Best Co-op Horror Games for PS5 & PS4

Why it's here: The best co-op horror game on PS5 right now, and the pick r/HorrorGaming threads name first when someone asks. Up to four of you are dragged through Murkoff's trials, sneaking past hunters, solving puzzles and rationing supplies with no weapons to fall back on. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is performance, with long load times and lag after updates. Rated Mature, 4.48 from about 18,000 PlayStation Store ratings. If you only try one game on this list with a regular group, make it this one.

Why it's here: The ghost-hunting pick, and the one that works best with headsets on. Four investigators walk into a haunted house with EMF readers, spirit boxes and a journal, and the ghost hears everything you say over voice chat. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is stability, with bugs and crashes following big updates. Rated Teen, the only pick here that is, and at 4.59 from about 27,800 ratings it is the highest-rated game on this list. Start here if your group scares easily and wants talking, not shooting.

Why it's here: The asymmetric standard: four survivors repair generators while one killer hunts them, and a decade of licensed killers from Ghostface to Pinhead keeps the roster fresh. Toxicity is the honest caveat, with Steam reviewers repeatedly citing hostile lobbies and balance swings between killer and survivor. Rated Mature, 4.10 from about 144,000 PlayStation Store ratings, and it is included on PS Plus Extra. Pick it for a group that wants a competitive horror habit rather than a campaign to finish.

Why it's here: The couch co-op pick: Chris and Sheva's whole campaign runs in two-player split-screen on one console, with online drop-in if your partner lives elsewhere. Steam reviewers praise the co-op action and the nostalgia; the recurring complaint is glitches, a useless AI partner when you play solo, and the drift away from horror. Rated Mature, 4.56 from about 35,000 ratings, second only to Phasmophobia on this list. If you want a full story to play through side by side on one screen, this is the one.

Why it's here: The open-world co-op pick: Kyle Crane returns, and up to four of you can free-run across Castor Woods, with the nights still the scariest part. Beast Mode adds a rage-fuelled melee burst the campaign is built around. The recurring caveat in Steam reviews is the story, which players call thin next to the combat and parkour. Rated Mature, 4.55 from about 24,500 ratings. Pick it for a group that wants a big map and a loot loop as much as scares.

Why it's here: The story co-op pick and, by Steam reviewers' own reckoning, the strongest entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology. Shared Story puts two of you online in different scenes of the same buried Akkadian temple, while Movie Night hands the controller around a room of up to five. The one caveat Steam reviews raise is a slow opening hour before the creatures show up. Rated Mature 17+, 4.32 from about 10,400 ratings, and its player sentiment reads great, the best on this roster. Choose it for a pair who want a horror film they can steer together.

Why it's here: The party pick for a full room: Movie Night passes the controller between up to eight of you, each steering a different camp counsellor through one night of slasher-movie decisions. Unskippable cutscenes and slow pacing are the recurring complaint in Steam reviews. Rated Mature 17+, 4.26 from about 18,200 ratings. An online mode exists too, but couch play is where it shines, so bring it out for a group that would rather shout at the screen than aim.

Why it's here: The slasher pick, and the most film-faithful game here: three members of the Slaughter family hunt four victims through the 1974 farmhouse, with Leatherface's chainsaw revving in the basement. The caveat is a big one and it comes straight from Steam reviews, where thin developer support, bugs, long lobby waits and a shrinking player base are the recurring complaints. It is the lowest-rated pick on this list, 3.94 from about 15,000 ratings, Rated Mature 17+. Play it while you can fill a lobby with friends, and go in knowing why the score sits where it does.

Why it's here: The campy pick: three alien Klowns with cotton-candy guns against seven humans trying to escape Crescent Cove, and it plays the 1988 film's joke completely straight. Steam reviewers who found a match report real fun, but the recurring complaint is a dwindling player base that leaves lobbies full of bots and little sign of new content. Rated Mature, 4.20 from about 2,900 ratings, the smallest rating pool here. Grab it cheap for a group of seven who want a laugh, not a long-term hobby.

Why it's here: The pick for four campaigns' worth of co-op: Leon, Chris, Jake and Ada each get a story, each built for two players in split-screen or online, with crossover moments where two pairs meet. Steam reviewers who like it call it a fun, absurd action game; the recurring criticism is the camera and the near-total loss of horror. Rated Mature, 4.39 from about 42,000 ratings. Take it for co-op volume rather than scares, and lower your expectations for the plot.

Why it's here: The split-screen pick and the most-rated game on this list: Claire and Moira, then Barry and Natalia, share a screen in local co-op with one partner fighting and the other spotting enemies or opening paths. Raid Mode adds an RPG-flavoured grind that Steam reviewers single out as the long-tail draw. The recurring complaint is the episodic structure and some technical roughness. Rated Mature, 4.29 from about 163,700 ratings. If you want a second controller on one console tonight, this is the easiest answer.

Why it's here: The co-op survival crafting pick: build a fortress by day, then hold it against the seventh-night horde with friends online, in a voxel world you can dig through. The 2024 Console Edition is the current build, and the recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the price against what the earlier console version offered, along with update churn. Rated Mature 17+, 4.48 from about 16,100 ratings. Choose it for a group that wants a long campaign of base-building punctuated by zombie sieges rather than a single scary night.

Why it's here: The pick for a group that wants to build, not just survive: you and your friends crash on a peninsula, cut trees for a fortified camp, and spend nights fending off cannibal tribes whose caves hide the story. Player sentiment reads good, one of only four positive readings on this roster, with clunky combat and enemy AI the recurring complaint in Steam reviews. Rated Mature, 4.49 from about 72,700 ratings on a PS4 release. It is the cheap way into a co-op survival horror campaign.

Why it's here: The PvPvE pick: trios of bounty hunters track a monster through the 1890s Louisiana bayou, and the danger is as much the other teams listening for your gunshots as the boss itself. Steam reviewers rate the sound design and the tension highly; the recurring complaint is the size of updates and a steep learning curve. Rated Mature, 4.19 from about 12,000 ratings, with a good sentiment reading. Pick it for a trio that likes extraction shooters and wants the horror to come from silence rather than jump scares.

Why it's here: The pick for splatter over scares: three of you carve through a zombie-choked Los Angeles with a gore system that tears enemies apart layer by layer. Steam reviewers praise the melee combat and hold the story against it, calling it forgettable and the missions repetitive. Rated Mature, 4.21 from about 38,100 ratings. Bring a trio that wants a bright, loud co-op holiday from the darker games above it on this list.

Why it's here: The swarm shooter pick: four-player missions against hordes that pile into walls of hundreds, with class progression to grind between runs. The recurring complaint in Steam reviews is repetition, the same objectives run after run and unreliable AI teammates when you cannot fill the squad. Rated Mature 17+, 4.18 from about 23,300 ratings, and it is on PS Plus Extra. If your group already has the subscription, it is the no-extra-cost entry point on this list.

Why it's here: The wave-shooter pick: ten perks, ten waves of Zeds, then a boss, with a slow-motion Zed Time that rewards the whole squad's kills. Player sentiment reads good, and the recurring complaint in Steam reviews is the install size, around 100 GB, alongside microtransaction cosmetics. Rated Mature 17+, 4.32 from about 51,100 ratings, on PS Plus Extra. Pick it for a group that wants gunplay first and horror atmosphere second.