Best Of
10 Best Crossplay Games on Xbox Game Pass (October 2026)
Looking for the best Xbox Game Pass crossplay games in 2026? Games with crossplay support make it easy to team up with friends no matter what system they’re using. You can squad up, compete, or explore together without limits. Game Pass keeps adding new titles that bring everyone into one shared world. It’s all about easy access, shared fun, and non-stop action with friends.
What Defines the Best Crossplay Games?
It all comes down to connection, not just between platforms, but between players. Whether it’s racing, surviving, fighting, or causing chaos in co-op, the best crossplay games bring people together without the hassle. Fast matchmaking, stable servers, and solid multiplayer design are what make them work. When a game lets you squad up across systems and just jump into the action, that’s where the fun really clicks. Every pick in this list delivers both good gameplay and good times with friends.
From wild co-op disasters to full-scale shared adventures, this lineup covers the Xbox Game Pass crossplay games worth loading up with friends in 2026. Here are the picks that bring strong multiplayer action, smooth cross-platform play, and plenty of reasons to keep coming back.
10. Riders Republic
Race bikes, ski, and fly wingsuits across an open world
Riders Republic is essentially an extreme sports playground smashed together with a massive online lobby. You can ride bikes, skis, snowboards, and even wingsuits, then race across a gigantic open world stitched together from several American national parks. What actually makes Riders Republic stand apart from your typical sports game is its “Mass Race” mode, which packs more than 50 players into a single multisport race at the same time on supported platforms. Picture that for a second. Dozens of people colliding, bumping, and wiping out on the same narrow trails, all trying to finish near the top across multiple stages. It’s absolute mayhem, and also weirdly addictive.
Plus, you can jump into 6v6 Tricks Battles where your squad competes for points by pulling off tricks and capturing sections of an arena. Or go free-for-all in 12-player sessions if you’re feeling confident. Between Mass Races, Tricks Battles, and Free-for-All events, there are plenty of competitive modes to jump into, although Mass Race schedules and playlists can change between seasons. I’d also say this is a solid entry-level crossplay pick because it’s easy to get into, the vibes are casual, and the variety of sports means you’re unlikely to get bored quickly.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
9. Ultimate Sheep Raccoon
Build obstacle courses with friends, then bike race through them
If you’ve played Ultimate Chicken Horse before, Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is going to click immediately. For everyone else, here’s the deal. Clever Endeavour Games made a wildly popular party game called Ultimate Chicken Horse, where you and your friends would build platforming levels by placing traps and obstacles between rounds, trying to make the course hard enough that your friends can’t finish it, while still being completable for you. It became a couch-party staple, and fans wanted more.
Ultimate Sheep Raccoon carries over that exact energy, except now everyone is on bikes. Between rounds, players each place traps, ramps, bouncy pads, pendulums, spikes, and even laser-emitting TVs onto the track. Then you all race through the modified course, dodging the hazards, pulling off backflips and wheelies for bonus points, and using power-ups like jetpacks and parachutes to survive the madness. The game handles up to 8 players in online crossplay, so it’s a solid pick among Xbox Game Pass crossplay games for party night with friends who own different consoles.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Nintendo Switch 1, Nintendo Switch 2
8. Dead by Daylight
Asymmetric horror where one killer hunts four survivors in a deadly cat-and-mouse chase
Dead by Daylight operates on an idea you don’t see very often in multiplayer games. Five players enter a match, and the roles are split unevenly. One person plays as the Killer, while the other four play as Survivors. And these are two radically different experiences. The Killer views the match in first person, stalking and chasing down prey. The Survivors, on the other hand, see everything from a third-person camera, giving them better awareness of their surroundings. The goal for the Survivors is to repair generators scattered around the map, which power up exit gates so they can escape.
