By what your pair wants to play
Co-op against the game. Deep Rock Galactic is the standout for this pairing specifically. Diablo IV is the pick for a long-haul RPG you return to weekly, and it carries your character across both platforms thanks to cross-progression.
Competitive. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has full crossplay and a co-op Zombies mode if you would rather team up than fight each other. Rocket League is the free alternative and far easier to get a casual player into.
Something silly for a mixed group. Overcooked! All You Can Eat and Human: Fall Flat both crossplay across everything, both are cheap, and neither requires anyone to be good at games.
Nothing to spend. Fortnite, Rocket League, Fall Guys, and Among Us all cost nothing and connect PC and Xbox instantly. See the free hub.
Adding a third platform later
If someone on PlayStation or Switch joins your group, your list narrows sharply - and Deep Rock Galactic drops out entirely, since PlayStation sits in its own pool. The picks that survive going three-platform-wide are Minecraft, Fortnite, Rocket League, Fall Guys, Human: Fall Flat, Overcooked, and Among Us. Our crossplay hub ranks everything by how many platforms it actually bridges, and we have dedicated pages for PS5 + PC, Xbox + PS5, and Switch + PC.
Play Anywhere and shared saves
A number of Microsoft-published titles ship as Xbox Play Anywhere: buy once, own it on both Xbox and Windows, with saves and achievements carrying between them. For a person who owns both an Xbox and a gaming PC that is genuinely useful - start on the console, continue at the desk. It does not help a pair of different people, since the license is tied to one account, but it is worth checking before buying the same game twice for yourself.
Cross-progression is a separate feature and rarer. Diablo IV is the notable pick here that carries your character across platforms properly, which matters for a long-running RPG where the group plays on different machines at different times.
Input differences: mouse versus controller
In co-op games this is irrelevant - nobody cares how their teammate is aiming. In competitive games it is a real consideration, because mouse and keyboard has a genuine accuracy advantage over a controller in shooters.
Most modern competitive titles handle this with input-based matchmaking: controller players are pooled together and mouse players separately, unless a mixed party forces them into the same lobby. The practical upshot for a PC-and-Xbox pair is that queuing together may place the controller player into mouse-and-keyboard lobbies. If your Xbox friend suddenly finds a game much harder when you party up, this is usually why - and most games expose a setting to prefer one pool over the other. Rocket League avoids the issue almost entirely, which is part of why it is such a reliable mixed-input pick.
Turning crossplay on
Crossplay is usually enabled by default, but not always - some games hide a "crossplay" toggle in network or privacy settings, and Xbox has an account-level setting that can block cross-network play entirely. If you cannot see each other in a friends list, check that setting on the Xbox side first; it is the most common cause.
