The 26 Best Multiplayer Horror Games

• Developer: Team Psykskallar
• Console: PC - Steam

Cry Of Fear started out as a mod for the first Half-Life game, using its standard renderer, before becoming its own game. Interestingly, the game features an entirely separate co-op campaign that works better having already played the single-player campaign, because it sort of relies on the single-player campaign as context. If you’re willing to put the time in, we recommend the game from the Swedish indie studio Team Psykskallar.

• Developer: Behaviour Interactive
• Consoles: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC - Steam & Epic Game Store, iOS, Android, Google Stadia

Dead By Daylight is a 1 vs. 4 online multiplayer where one is a killer who the other four must dodge and escape from. To do this, the other players must turn on generators around the map so that they can use the exit. What’s great about this game is that there are characters that can be used that are licensed from other famous horror franchises. Survivors can take on the roles of characters from Stranger Things, Saw, Left 4 Dead, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and more, while Killers have the option to use horror films' biggest icons in the form of Ghostface, Freddy Krueger, and Hellraiser amongst others.

• Developer: Visceral Games
• Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360, PC - Steam

We're excited for the Dead Space remake which we’re going to have to wait until 2022 to get news for, but in the meantime, playing the third game in the main series will hold you down. Playing the story with a friend on co-op actually unlocks new details of the story and some additional missions, so it’s well worth a try even if you already tried the story on your own when the game came out in 2013.

• Developer: World Makers
• Console: PC - Steam

Developed and published by Baseline, Deceit is a game whose title sums it up perfectly. Like Dead By Daylight, you and a group of friends are tasked with escaping an area through an exit and must complete some tasks to do so. However, one of you is infected and must secretly consume the blood bags around the map to turn into a monster where you must kill all the players before they exit. There are items along the way that will help you figure out who the infected is too, so use them wisely.

• Developer: Techland
• Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, PC - Steam

Much like many games on this list, Dying Light allows you to play the campaign with some friends if you so wish. What makes this one unique though is that the co-op version of the campaign features co-op challenges, where you and your friends can compete to see who kills the most zombies and race each other to airdrops, adding some fun. In addition to this is the "Be The Zombie" mode where one player becomes the "Night Hunter" and is tasked with stopping other players from destroying infected nests.

• Developer: Day 1 Studios
• Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360, PC - Steam

F.3.A.R., or F.E.A.R. 3, was developed by Day 1 Studios and published by Warner Bros. Released in 2011, it was the first game in the series to allow players to experience the campaign with a friend through the co-op mode. Knowing what happens in the first two games is important and does enhance the experience of this game, so it’s worth playing through first. As well as the co-op story mode, there are four multiplayer game modes: "Fucking Run!," "Contractions," "Soul Survivor," and "Soul King," allowing players to team up or battle against each other as any good multiplayer should.

• Developer: IllFonic
• Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC - Steam

This kind of survival horror, as evidenced by Dead By Daylight and Deceit already appearing on this list, is very popular right now. In a group, one player is randomly selected to control Jason Vorhees and they must kill as many of the other players, who will control Camp Crystal Lake counselors before the time runs out. You can fight back against Jason with items like bear traps, but Jason also has abilities like being able to teleport anywhere on the map, which ups the tension at all times. There are five maps available that are based on locations from the first five films.

• Developer: 10 Chambers
• Console: PC - Steam

GTFO comes from the Swedish independent development studio 10 Chambers Collective. The game is still technically in early access, with the time for a full release yet to be decided on. You’re one of four scavengers who must retrieve data from a particular area for a mysterious entity called "The Warden." The only problem? The area is pitch blacked and filled with monsters.

• Developer: Funcom
• Console: PC - Steam

A lot of the games on this list are scary, but their concepts are really nothing new. If you want a multiplayer horror that’s a little fresher, look no further than Hide & Shriek. Developed by Funcom, the game pits two players against each other, giving them both a bunch of tasks to complete. However, along the way, you’ll get additional points for scaring the other person, luring them into traps, and performing rituals. To make things better and scarier, you’re both invisible, so you’ll have to keep an eye out for clues about where the other person is and what they could be doing.

