A finished four-player campaign that still splits the screen.
By Stephen V., Founder & Editor · Last updated August 18, 2026 · How we pick
Borderlands 3 and the four-player co-op games most often weighed against it. Prices are live from Amazon.
| # | Game | Best for | Crossplay | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Borderlands 3 Looter-shooter | A group that likes loot grinding and can play on the same platform. | No | $33.63 |
| 2 |  Diablo IV Action RPG | A group across different consoles that wants a shared long-haul RPG. | Yes - full crossplay + cross-progression | $29.95 |
| 3 |  Deep Rock Galactic Co-op shooter | A crew of up to four dwarves who want procedural co-op mining. | PC + Xbox crossplay (PlayStation separate) | $11.90 |
| 4 |  Helldivers 2 Co-op shooter | A squad split across PS5, PC, and Xbox that wants chaotic 4-player co-op. | Yes - PS5 + PC + Xbox crossplay | $44.40 |
Short verdict: if your group of up to four is all on the same platform and wants a long shared campaign that actually ends, Borderlands 3 is the best value on this site. Split-screen on console, an enormous amount of content, no seasons to keep up with, and it discounts heavily. The hard limit is crossplay: there is none, so a mixed group should not buy it.
It is a looter-shooter, which means the loop is shoot things, collect better guns, shoot bigger things. What makes it work in a group is that the loot is generous enough that everybody keeps finding something, rather than one person getting all the good drops while the rest carry them.
Four-player online co-op is common. Four-player online co-op from a game that also lets two people share one console is not, and Borderlands 3 is one of the very few large-budget shooters still shipping it.
The practical version: two friends on one sofa, two more in their own houses, one four-player session. Two consoles, four people. For a friend group that is partly local and partly remote - which is most friend groups - that is a genuinely better arrangement than everyone buying their own machine, and it is the reason Borderlands 3 leads our split-screen and online page.
There is a campaign, there are endgame activities, and there is nothing you have to keep up with. No season, no battle pass timer, no content rotating out. For a group of adults who play every couple of weeks, that is worth more than any individual feature - you can leave it for two months, come back, and pick up exactly where the four of you were.
Contrast that with Diablo IV, which is the better game for a crew that plays weekly and the worse one for a crew that does not. Our comparison is built around that distinction, and the drop-in drop-out guide covers why session structure matters more than most groups expect.
One to skip
Do not buy this for a mixed-platform group. Borderlands 3 has no crossplay, so a group with someone on PlayStation and someone on Xbox simply cannot play together, and no setting changes that. This is the single most common way people waste money on it - four friends buy four copies and discover the friends list is empty. If your group is split across platforms, Diablo IV is the crossplay equivalent in the same genre, and Deep Rock Galactic covers PC and Xbox together for a fraction of the price. Our games without crossplay page lists the rest of the titles that catch groups out this way.
Best for: A group that likes loot grinding and can play on the same platform.
1-4 co-op, online + split-screen · Looter-shooter
Four-player looter-shooter co-op with split-screen for couch play - a lot of game for the money, especially the Ultimate Edition. No crossplay, so line up your platforms first. Great for a crew that wants a long shared campaign.
Facts verified via 2K official site.
Also a top pick in Co-op and Split-Screen.
Best for: A group across different consoles that wants a shared long-haul RPG.
1-4 co-op, online · Action RPG
Full crossplay and cross-progression, so your group can play together regardless of platform and even swap devices mid-season. Split-screen exists on console too. It is a live-service grind, so best for a crew that plays regularly, not a one-off.
Facts verified via Blizzard official site.
Also a top pick in Best Games to Play With Friends and Online.
Best for: A crew of up to four dwarves who want procedural co-op mining.
1-4 online co-op · Co-op shooter
Rock and Stone - four-player co-op cave shooting with destructible tunnels and real teamwork. Crossplay works between PC and Xbox; PlayStation is a separate pool, so check where your group is. Endlessly replayable and often cheap.