Meanwhile, the Killer’s job is to hunt them down, grab them, and hang them on sacrificial hooks to feed a dark cosmic entity. The Killer moves faster, but Survivors can vault through windows and throw down wooden pallets to stun and create distance. You’ll be crouched behind a wall listening to your heartbeat get louder as the Killer gets closer, and the panic is very specific to this game. Plus, the roster has expanded to include characters from iconic horror franchises, so you could be chased by someone from Scream, Resident Evil, or Stranger Things.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Nintendo Switch
7. Brawlhalla
Knock opponents off the stage in platform fights
Brawlhalla is often compared to Super Smash Bros. Here, you’re on a 2D platform stage, fighting other players, trying to knock them off the screen. The more damage someone has taken, the farther they generally get knocked back, which means one good hit can send them flying off the edge for a KO. It works similarly to Smash in that core respect. However, Brawlhalla has carved out its own identity over the years with a roster of 70 playable “Legends” (their term for fighters), a weapon-based combat approach, and a massive crossover lineup that includes Lara Croft, characters from The Walking Dead, and Star Wars.
And here’s the kicker: Brawlhalla’s base game has been free to play since its open beta launch. You get a rotating weekly selection of free Legends, and you can unlock more with in-game currency earned from playing. With over 125 million players worldwide and full crossplay across Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices, getting into a match is rarely an issue, although queue times can vary. It also has ranked 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3, along with casual game modes like Capture the Flag and Volleybrawl, accessible through custom lobbies and rotating events.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
6. Moving Out 2
Physics-based furniture hauling with friends across wacky obstacle-filled levels
Moving Out 2 asks you and up to three friends to do the most mundane thing imaginable, and then cranks the absurdity to ten. You’re a Furniture Arrangement & Relocation Technician, or F.A.R.T. for short (yes, the game is self-aware about that). Your assignment is to get the furniture out of a building and onto the moving truck as fast as possible. How you do it, well, that’s where the comedy kicks in.
See, the physics in this game are intentionally wonky. You grab one end of a couch, your friend grabs the other, and both of you try to navigate through a doorway that’s just barely wide enough. The couch gets stuck, someone lets go, the other person goes flying, and the couch bounces out the window. And frankly, tossing a refrigerator out of a second-story window straight into the truck is way faster than carrying it down the stairs. Levels get increasingly bizarre too, going from normal suburban houses to haunted mansions and other ridiculous settings. Also, this game shares a lot of the same energy as Overcooked, where coordination with your teammates counts, but the comedy of everything going horribly wrong is the actual point.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Nintendo Switch
5. Deep Rock Galactic
Co-op mining shooter with four dwarf classes exploring dangerous procedural caves
Deep Rock Galactic puts you in the boots of a dwarf working for a space mining corporation. And before you ask, yes, dwarves in space with guns is exactly as cool as it sounds. Your job is to drop into underground cave networks on an alien planet, mine valuable minerals, complete objectives, and fight off swarms of alien bugs trying to rip you apart. The caves are procedurally generated, so you’ll never run the same layout twice.
The hook with Deep Rock Galactic is the four distinct dwarf classes and how they work together. The Scout carries a grappling hook and a flare gun to light up dark caverns, making mineral deposits visible for the team. The Engineer places platforms on cave walls and deploys automated turrets. The Gunner has a massive chaingun and can lay down ziplines across wide gaps. And the Driller tunnels straight through solid rock with power drills, and craves shortcuts for the group. These roles interlock beautifully. Overall, it’s one of the most wholesome multiplayer communities out there, and I think the Xbox Game Pass crossplay games 2026 lineup would be incomplete without it.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
4. Sea of Thieves
Crew up on pirate ships and sail open waters for treasure
Sea of Thieves is, fundamentally, a pirate sandbox, where the crew hops on a ship, raises the anchor, picks a direction on the open ocean, and goes to do whatever they want. You could chase treasure maps, fight skeleton captains for bounties, haul cargo between outposts for gold, or simply sail toward the horizon and see what’s there. And the ocean is huge, with dozens of islands scattered around, each hiding something worth checking. However, the thing I love about this game is the manual labor of sailing itself. You’re physically raising sails, adjusting the angle to catch wind, loading cannons, patching holes when the hull springs a leak in the middle of a storm.
