For the group that wants to be terrified together
Horror is the rare genre that's better with friends - the fear is funnier, the screams are shared, and a voice call turns a scary game into an event. The best horror games to play with friends online split into two shapes: co-op, where you survive together, and asymmetric, where one of you plays the monster hunting the rest.
Our top pick is Dead by Daylight - a 4-versus-1 asymmetric horror with full crossplay, so five friends on five different systems can all get in. For pure co-op dread, Phasmophobia uses your actual voice to bait the ghost and is genuinely frightening with the right group, while Lethal Company is the cheap, chaotic, mostly- laughing PC pick. Every crossplay and player-count claim below is linked to the official store page.
Two things to sort first: who's scared of what, and what platform is everyone on. Phasmophobia and Lethal Company lean into real tension; Dead by Daylight is more of a competitive cat-and-mouse. On platform, Dead by Daylight is fully crossplay, but Lethal Company is PC-only and Phasmophobia bridges PC and PlayStation - confirm your group's mix, or check the crossplay hub.
If your four are already down to a straight choice between the two PC-friendly picks, our Phasmophobia versus Lethal Company comparison settles it on platform and tone. And if there are five of you rather than four, Dead by Daylight is the only horror game here built for exactly that number - the five-player page has the rest.
One case this page does not cover: everyone in the same room with a single controller. None of the picks below work that way - they all need a pad and a screen per player. For that night the answer is a pass-the-controller slasher instead, and our The Quarry review explains what its eight-player couch mode does and why its online mode is not a substitute for the games here.
A related note on tone: several of the picks here sit on the border of what the press now calls friendslop - cheap, chaotic co-op where the comedy and the fear come from your friends rather than the script. If that is the night you want rather than a genuine scare, our best friendslop games list sorts that whole wave by who can actually play it, and the PEAK review covers the game that defined it - including why it is still not on consoles.
