The best multiplayer PC games are a fantastic way to have some fun with friends or just see what everyone else is enjoying. If you're a fan of fast-paced action games, then you'll be happy to see that many of the entries in this list are just that. However, there are also some titles in this list of best multiplayer PC games that are more relaxing and can help you unwind after a stressful day.
Thanks to Steam's vast array of games, there tend to be more options for players to enjoy compared to the best Xbox Series X games and the best PS5 games. Many of these titles also appear on the best FPS games list and the best indie games list.
So, if you're looking for the best multiplayer games to play with friends, then check out the list below. As new games come out, we'll add them for consideration, so that our picks stay relevant. Here are the multiplayer PC games to try out in 2024.
Best multiplayer PC games 2024
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"Black Ops 6 is a real return to form for Call of Duty, with an excellent multiplayer offering that feels balanced for the first time in ages. Thanks to the new Omnimovement mechanics, there's an additional level if flair to the proceedings, but elsewhere you'll find some rock-solid map offerings, a rip-roaring Zombies mode, as well as a simplified weapon levelling system." - Jake Green, TechRadar Gaming Contributor.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 follows a succession of sub-par entries in the long-running shooter series with a confident and well-balanced multiplayer experience. The development team had a decidedly longer cycle to work on this one, a fact that is immediately felt once you load into a match of Black Ops 6's main Multiplayer modes. The selection of maps is all-new, and the large slate of weapons feels genuinely balanced for the first time in a long time.
Multiplayer isn't the only reason to pick up Black Ops 6, however. Zombies is excellent this year, and an absolute blast to play in a squad of friends. There's two different missions at launch, each with a significantly different vibe and visual design. Could Call of Duty finally be back? Did it ever really go away in the first place? Time will tell, but Black Ops 6 is, for our money, the best Call of Duty game in several years.
"Overwatch 2 isn't quite a sequel, nor is it a patch – but it is brilliant. A whip-smart reinvention of what came before, breathing life into the franchise and reminding us why we loved it in the first place." - Patrick Dane, TechRadar Gaming reviewer.
Overwatch 2 is a free-to-play live service game that offers tightly designed PvP matches in a 5v5 format. As with many of the best PC multiplayer games, Overwatch 2 is easy to learn and hard to master, rewarding skillful gunplay and tactical decision-making in equal measure.
Blizzard Entertainment's first-person PvP shooter is set apart not only by the game's vibrant esports scene but also by its roster of iconic, well-designed heroes. Every one of Overwatch 2's characters is unique, with their own weapons, abilities strengths, and weaknesses. This allows the game to offer a distinctive range of experiences, brought to life by the synergies and interactions between the different heroes on offer.
Call of Duty: Warzone provides an experience that's both grounded in reality, but also accessible to newer players. Genre veteran Infinity Ward has ensured that Warzone is easy to learn but hard to master.
A refreshing twist on the traditional battle royale formula, Call of Duty: Warzone offers a challenging PvP experience that's sure to get your blood pumping. Easily one of the best multiplayer PC games of its kind, Warzone is a free-to-play shooter that has you parachute into a continuously shrinking map and battle it out with the other players.
However, Infinity Ward's world-renowned shooter has a twist: the Gulag. This is a small arena where you spawn once killed. You're then forced to engage in a frantic 1v1 battle for the honor of re-entering the battle royale. The game also offers an extraction mode, called DMZ, which challenges you to take as much loot as you can from the combat zone while escaping with your life. Both modes offer rewarding challenges that become all the more enjoyable with friends.
Video games can often be quite tense and frantic affairs, filled with thrilling battles and edge-of-your-seat moments. Stardew Valley is the opposite. It's gentle, peaceful, and cozy, and, what's more, it can be shared with a group of friends.
Stardew Valley is a cozy farming simulator that rewards hard work and perseverance. The premise is simple: you've inherited your grandfather's old farm plot in the scenic village of Stardew Valley. Arriving at your new home, you'll swiftly find yourself thrust into your new life. What's more, you can invite up to three other players to work alongside you on your farm, allowing you and a group of pals to bask in the gentle yet compelling farming lifestyle.