The crew needs coordination for everything, from reading the map to steering around rocks. Plus, other player crews share the waters with you, which means you’re constantly weighing whether to engage, run, or try to form an alliance. You’ve got Tall Tales with cinematic storylines, world events, and seasonal cosmetic content to chase. With no fixed roles or classes tied to any character, you can play however you want, even solo on a tiny Sloop if you prefer handling everything yourself, or in Safer Seas if you want to avoid other player crews. I’d call it the most freeform multiplayer game on this list, and it has the rare quality of producing stories you’ll actually remember and retell to people.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5
3. Shift At Midnight
Run a gas station at night and interrogate suspicious customers
Shift At Midnight is a co-op detective horror game about working the night shift at a gas station. I know that sounds weirdly specific, and it is. You clock in with up to two friends, stock the shelves, take deliveries, sell products to customers, and try to meet your nightly sales quota. But some of the customers walking through that door are doppelgangers. They look like regular people, they talk like regular people, and it’s your job to figure out who’s human and who’s going to circle back later and try to kill you. You question them, check their IDs, look up their information on a computer at the counter, and observe their behavior for anything suspicious.
If you’re confident they’re a fake? You deal with it right there. Wrong call, and you’ve either lost an innocent customer or let something dangerous walk out. Well, the doppelgangers you missed will come back, and now your gas station becomes a survival situation. You’ll board up doors, lay down traps, hide, and try to make it through until morning. Also, each shift is randomly generated, so you can replay it without memorizing the same patterns. I’ve played dozens of co-op horror games, and Shift At Midnight is among the rare ones that transition the mundane task of scanning groceries so naturally into outright dread.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC (Game Pass)
2. Forza Horizon 6
Drive 550+ cars across Japan in an open-world racing festival
Forza Horizon 6 brings the long-running Horizon Festival to Japan, a location fans have been requesting for years, practically since the series launched back in 2012. The map here reflects that anticipation well. You’ve got the dense urban streets of Tokyo, complete with expressways inspired by the famous C1 loop, then countryside roads winding through rice paddies and rural hills, and then mountain passes like Mt. Haruna and Bandai Azuma demanding precise driving at every turn. It is the most dense and vertical map in franchise history, and after spending time with it, I’d agree. The contrast between weaving through tight city blocks and opening up on a wide highland stretch is something previous entries tried, but Japan’s geography elevates that dramatically.
You start the game as a tourist visiting Japan, qualifying your way into the Horizon Festival, which gives the progression a different flavor compared to earlier games where you were already an established racer. Beyond the map, the car roster is massive at over 550 vehicles at launch, with a strong presence of JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) classics that match the setting perfectly. Cross-save is supported across available platforms, so your garage, your cars, and your progression can carry between platforms. For a racing game, this level of flexibility is a big deal, especially in a title with this much content to unlock.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC
1. Subnautica 2
Explore and survive an alien ocean world with three friends
The original Subnautica was a solo experience about crash-landing on an alien water planet and slowly descending deeper into its ocean, gathering resources, crafting tools, and building underwater bases while unraveling the mystery of what happened to your ship. It became a cult favorite because of how well it blended survival mechanics with genuine exploration and storytelling. With Subnautica 2, the team at Unknown Worlds has moved the action to a completely new alien planet with fresh biomes, creatures, and environmental hazards. You’re a pioneer arriving on this distant world, and the planet itself has secrets that go far beyond just staying alive.
For the first time in the series, Subnautica 2 supports four-player online co-op with full crossplay between Xbox and PC. You and three friends can explore the same ocean together, build bases as a team, and share the experience of discovering something massive and terrifying hiding in a dark cave. The co-op uses drop-in drop-out, so friends can join or leave your session at any time without disrupting anything. And if you prefer the solo experience, that’s completely intact too, because the developers have been clear about co-op being an optional addition on top of the single-player survival.
Crossplay Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC
FAQs
Do all these games need Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for crossplay to work?
