dirt 5 alone is fun, it really comes alive in local co-op.

12. Borderlands 3

Whether you opt for Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (which includes Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel) or Borderlands 3, you’re in for some rollicking first-person fun as you shoot and loot with your friends through these hilarious games. Come for the action, stay for the witty characters.

13. Rayman Legends

Rayman is a certified gaming icon and the series has arguably never been better than in Rayman Legends, a 2D platformer that bursts at the seams with creativity and excitement. Not only is the colorful art a feast for the eyes, but the gameplay offers hours of perfectly finessed platforming fun.

14. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

You might know Crash Bandicoot best from his platformers, but Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a loving remake of the 1999 arcade kart racer. Expect mayhem as you race around wild tropical tracks, using silly items to throw your fellow racers off course. You can play Nitro-Fueled on your Xbox Series X/S with up to four others in local split-screen.

15. The Quarry

Get your thrills with The Quarry, a choice-based horror game where you control nine teenage summer camp counselors as they try to survive the night; your decisions impact who makes it until morning. It supports couch co-op for up to eight people, where each player is assigned a character and passes the controller around—ideal for cost-effective frights.

16. Human Fall Flat

Human Fall Flat is a puzzle platformer, tasking you and a friend to navigate through the themed environments. Sounds simple? It’s anything but, with the slapstick physics meaning you’ll be flailing through the levels. Though you can play this solo, you shouldn’t—it’s much funnier in couch co-op.

Choose Xbox for Endless Couch Co-Op Entertainment

As you’ve seen, the Xbox Series X/S has a plethora of fabulous local co-op games to choose from, whether you’re in the mood for a relaxing farming sim, frantic first-person shooter, or charming puzzle-platformer. Gaming doesn’t have to be a solitary activity!