• Developer: Crytek
• Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, PC - Steam

Hunt: Showdown is a multiplayer FPS that was released on Windows and Xbox in 2019 and PS4 in 2020. In the Bounty Hunt mode, players can either go it alone or team up to hunt down the Butcher, the Assassin, the Spider, or the Scrapbeak, the game’s four monsters. However, while you do this, you also have to look out for rival bounty hunters, making the game all the more suspenseful. There’s also the battle royale mode, where players must find an energy wellspring whilst fighting off enemies.

• Developer: Tripwire Interactive
• Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, PC - Steam

Killing Floor 2 can be played alone, but why on earth would you ever want to do that when you can be part of a team of six? You and a group of five friends can take on the game which takes place a short while after the events of the first game. Despite this, the sequel can be played and enjoyed on its own. You and your group of five friends will team up against hordes of "Zeds," which are essentially zombies. If you like the concept, you might also like the Versus Survival version where there are six teams of two, and all but one team become Zeds, with the aim of killing the human team.

• Developer: No More Room in Hell Team
• Console: PC - Steam

No More Room In Hell was first released on Halloween of 2011 as a Half-Life 2 mod but two years later to the day, it was re-released as a standalone game. The game was created by Max Kazan. Set in a zombie apocalypse, you and your friends take the role of eight survivors who must work together to survive. There are two multiplayer game modes. In Objective, players must exit the area, and in Survival, players must kill increasing waves of zombies while supplies get dropped every now and then. If you love this one, then be sure to hop into the equally great sequel as well!

• Developer: Kinetic Games
• Console: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC - Steam

Phasmophobia took off in a major way at the time of release. The name is taken from the word for the fear of ghosts, so no prizes for guessing what you’ll be up against here. Phasmophobia puts you and some friends in the shoes of a paranormal investigator, or a ghost hunter if you will. A great unique selling point that this game has is that it features speech recognition, which means that the sound of equipment and even some keywords that players say in voice chat can be heard by ghosts, who will react accordingly. If that’s not spooky and won’t keep you on your toes, we don’t know what will.

• Developer: Capcom
• Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS3, Xbox 360, PC - Steam

Fans and critics alike were very mixed on Resident Evil 5, but it does offer a good amount of multiplayer content. It was the first game in the series designed for co-op gameplay. Players control Chris and Sheva, the latter of which would be controlled by A.I. if players play on their own. You can either play online with a friend or split-screen, which is an option we see less frequently nowadays. The other multiplayer aspect of the game is the Versus DLC, which features the Slayers and Survivors modes.

• Developer: Renderise
• Console: PC - Steam

In Sign Of Silence, you and some friends end up in a car crash in a town called "Danville," which is creepier than anything you’ve ever come across before. As you try to escape the town, monsters and eerie cultists will do their best to get you.

• Developer: Hydravision Entertainment
• Consoles: PS2, Xbox, PC - Steam

Developed by Hydravision Entertainment, Obscure was released in 2004 and 2005 in Europe and North America, respectively. This game allows two players to tackle the campaign together with co-op and that’s a big help. Obscure is set at Leafmore High, where some students end up locked in the school overnight after searching for a missing friend. What they discover are some dark secrets about the school, that some students are mutated monsters due to injections and experimentation. If you’re looking for a creepy environment to traverse through and a fun game to scare yourself and a friend, this is a good choice.

• Developer: Question
• Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, PC - Steam

The story of this game is that teenagers in a particular small town have been dealing with blackouts, that see them in a completely different area when they wake up. They uncover a dark and scary secret that pits them against a monster they can only see with their eyes closed.

• Developer: Supermassive Games
• Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, PC - Steam

Little Hope was released about a year ago for Windows, the PS4, and the Xbox One. The Shared Story mode allows players to team up for the campaign, all the while making decisions that affect each other and the game’s ending. The great news here is that if you’re a fan of the game, you have Man Of Medan and House Of Ashes to play, plus a slew of other games that round out the rest of this series gripping horror anthology.