It depends on the game. Titles like Brawlhalla are free-to-play, so you can download and use crossplay without any subscription at all. But for premium games like Forza Horizon 6, Subnautica 2, and Shift At Midnight, you’ll need an active Game Pass subscription to access them through the service. And if you’re on console specifically, online multiplayer typically requires at least Game Pass Essential or Ultimate.
Can I invite a friend on PlayStation to play these Game Pass games with me?
Some of these games do support PlayStation crossplay, but others are limited to Xbox and PC. Sea of Thieves, Dead by Daylight, Brawlhalla, and Riders Republic all allow you to match with PlayStation players. However, Deep Rock Galactic, Subnautica 2, Shift At Midnight, and Forza Horizon 6 currently restrict crossplay to the Xbox and PC ecosystem. So before you send that invite, it’s worth checking whether your friend’s platform is supported for the specific title.
Which of these games are good for someone who doesn’t play games often?
Moving Out 2 is probably the easiest pick here because the concept is straightforward, you’re just moving furniture from a house to a truck. It also has assist options that let you adjust the speed and difficulty, which makes it comfortable for casual players. Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is another solid option since the bike-racing format is simple to grasp, and the chaos of the obstacle courses makes skill gaps feel less noticeable. Riders Republic is also approachable because the open-world structure lets you do activities at your own pace.
How many players can join together in the largest multiplayer game on this list?
Riders Republic supports massive races with up to 64 players in a single event, which makes it the biggest multiplayer experience here by a wide margin. Ultimate Sheep Raccoon caps at 8 players, and Sea of Thieves allows crews of up to 4 on a single ship. Most other games on this list support groups of 3 to 4 players in co-op. So if you’re after large-scale multiplayer mayhem, Riders Republic is the clear pick.
Do any of these Game Pass crossplay games also support local couch co-op?
Yes, a few of them do. Moving Out 2 supports up to 4 players on the same screen alongside its online crossplay mode, and you can even split a single controller between two players if you’re short on gamepads. Ultimate Sheep Raccoon also has local multiplayer for up to 8 players on one device in addition to its online crossplay. Brawlhalla allows local matches too, so you and a friend on the same couch can team up or fight each other before jumping online.
Are any of these crossplay games completely free to play even without Game Pass?
Brawlhalla is entirely free on every platform, so you don’t need Game Pass or any purchase to play it. The roster rotates free characters weekly, and all gameplay content is accessible without spending a thing. Dead by Daylight is available through Game Pass, but if your subscription lapses, you’d need to buy it separately. Everything else on this list requires either a Game Pass subscription or a standalone purchase to access.
Which game on this list is the newest addition to Game Pass in 2026?
Shift At Midnight joined Game Pass as a day-one title in July 2026, and Subnautica 2 arrived on the service in May 2026. Forza Horizon 6 also launched on Game Pass in May 2026 with day-one access for Ultimate and PC subscribers. These three are the freshest entries on the list, and all of them landed on the service within the same year. So if you want the most current experiences, these are the ones to try first.
Can I play these games solo if none of my friends are online?
Absolutely. Almost every game on this list has a solo option. Subnautica 2 can be completed entirely alone, and Deep Rock Galactic pairs you with an AI companion called Bosco when you play without a group. Sea of Thieves has a Safer Seas mode designed for solo players, and Forza Horizon 6 lets you race through the full campaign by yourself. Even Dead by Daylight has a bot mode for practice. The crossplay component enhances all of these, but none of them force you to play with others.
Do these crossplay Game Pass games receive regular content updates?
Most of them do. Forza Horizon 6 has an active post-launch roadmap with seasonal content, new cars, and upcoming expansions. Sea of Thieves continues to roll out seasonal updates with new events and voyages. Dead by Daylight releases new characters and themed events frequently as well. Subnautica 2 is currently in early access, so new features, creatures, and biomes are being added through patches over time. And Brawlhalla consistently introduces new crossover character packs throughout the year.











