The Netflix of video games, Xbox Game Pass has hundreds of titles (including many Xbox One exclusives) on its service to download and play for subscribers. That is an overwhelming number of choices that could easily paralyze those bad at making decisions.

And if you're looking for multiplayer games in particular, whether co-op or competitive, the selection doesn't become much less daunting. Xbox Game Pass has a wide range of games covering nearly every potential taste or style — but if you're looking for the absolute gems among its multiplayer selection, you're in luck. Today, we're curating the best multiplayer offerings that the service has to offer.

Don't yet have Xbox Game Pass?

Click here to join Xbox Game Pass and get your first month for $1.

Hunt: Showdown 1896

Not everyone plays a multiplayer game for tension. Some people play just to have a chill time with the bros. Laidback and fun. Hunt: Showdown 1896 is not for those people. Hunt: Showdown 1896 is for the people who love to sweat bullets, knowing there are drastic repercussions for every in-game decision you make.

Sure, you can hunt down terrifying monsters of legend with a couple of friends, having a jolly cooperative time, but the main draw of the game is the complete and utter tension that blankets the whole experience when you fear another player is somewhere around about to a) steal your bounty or b) kill you. If that kind of nail-biting, brow-moistening, palm-sweatening gameplay sounds up your alley, then Hunt: Showdown 1896 is just the multiplayer game you’ve been looking for.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

When you’re picking games to play with friends, it’s always nice to have a diverse array of options to pick from. A never-ending supply of battle royales or hero shooters would make game nights feel a little stale. So when browsing through Xbox Game Pass for new multiplayer games, imagine our delight upon landing on Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

The Crash Bandicoot-themed answer to Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing was an undeniable joy to play when it first came out all those years ago. Its remaster, now available to Game Pass subscribers, is the ultimate way to play it these days. It’s seriously one of the best online kart games you can play. With a plethora of tracks to choose from and modes to try, it's a surefire hit for gaming night.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

It may seem like an obligatory inclusion — I mean, how exactly do you expect to get through a “best multiplayer games” roster without the most recent Call of Duty release making an appearance? It’s like eggs without bacon, peanut butter without jam, dinosaur teeth without… look, you get the picture.

In most respects, Black Ops 6 doesn’t break the mold. It packs in the game modes, loadout options, and progression systems you’d expect — and it does all of those definitively COD things exceedingly well to begin with. But its biggest bit of polish (as you’ve surely seen in every bit of promotional material) is the new-ish “omni-directional” movement system, which allows for a ton of John Wick-esque parkour gunplay shenanigans that will take a good long while to get old. And that’s just the core multiplayer. We haven’t even touched zombies yet. Anyway, if you like COD, or really just FPS games in general, Black Ops 6 deserves more than a bit of your time.

Doom + Doom II

Sometimes, you can’t go wrong with a classic — at least id Software seemed to think so when it surprise-dropped an updated and repackaged port of its classic suite of Doom and Doom II during 2024’s Quakecon.

In addition to every Doom episode released to date, Doom + Doom II also hosts an updated and rerecorded soundtrack courtesy of Andew Hushult, modding support, a brand-new cooperative and single-player episode, and perhaps most relevant to this particular article, full online multiplayer support alongside a host of brand-new deathmatch maps.

It’s no Zandronum or Zdoom, but the matchmaking is fairly smooth, and the new multiplayer maps are great. The fast-paced arenas are a perfect salve for your boomer-shooter fragfest itch.

Valorant

The wait is finally over; Valorant (at the time of this writing) has moved to console spaces. And wouldn’t you know, it’s available on Xbox Game Pass. Valorant is a highly competitive shooter that will feel like a second home to anyone who has enjoyed a round of CS:GO in the past few years. However, there’s a dash of “hero shooter” thrown into the mix as well.

You play as one of 24 available Agents, each of which has unique abilities that make them suited to playing the role of a controller, duelist, what-have-you, on a team of five against five. You then take turns attacking and defending as you would in a regular Counter-Strike game. However, the hero shooter elements really come into play as you strategically engage in team fights for control of pathways. If our current selection of multiplayer games on Xbox Game Pass felt too cooperative in nature, then the addition of Valorant is a definite competitive feather in our cap.

Moving Out 2