Do you get bored playing on your own? Does traversing open worlds, completing a bounty of fetch quests, or blasting through hordes of alien baddies just not cut it for you? Chances are, you’re always on the lookout for the best multiplayer games on Xbox Game Pass that aren’t one big meme or a giant disappointment.
Xbox Game Pass is a savior in many ways, and for you, it’s your ticket to endless multiplayer gaming without shelling out full price. The following titles are the best multiplayer games on Xbox Game Pass, offering you hours of entertainment. There’s just one problem: With so many good games to choose from, how do you fit them all into your limited daily schedule?
The only correct answer is to shirk all responsibilities and dive head-first into these online escapes on Game Pass.
The Best Multiplayer Games on Game Pass
15. Star Wars: Battlefront II
Developer: DICE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Throw a ton of Star Wars characters on a battlefield, and you already have the promise of a popular game. Make it multiplayer, and things only improve from there. But if you toss in steep microtransactions or pay-to-win mechanics, you’ll lose your player base entirely. That was the mistake EA learned with Battlefront II, the Star Wars game with the most tumultuous launch.
Though the game is mechanically sound, and players enjoyed the gameplay and large-scale battles, EA nearly tanked the game with costly loot boxes that unlocked advantageous perks. Once EA removed the microtransactions and DICE started churning out content, Battlefront II was mostly saved.
And as a multiplayer Star Wars game on Game Pass, it’s absolutely worth playing.
14. Payday 2
Developer: Overkill Software
Publisher: 505 Games
It may seem like Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto Online has the corner market on multiplayer heists. But that’s only because you haven’t laid your eyes on Overkill’s Payday 2, a multiplayer shooter that’s been sending players deep into bank vaults for just as long as Grand Theft Auto V.
Payday 2 sends up to four players on high-stakes heists at banks, motels, apartment complexes, jewelry stores, and more. Depending on personal preference and mission requirements, players can keep inconspicuous or go in guns blazing. While the game modes can get repetitive after a few playthroughs, the substantial character customization is where Payday 2 shines the most.
Choose from an arsenal of weapons, gadgets, costumes, and more to create unique experiences with each multiplayer mission.
13. ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition
Developer: Studio Wildcard
Publisher: Studio Wildcard
Could you survive in a prehistoric world? What if that world was filled not just with carnivorous beasts of yesteryear but blood-thirsty players that will kill you the moment you’re in their sights? ARK: Survival Evolved is a survival game that will test your patience if you find yourself on the wrong server, but among the right players, it’s an enjoyable romp through a land that time forgot.
Start off as a near-naked character and scour the world in search of the supplies needed to go from prey to predator. If you can get a little help, your survival rate increases as the predatory velociraptors and t-rexes will have more warm, delicious bodies to pick as their next meal. Ultimate Survivor Edition is simply the base game with all large Expansion Packs.
If you get a good grove or just find yourself enjoying being eaten and reincarnated, you could easily sink hundreds of hours into ARK.
12. Rainbow Six Siege
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Rainbow Six Siege is a game you’ll either love or hate. Unlike the open battlefields of Call of Duty or Battlefield, Siege sends players into tight quarters, forcing them to use more than just bullets and explosives to survive. The meticulous gameplay requires teamwork, so don’t think you can be a rogue agent and make it out alive.
Players select from a gallery of operators that feature unique weapons and gadgets. Since characters can differ greatly, it’s very possible to have a team that completely surpasses your opposition in every way. And that’s where many players will sign off, but if you know what you’re doing, understand the nuances of each operator, and find the right team, the experience is satisfying.
It’s also one of few Game Pass games you can turn into a viable eSports career. Maybe. Probably not.
11. Descenders
Developer: RageSquid
Publisher: No More Robots
Jump on bike. Pedal down dirt path. It sounds too simple, but that’s the basic concept behind Descenders.