Facts verified via Steam store page.
Also a top pick in Best Games to Play With Friends and Online.
Best for: A squad split across PS5, PC, and Xbox that wants chaotic 4-player co-op.
1-4 players online co-op · Co-op shooter
Four-player co-op with crossplay between PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S, so the classic 'I'm on PlayStation, they're on Xbox' problem just goes away. Friendly fire is always on, which is a feature. There is still no Switch version, so a Switch friend gets left out.
Facts verified via Steam store page.
Also a top pick in Best Games to Play With Friends and Online.
The Ultimate Edition bundles the expansions and add-on content with the base game, and because the game is old enough to discount steeply, it is usually the sensible purchase rather than the extravagant one - the gap between the base game and the full bundle is often small. Prices at the top of this page are live from Amazon; check what the bundle costs on the day rather than assuming.
One caution: because the series has multiple entries and several editions each, it is worth confirming you are buying Borderlands 3 for the right console generation rather than an earlier game in the series at a similar price.
Four is the design target and the loudest version - four builds, four loot streams, absolute chaos on screen. Two is the most readable and the best way to actually follow the story, and it is the size split-screen supports. Three works, though as with most four-slot games nothing is designed around it - our three-player page covers games that are.
Solo is entirely viable too, which matters more than it sounds: a group game that is miserable alone is one nobody touches between sessions, and one where progress stalls until everyone is free.
Anyone on modest hardware. It is a large, demanding shooter, and the friend with the old laptop will not have a good time - our low-end PC guide is the right page for that group.
Groups with one hour. The pacing rewards a long session. For a short evening, the short sessions list is more useful.
Anyone tired of the writing. Borderlands has a very particular comic tone that some players find relentless. This is genuinely subjective and worth watching fifteen minutes of before four people commit.
Diablo IV trades price and finality for crossplay, cross-progression and seasons. Deep Rock Galactic is the cheaper, tighter four-player co-op shooter with a PC-and-Xbox crossplay pool, built from short missions rather than a campaign - the better pick for an irregular group, and covered in our review. Helldivers 2 is the PS5-and-PC option with the strongest moment-to-moment action of the four, and no campaign to speak of. Review here.
Borderlands 3 is the best four-player campaign you can buy cheaply, and the split-screen support makes it unusually flexible for a half-local group. The absence of crossplay is the one thing that rules it out, and it rules it out completely - so check platforms before anyone spends anything.
If everyone matches up, this is a lot of evenings for very little money. The wider lists are on our co-op shooters page and co-op campaigns page.
Point the guns at the game, not at each other.
A story with an ending, played together from start to finish.
Two loot grinds. One crossplays, one splits the screen.
Two on the couch, two more online - or a split screen across the internet.
Rock and Stone - four-player co-op that asks nothing between sessions.
Xbox is the best split-screen console. Here's the proof.
No. Everyone playing together must be on the same platform family, and no setting changes that. It is the single most common reason a group wastes money on it, so check platforms before anyone buys. Diablo IV is the crossplay alternative in the same genre.
Yes, on console - and it is one of the few large shooters that still does. Two people can share one machine, and that pair can join an online session with friends elsewhere, so two consoles produce a four-player group.
Up to four in online co-op. Two is the most readable size and the one split-screen supports, three works fine, and four is the intended chaos. It is also entirely playable solo, so progress does not stall when the group is unavailable.
Usually yes. It bundles the expansions with the base game, and because Borderlands 3 discounts heavily the gap between the two is often small. Check the live prices at the top of this page rather than assuming.
Borderlands 3 if everyone is on one platform and you want a complete campaign with nothing to keep up with - it is also far cheaper. Diablo IV if the group is spread across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, because it has full crossplay and cross-progression.
Yes. It has no seasons and no rotating content, so a group can leave it for two months and resume exactly where it stopped. Deep Rock Galactic is the alternative if you want something built from short missions rather than a long campaign.