For Couples

Two people, one couch, no falling out

Couples playing together have a requirement most co-op lists ignore: the game has to work when the two of you have different amounts of gaming experience. That is the usual situation - one person plays regularly, the other picks up a controller a few times a year - and it rules out most of what gets recommended. A game that punishes the less experienced player, or that lets the more experienced one simply do everything, fails.

It Takes Twois the top pick because it solves that problem by design. Each player has different abilities at all times, so neither of you can take over, and the difficulty is deliberately forgiving - it is a game about progressing together rather than about being good at games. The Friend's Pass also means one copy covers both of you.

Stardew Valley is the other half of the answer, and for a lot of couples it is the better one. There is no fail state, no clock, and no pressure - you share a farm, you each potter at your own pace, and progress persists between sessions. It is the game couples actually keep playing months later, where a story co-op game is finished in a fortnight. The catch: multiplayer is same-platform only, so you both need to be on the same system.

Story co-op vs. something to keep returning to

These are two different purchases and it is worth knowing which you want. Story co-op - It Takes Two, Split Fiction, Portal 2 - is a designed arc you finish together over a few evenings, and then it is done. Persistent co-op - Stardew Valley, Minecraft - has no ending and rewards a regular habit. Couples who play once a week are usually better served by the second kind; couples who want a shared project for a specific holiday weekend want the first.

Avoid competitive games early on

Co-op means you versus the game. Versus means you versus each other, and with a skill gap that turns into one person losing repeatedly, which is nobody's idea of an evening. Every pick on this page is cooperative for exactly that reason. If you do want something competitive later, Mario Kart is the one built so the losing player still has a chance.

Picking by how much the less experienced player games

Almost never. Stardew Valley or Minecraft. No reflexes required, no fail state, and the pace is entirely yours. Both are also easy to play in short sessions.

Occasionally.It Takes Two or Split Fiction. Forgiving difficulty, constant novelty, and the asymmetric design means the experienced player physically cannot do the other person's half.

Both of you play regularly. Portal 2 for genuinely hard cooperative puzzles, or Overcooked if you want chaos. Portal 2 is also the cheapest good option here by a wide margin.

If you are long distance

Everything changes when you are not on the same couch. You need online co-op, and if you are on different platforms you need crossplay - which knocks out It Takes Two, Portal 2, and Stardew Valley. Split Fiction and Minecraft are the two picks here that genuinely work across platforms at distance. We have a full page on this: games to play with your partner, plus the wider long-distance hub.

Making the first session go well

If one of you is introducing the other to games, the first evening matters more than the game does. A few things reliably help.

Keep it short. Ninety minutes maximum, and stop while it is still going well. The goal of session one is that there is a session two.

Let them hold the controller first. Ten minutes of just walking around and pressing buttons, with nothing at stake, does more than any amount of explanation. Two analog sticks are genuinely unintuitive the first time.

Do not narrate their mistakes. The fastest way to end this experiment is to coach constantly. Asymmetric games help here structurally - in It Takes Two you are busy with your own half and cannot hover.

Pick the game for them, not for you. The temptation is to share a favorite. The better move is to pick whatever has the lowest barrier and build from there.

Playing on one screen vs. two

If you have one console, everything here works on a single screen and one copy - that is the cheapest and simplest setup, and split-screen games are designed for it. If you each have your own machine in different rooms of the same house, you need online co-op and, unless both machines are the same platform, crossplay. It is easy to forget that "same house" does not mean "same platform": a Switch in the bedroom and a PC in the study have exactly the same crossplay problem as a long-distance couple. Our split-screen page covers the one-screen option and the crossplay hub covers the other.

One copy or two?

On one console on one couch, one copy always covers both of you. Playing from separate rooms or separate homes, It Takes Two and Split Fiction still only need one purchase thanks to the Friend's Pass - that is the best value in couples co-op. Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Portal 2, and Overcooked all need a copy each for online play. Live prices on this page come straight from Amazon and move around a lot, so check before you commit.

One last practical point: buy on the platform you will actually use together. A couple who plays on a shared living-room console should buy there rather than on whichever store happens to be cheapest, because a bargain on a machine only one of you uses is not a bargain at all.