What's more, you and your friends will be able to form relationships with members of the local community, and even take the fight to the Joja Corporation, which has set its sights on destroying Stardew Valley's gentle way of life. Playable at your own pace, Stardew Valley is one of the best multiplayer PC games out there when it comes to offering a peaceful time with friends.
"Fortnite offers a vibrant, global community of players who are constantly innovating and putting their own spin on the game. From Marvel to Dragon Ball Z, there's a consistent stream of collaborations, new weapons and skins to enjoy. If you're looking for bang for your buck (the base experience is free to play), then you can't really do better than Fortnite." - Jake Green, TechRadar Gaming contributor.
No list of the best Multiplayer PC games would be complete without Fortnite. Though not the first battle royale game, Fortnite popularized the formula, taking it to new heights. Fortnite is more than just a battle royale game, though - it's a playground where you and your friends can face off against hordes of enemy players in an attempt to come out on top.
Fortnite is a multiplayer-friendly action figure playset, full of fun tie-ins ranging from Star Wars: Ahsoka to beloved anime Attack on Titan. The game also boasts a fully fleshed-out PvE mode in the form of Fortnite: Save the World as well as a survival Lego mode and a fully fledged racing game in Rocket Racing. All of these modes have thriving communities and are brimming with opportunities for multiplayer fun.
Escape from Tarkov is a punishing but refreshingly realistic experience, where strategy and cunning are just as useful as skills in a firefight. Teamwork adds another dimension, allowing you to carry out deadly ambushes and flanking attacks against other players.
Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore first-person survival shooter. One of the best multiplayer PC games when it comes to extraction shooters, Tarkov has a simple premise. You and your friends are dumped in the middle of a map and must escape to the other side, avoiding enemy players and NPCs along the way.
Thanks to its minimal UI and emphasis on realism, you'll need to rely on your friends if you want to make it to the extraction point. As you journey across the map, you'll find loot that can be used to improve your loadout. Survive, and you'll have the honor of being able to keep what you found. You can even loot from enemy players. Tarkov is brutal and unforgiving, but also immensely rewarding, especially if played with the right friends.
"Off the pitch, EA Sports FC 24 struggles to establish an identity, but the addition of HyperMotionV and key upgrades to fan-favorite modes including Pro Clubs and Ultimate Team make this franchise-starter an objectively better football game than its de facto predecessor." - Axel Metz - TechRadar reviewer.
Writing for TechRadar Gaming, Axel Metz called EA Sports FC 24 "an objectively better football game than its de facto predecessor" thanks to "key upgrades to fan-favorite modes including Pro Clubs and Ultimate Team."
When it comes to multiplayer, EA Sports FC24 offers cross-platform play across all of its online multiplayer modes, allowing you and your friends to rewrite football history or to play your very own game of fully realized fantasy football. In short, it does everything you'd expect from FIFA's successor, easily earning a place on our best multiplayer PC games list.
Forza Horizon 5 isn't just a great racing game, it also allows players to customize almost every aspect of their vehicle of choice. Players can not only create custom liveries for their cars, but they can also make radical changes under the hood, too.
Forza Horizon 5 isn't just an open-world racing game, it's a multiplayer-friendly driving bonanza that takes you across over 100 kilometers of beautiful scenery. In Forza Horizon 5 - one of the best multiplayer PC games when it comes to racing - you and your friends will be able to compete across a wide range of on-road and off-road tracks, showing off your custom-tooled vehicles to your heart's content.
The game also offers a series of multiplayer-friendly minigames which are dotted across the map in Horizon Arcade mode. These can be great fun if you and your pals are looking for some lighter automotive entertainment between no-holds-barred races. Forza Horizon 5's extremely wide range of vehicles and unerringly realistic races will be more than enough to satisfy you and your pals for hours at a time.
Overcooked 2 is pure, unadulterated chaos. As you and your friends scramble to organize your kitchen, your efforts will start to devolve to a level of chaos worthy of a sitcom. This indie delight will leave you with buckets of laughs and plenty of memorable moments.
