Single-player horror works because you are alone. Co-op takes that away: there is always someone to talk to, someone to hide behind, someone to laugh with when the monster appears. A good co-op horror game has to win the fear back in other ways. This page explains what those ways are, so you can tell from a store page whether a game will scare your group or just give it something to shout at. The live lists are further down.

What makes horror work with friends

Voice that only carries so far

The strongest tool in co-op horror is limiting how well you can talk to each other. Some games use proximity voice: you hear friends only when they are near, and their voices fade as they walk away. Some add radios that crackle or cut out. Some let the monsters hear you too.

The effect is simple. A friend two rooms away goes quiet, and nobody knows whether they are fine. If a game has proximity voice, play with its own voice chat rather than a separate app. In a separate voice app, everyone hears everyone at full volume, and the game loses its best trick.

Reasons to split up

A horror game that keeps the group together all the time turns into a guided tour. The ones that work give you reasons to separate: one player holds a door while another finds a key, or the group has to cover two places at once. Splitting up is where the tension comes from, and where the stories you tell afterwards come from.

When you read about a game, look for objectives that need people in different places.

Light and darkness

Darkness is cheap and it works. Good co-op horror rations light: a torch with a battery, one lantern for the group, a room you can only see through someone else’s camera. When light is shared, people have to stay close to the one who carries it, and losing them is frightening.

Not knowing what the others know

Some games give different players different information. One sees the map, another the danger, and they have to describe it under pressure. This works because talking is suddenly hard. It also suits groups who like puzzles more than jump scares.

What happens after you die

Pay attention to death. If a dead player sits watching for twenty minutes with nothing to do, they get bored and the room gets louder. Games that handle this well give the dead something to do: spectate, haunt, help from outside, or come back after a while. Short rounds help too, because nobody waits long.

Scary or funny

Groups laugh at horror. That’s not a failure. Some games lean into it, with clumsy physics and silly deaths that make the scares land harder when they come. Others stay serious and expect you to keep quiet. Decide which kind your group wants before you choose.

The lists

Games filed under horror:

Games for the “scare each other” mood:

The first list is the horror genre. The mood list is a little wider: it also includes games with a horror theme that sit in another genre. Both are live and sorted by players’ votes.

Picking one for your group

  • Ask about tolerance first. Some people enjoy jump scares; some hate them. A slow, atmospheric game can work for a group where one person dislikes sudden shocks. Store pages and recent reviews usually say which kind a game is.
  • Check the player count. More players can mean less fear: in a big group, someone is always nearby. Our game pages show how many players fit online and on one screen.
  • Match the session. Round-based games, where each attempt is short, suit a group that plays for an hour. Long campaigns need the same people every time. Where the developer gave a session length, the game page shows it.
  • Set the room. Lights off, headphones on, and phones away. For proximity voice, headphones matter: without them, the game’s audio leaks into the microphone and everyone hears themselves twice.
  • Check content. Horror ranges from tense to graphic. Look at the age rating and content notes on the store page if anyone in the group cares.

How these lists are built

Both lists are filters of our catalogue: the horror genre and the scary mood. Moods are worked out from a game’s genres and themes, so a developer never chooses them directly. Games come from their developers, who submit them for review by a person, and from our editors, who add co-op games from their store pages and public sources. Each page says where its facts come from. To narrow by player count or platform, use the full list.