Co-op shooters by what your evening looks like
A tense mission with a real chance of failure. Helldivers 2. Friendly fire never turns off, extraction is genuinely nervous, and the whole thing works because people are talking. Read the full Helldivers 2 review before four of you buy copies.
The same good time every week, no homework. Deep Rock Galactic. Four classes that genuinely need each other, procedural caves, and no seasonal pressure. It is also the cheapest premium pick here - see the Deep Rock Galactic review.
Two of you on one couch. Borderlands 3, which still supports split-screen on console. Nothing else on this page does. Our split-screen page covers the rest of that category.
Nobody wants to spend money. Apex Legends for a trio, Overwatch 2 for five, Fortnite for a group that includes people who do not usually play shooters at all.
Why four is the magic number
Co-op shooters converge on four players for a practical reason: four is the largest group where everyone can still hear each other, see each other on screen, and matter to the outcome. Below four, encounters designed for a full squad feel like you are missing people. Above four, someone is always doing something nobody else witnessed.
That is why Helldivers 2, Deep Rock Galactic, and Borderlands 3 all cap at four and why they all feel best at exactly that number. If your group is regularly five or six, you are better served by a party game that scales - our large groups page ranks picks that genuinely handle it - or by Overwatch 2, which is built for five and free.
Friendly fire, difficulty, and the friend who is new to shooters
Every game here lets a newcomer join, but they demand very different things. Deep Rock Galactic is the gentlest: pick the class with the big gun, follow the group, and you are useful in ten minutes. Helldivers 2 will have a new player killing teammates by accident on their first night - it is unavoidable, so warn them it is coming and start on a low difficulty. Apex has the steepest movement skill ceiling of the free picks; Fortnite is the friendliest.
If the friend you are trying to include does not really play games, a shooter may be the wrong genre entirely. Our games for friends who don't play games page is the more honest starting point.
What each one actually costs a group
The number that matters is not the sticker price, it is the sticker price multiplied by how many of you have to buy it. Four copies of a headline release is a real commitment; four copies of Deep Rock Galactic, which discounts often, is not. Nothing on this page has a Friend's Pass, so unlike the story co-op games there is no one-copy shortcut - if that is what you need, read games where only one person has to buy it. Live prices sit in the table at the top of this page and update daily.
The free trio changes that maths completely. Apex Legends, Overwatch 2, and Fortnite cost a group of five exactly nothing, forever, with cosmetics as the only spend. If budget is the binding constraint, start there and treat the premium picks as an upgrade you make once you know the group turns up. Our budget picks apply the same logic to the rest of the site.
Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus change the answer
Deep Rock Galactic has been a Game Pass regular, and subscription catalogs rotate constantly. Before buying anything on this page, check what is already included in the subscription your group has - it is the single easiest way to get four people into the same co-op game for nothing extra. Our Xbox page covers the Game Pass angle in more detail, and the PC page covers the same for a keyboard-and-mouse group.
The one-line answers
Four friends on PS5 and PC: Helldivers 2. Four friends on PC and Xbox: Deep Rock Galactic. Exactly three of you, no budget: Apex Legends. Two of you on one sofa: Borderlands 3. A mixed group that includes non-shooter people: Fortnite. A regular competitive night: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
Two follow-ups. Our Borderlands 3 review goes into the split-screen support and the total absence of crossplay, which is the one thing that decides whether it works for your group. And if the real problem is that a different three or four people turn up every week, drop-in drop-out co-op games is the more useful list than any shooter ranking - Deep Rock Galactic tops it for exactly that reason.