• Developer: Endnight Games Ltd
• Consoles: PS4, PC - Steam

Developed by Endnight Games and released for Windows and the PlayStation 4 in 2018, The Forest is a game where survival is the key. Doing this during the day is tricky because one or two cannibals can be a threat if not taken seriously, but it’s when the sun goes down that things get scary, with hordes of them coming at you.

• Developers: Geoff 'Zag' Keene, Deep Field Games
• Console: PC - Steam

Unfortunate Spacemen is one of the smaller games on this list, but don’t knock it until you try it. It was developed by Geoff Keene and it pits you and your teammates against a shapeshifting alien, which is controlled by one person. Some people have referred to this game as a more advanced version of Among Us and we can see why, with its concept and setting. If you liked Among Us but want a scarier twist, this is a must-play.

• Developer: Saber Interactive
• Consoles: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC - Steam, Epic Games Store

Ash Williams is the main man at the center of the gory, bleeding heart of the Evil Dead franchise, which finally got its very own asymmetrical multiplayer horror game. The aptly named Evil Dead: The Game is a 4v1 experience where one player commands the demon summoning powers of a "Kandarian Demon" in a bid to destroy the four survivors looking to protect their realm from its invasion. This game's got characters and locations based on various Evil Dead films, the ability to take control of random demons, plenty of chainsaw-swinging action, and the same slapstick humor the series is known for.

• Developers: FakeFish, Undertow Games
• Console: PC - Steam

Exploring the deep blue sea while working aboard a massive submarine elicits plenty of fear, doesn't it? Barotrauma adopts that concept for a 2D side-scroller experience that also incorporates elements of simulation management and survival horror. With a 16-player multiplayer count and six character classes to choose from, you'll need to help your crew achieve its goals, work with complex onboard systems to keep your main source of transportation intact, and defend yourself from a bevy of deep sea creatures. The cool ragdoll physics in this one makes all those gnarly death scenes look all the more exciting and sometimes hilarious.

• Developer: Manic Mice
• Console: PC - Steam

Lunch Lady makes its lesson very clear - no one gets ahead by cheating. And that fact comes through the main premise of this game where a group of kids breaks into their school to find the answers for their final exams. But in the process of doing so, the gruesome-looking beast this game is named after hunts them down and scares the hell out of them every time she pops up in their viewpoint. Prepare yourself and your friends for a heart-stopping good time with this online co-op survival horror game.

• Developer: Straight Back Games
• Console: PC - Steam

DEVOUR truly brings the major jump scares you'd expect from games of its ilk. You and three other players take on the role of former cult members who must do everything in their power to escape the clutches of terrifying possessed cultists. If you're really looking for an insurmountable challenge, then you can try taking all those blood-splattered cultists on all by your lonesome (we prefer making that great escape with our equally frightened friends in tow).

• Developer: CyberLight Game Studio
• Console: PC - Steam

That massive hairy mystery that people still do everything in their power to get footage of finally has a game befitting of his legendary status. BIGFOOT gives you the option of playing as the mysterious behemoth himself or a group of Bigfoot hunters - this game features a lot of heart-pounding encounters where the gun-wielding hunters come to blows with the mega-powerful Bigfoot. Besides squaring off with the ultimate apex predator, you and your fellow hunters will need to be aware of all the other dangers sneaking around the game's dark forest locale.

• Developer: Sumo Nottingham
• Consoles: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, PC - Steam

The original 1974 horror film that left an indelible mark on everyone that saw it is probably going to have a panic attack at the sight of this game based on it. And that's because the maniacal family of cannibals from the movies will hunt you down if you choose to play as this game's terrified survivors. So The Texas Chainsaw Massacre pits three members of the Slaughter family against five survivors - the team of would-be killers must catch and kill their prey, while the team playing as their kidnapped victims must find a way to fully escape their current predicament. The tense atmosphere of each match will keep you attached to the sometimes heroic and sometimes horrific outcomes.