Best Split-Screen Games on Xbox

Xbox quietly has the deepest split-screen library of the three

It is not a marketed feature and Microsoft rarely mentions it, but if you count the games that let a second, third or fourth person pick up a controller and join on one console, Xbox comes out ahead of both PS5 and PC. Two things cause it: a large backwards-compatible catalog from an era when split-screen was standard, and Minecraft - which is a Microsoft game, supports four-player split-screen on console, and has never had split-screen on PC at all.

The practical upshot is that Xbox is the console to be on if your living room regularly has more than two people in it and you do not own a Switch.

Minecraft is the reason this list starts where it does

Minecraft on Xbox runs four-player split-screen on one console, and those four players can then join a world hosted online by friends on PlayStation, Switch, phones or PC, because the Bedrock edition crossplays across all of them. That combination - four locally, unlimited remotely, every platform - is not matched by anything else on any console, and it is why we rank it first here even though It Takes Two is the better game.

Two honest caveats. Split-screen needs a television with enough resolution to be worth quartering, and the Java edition that PC players often mean when they say "Minecraft" is a different product that neither crossplays with this nor has split-screen. Our Minecraft review covers the Bedrock-versus-Java trap in full, because it is the single most common way a mixed group wastes money.

Xbox also got the biggest new split-screen release of the last two years: Halo: Campaign Evolved brings the campaign back in two-player split-screen on console, and on Xbox it is included with Game Pass. Our Halo: Campaign Evolved review has the full verdict, and new split-screen games ranks it against everything else that shipped in 2025 and 2026.

Game Pass changes the maths on trying things

Split-screen is the one feature you genuinely cannot evaluate from a trailer, and the usual advice - check the store page - only tells you whether it exists, not whether it feels good on your television. A subscription that lets you install a game, put two people in front of it for twenty minutes and uninstall it is worth more here than on any other kind of game.

What is in the catalog changes constantly, so we will not publish a list that would be wrong within weeks - check the current line-up on Xbox's own store before you buy anything on this page outright. Our Xbox picks page covers the wider Game Pass angle, and free vs paid multiplayer explains where a subscription does and does not save a group money.

What to check on the store page

Xbox store listings carry an explicit feature list, and the lines that matter are local co-op, local multiplayer and shared/split screen. "Online co-op" on its own means the second player needs their own console. It is a ten-second check that prevents the most common disappointment in this category.

The rest of the shortlist, and who each one suits

It Takes Twois the best pure split-screen game on the console. Two players, split the entire way through, every mechanic designed around the pair, and a Friend's Pass so the second person never buys it. If there are exactly two of you and you want the strongest possible evening, this is it - the review has the detail.

Borderlands 3 is the four-player looter with split-screen on console, a full campaign that ends, and no seasonal treadmill. It is also the cheapest way to put a lot of hours in front of a group. No crossplay, so the friends you take it online with must also be on Xbox - the review and the comparison with Diablo IV both cover that trade.

Diablo IV is the opposite trade: two-player split-screen on console plus full crossplay and cross-progression, so the character you build on the sofa works later in an online group with friends on PS5 and PC. Better for a crew that plays every week, worse for one that plays twice a year. Full review.

Split Fiction and A Way Out complete the Hazelight set - both two-player only, both split-screen throughout, both one copy. Split Fiction adds crossplay; A Way Out is the shortest and the least replayable, which is why we are careful about it on our review.

Overcooked! All You Can Eat is the four-player party pick with full crossplay on top of local play. LEGO Star Wars and Rayman Legends are the all-ages couch games, and Human: Fall Flat is the cheap one that scales to eight online and never requires anyone to be good at video games.

Two on the couch, more online

Minecraft, Borderlands 3 and Diablo IV all support the same underused trick: two people on one Xbox joining an online session with friends elsewhere, so two consoles produce a four-player group. It is the most efficient way for a half-local, half-remote friend group to play, and almost nobody knows which games allow it. We keep the list on split-screen games you can also play online.

The same list on the other platforms

Most of these games exist on PS5 too, and the PS5 split-screen page ranks them for a pair rather than a room. On PC, split-screen is much rarer and the setup is fiddlier - the PC page explains why and what still works. And if the group is bigger than four, or half of it is in other houses, start from the party hub or the PC and Xbox crossplay page instead.