Alone, you’ll focus a lot on performing tricks and pushing the game to its limits. Multiplayer, though, is a slightly different animal as the game turns into a chaotic battle for first. There’s nothing deep about Descenders, but that doesn’t take away from the multiplayer fun, especially when you’re all stuck spectating that one player that can’t quite land a trick or seeing who can perform the coolest slide over the finish line.
Sometimes, simplicity is better than an overly convoluted experience when it comes to the best multiplayer games on Game Pass – and Descenders is a prime example of this in action.
10. Gang Beasts
Developer: Boneloaf
Publisher: Double Fine Presents, Boneloaf
Prepare to make no friends in this colorful melee fight to the finish. Gang Beasts tasks players with being the last one standing, and unlike other battle royale games, all you’ll have to work with are wonky physics and impossible-to-navigate levels.
To win, all you have to do is outlive your opponents. Whether that means tossing them to their doom yourself or standing aside and watching them best themselves is really up to you. You may find yourself battling in the cab of a moving truck or fighting to stay atop a rickety window cleaning lift.
With friends, it’s hilarious from start to finish. Things can get a little tense with strangers as most refuse to yield, leading to surprisingly long and tense brawls.
9. Back 4 Blood
Developer: Turtle Rock Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
It’s so difficult to recreate the magic behind the Left 4 Dead series, but Turtle Rock certainly gave it its all with Back 4 Blood. The original Left 4 Dead creator returned to the zombie space, this time bringing a unique card mechanic system and towering foes. The general layout is similar to the classic zombie multiplayer shooter, but Back 4 Blood changes enough to feel less like a copy-and-paste release.
The Ridden are as vicious as any zombie, but the inclusion of Corruption Cards aims to make things even worse. Unlike standard cards, which provide players with stat boosts and additional ammo, Corruptions enhance the enemy by making them stronger, spawning a fog, or increasing the horde size.
Back 4 Blood also features a competitive multiplayer mode, where one set of players play as the heroic Cleaners and the other set man some mutated Ridden. No matter how you play Back 4 Blood, there is plenty of entertainment to be had – especially with the right players at your side.
8. A Way Out
Developer: Hazelight Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
A Way Out is a unique multiplayer experience that really requires you to know who you’re playing with. No, it’s not actually a requirement, but it helps keep you engaged in the deep and somewhat emotional story.
Playing as one of two prisoners, players work together to escape their incarceration. Work together, carefully navigate the prison and outside world, and you may just see this story to the end. Which may benefit one player more than the other.
When you’re not planning an escape, A Way Out features fun minigames like arm wrestling, basketball, horseshoes, spearfishing, and so much more to keep things light and entertaining. But it can’t all be fun and games, and at some point, you’ll have to step away from the joy and dive deep into the gritty reality.
7. Among Us
Developer: Innersloth
Publisher: Innersloth
How do you turn your best friends into your greatest enemies? By engaging one another in a game of “Whodunit?” in space.
Among Us pits everyone against one another as they take on the role of a spaceship crew trying to complete a series of tasks. Unfortunately for most of them, at least one player is a fiend in disguise, just waiting for the opportune moment to strike. If they’re sneaky enough, these Imposters have the power to breed paranoia and fan the fires of distrust.
Among Us is if you take John Carpenter’s The Thing, give it a cutesy overhaul, but leave all the death and mayhem. By the discovery of the second body, players will be at each other’s throats, ready to eject anyone that’s acting even remotely suspicious.
6. Dead by Daylight
Developer: Behavior Interactive
Publisher: Behavior Interactive
Take on some of the most notable faces in the horror industry – and some horrifying new ones – in Dead by Daylight. And by “take on,” we do mean “run frantically from” in this asymmetric survival horror title. Players either take on the role of a survivor trying to escape a mysterious overlord known as the Entity or a killer trying to appease the malevolent force.
No matter the side they choose, players are equipped with skills and abilities that make their lives just a little easier. While the killer may appear to have an advantage, survivors have plenty going for them that can keep them off the scattered meathooks. Played in a first-person perspective, killers have a limited view and a delay between attacks.