No list of the best multiplayer PC games could be complete without this co-op triumph. The premise is simple: cook and serve up food for a restaurant before the timer runs out. However, you and your fellow cooks will have your work cut out. An organized kitchen swiftly devolves into a panicked screaming as you and your friends frantically attempt to meet the demands of customers. Dishes will catch fire, plates will remain unwashed and, all the while, you and your pals will be laughing your heads off.
In later levels the kitchens are set on everything from airships to underground temples, shifting and moving, forcing your team to adapt and constantly rejig your approach. A fantastic party game - Overcooked 2 proves that a simple premise can deliver big results.
"Helldivers 2 continues to wow me, with a steady stream of updates adding everything from new weapons to giant walking automaton enemies. An absolute blast to play with your pals, or with randoms, Helldivers 2 is a pitch-perfect co-op multiplayer shooter." - Jake Green, TechRadar Gaming Contributor.
Helldivers 2 shocked the world when it launched earlier in 2024. It's easy to see why, given just how much fun it is to jump in with friends and take down wave after wave of formidable enemies. There's just enough friendly fire to keep things interesting, and most importantly, hilarious, meaning that no two matches end up feeling the same.
Since launch, Helldivers 2 has impressed with a slew of clever updates, adding in new enemy types, ship upgrades to work towards, and themed-battle passes. Logging in each day will reward you with new orders to complete, all helping you work towards new guns, armours and emotes. This is unquestionably one of the strongest live service offerings of late.
Whether you have a dedicated group of friends to play with, or if you want to matchmake with randoms, you'll quickly fall into a rhythm with your squad, as you take down major objectives and search for precious samples. There's crossplay with players on PlayStation as well, and with such high player numbers, you can go from the loading screen to chaotic action in no time at all.
Minecraft can be tailored to meet your every whim. From texture packs to shaders to seeds for new procedurally generated worlds, there are a staggering number of tools out there to help you find the perfect Minecraft experience for you and your pals.
Minecraft is the ultimate multiplayer sandbox. Despite its low-fi visuals, this beloved title allows for exploration and creativity on a massive scale. What's more, as with any of the best PC multiplayer games, you're welcome to bring your friends along for the ride. In its most basic form, Minecraft is a procedurally generated exploration and crafting game, allowing you to gather resources, craft items and travel the world.
However, what really sets Minecraft apart is its community. Thanks to mods, layers can extensively customize their experience, making the game more structured or completely changing the resource economy. Best of all, though, is the game's scope for building and creating. Like a virtual Lego set, you and your friends can build almost anything you can imagine, making it one of the best open-world games on PC today.
The best multiplayer PC games: FAQs
What can I play with friends on PC?
Fortnite is a great option if you're looking for multiplayer experiences with friends on PC. While any of the titles on our best multiplayer PC games list would make for a great choice, Fortnite is, perhaps, the most accessible option since it's both free-to-play and offers open-ended, easy-to-learn third-person shooting mechanics.
If you're looking for something to play in person, however, we'd recommend Overcooked 2. As party games go, it's hard to beat, offering a distinctive kind of laugh-out-loud chaos that you'll struggle to find elsewhere.
What is the #1 PC game?
The highest-rated PC game is Disco Elysium, according to review aggregation website Metacritic. Easily one of the best story games ever made, Disco Elysium doesn't offer anything in the way of multiplayer modes. However, given its slow-paced RPG mechanics, it can be a great game to play as a group or over a stream with friends.
Though every game on this list of the best PC multiplayer games is an excellent title in its own right, Minecraft is arguably the strongest, offering a staggeringly wide range of different game experiences and endless replayability to boot.
How we made our best multiplayer PC games list
Our best multiplayer PC games list is the product of hundreds of hours of play across TechRadar Gaming. Not only have we aimed to bring you the very best multiplayer titles, but we've also tried to provide a wide range of genres in order to make sure there's something for everyone.
These sorts of lists can be very subjective affairs, but, when it comes to multiplayer experiences we felt it was crucial to take ease-of-use and accessibility into account. Convincing a group of friends to pay retail prices for a new multiplayer game can be a headache, whereas anyone can download a free-to-play title. Many of the titles on this list have a low barrier to entry, providing an emphasis on user-friendly mechanics.
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