On the other hand, survivors can work together to power up the generators needed to escape their hell, using all manner of tools to slow the villain down. Dead by Daylight features notable names like Michael Myers, Ghostface, Freddy Kruger, Pyramid Head, Nemesis, and many more.
5. Minecraft
Developer: Mojang Studios
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios, Mojang Studios
Yes, it has been 11 years, and we’re still talking about Minecraft. We’d that in another 11, we’ll still be talking about Minecraft. Mojang Studios just so happened to find the perfect formula for a game that will withstand the test of time. Nothing changes on the Game Pass version, so if you’ve already played it once, you know exactly what you’re getting into.
Minecraft is an essential game for every console, as its risk-free Creative Mode is a nice, relaxing alternative to joining your friends on the battlefield. Together, you can build, create, and showcase your talents or, if you want the challenge, take on Survival Mode together and bring down the Ender Dragon once and for all.
4. Forza Horizon 5
Developer: Playground Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Did you enjoy whooping your friends in Forza Horizon 4? Then it’s very likely that you’ll love dominating the streets in Forza Horizon 5. The visual improvements from Forza Horizon 4 to its successor are quite evident, but that’s not all that’s changed between the two versions. The fifth entry of the Horizon series is 50% larger than the fourth, ensuring players have plenty of ground to cover in this open-world racer.
Take on friends and strangers in the returning Eliminator battle royale or stick to casual races through empty countrysides. Battle for first among dust storms, tropical surges, and more in one of over 570 vehicles.
Forza Horizon 5 also features the new Horizon Arcade mode, featuring minigames scattered across the map. These are a bit quirkier than your average race, like having to pop pinatas as they fall from a cargo plane. One of the best multiplayer games on Game pass for car nuts.
3. Sea of Thieves
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to sail the seven seas and sing sea shanties with your closest friends, Sea of Thieves is your opportunity to find out. Manning a basic vessel as a pirate that’s yet to make a name for themselves, players set out across perilous waters in search of buried treasure, magical items, and so much more.
The world is full of dangers, both from the depths and on the surface. Using your cannons and cunning, you’ll battle opposing players, mystical pirate ships, or some horrors from the deep like the Kraken and a megalodon.
Survival depends on how big your crew is – and if you can trust them not to plunge a cutlass into your back. Sea of Thieves is quite the experience with a full crew, and it only gets better as Rare continues to add content.
2. Gears 5
Developer: The Coalition
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
The Gears of War series has always had confusing multiplayer. One moment, you can be playing with a friend across the action-packed and emotional campaign, and the next, they could be blowing your head off with a well-placed Longshot round. Playing through Gears 5 multiplayer with a friend is an absolute must, particularly because the game improved upon much of what was lacking in Gears of War 4.
The competitive circuit is as unforgiving as ever. Ranked matches will test your limits, while unranked is a little more accessible while still offering a decent challenge. Players not looking to square off against one another can even jump into Horde Mode, where they battle an onslaught of enemies while setting up defenses and tinkering with whatever weapons land on the battlefield.
Gears 5 offers many options for players to engage one another – it’s just a matter of whether you want to be friend or foe.
1. It Takes Two
Developer: Hazelight Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Some games are popular because they have good gameplay. Others because the story is really good. It Takes Two checks off both boxes while also providing a multiplayer component.
In fact, the game really only works with someone at your side. There’s a ton of heart in this puzzle-laden platformer that follows a feuding husband and wife after they’ve been inexplicably turned into dolls. It’s cute at first. Then the weight of such a situation really comes into play.
There are some pretty heavy twists and turns in It Takes Two, and it’s nice to have someone to share them with. Especially the end, which really goes an unexpected and slightly upsetting route. It Takes Two has taken home quite a few awards, and they’re more than deserved.
READ NEXT: 15 Best Single-Player Games on Game Pass
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