7. Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5)

With creator Media Molecule focusing its attention on PS4’s boundless sandbox Dreams, LittleBigPlanet’s whimsical weaved hero deserved his Super Mario 3D World moment. Sackboy: A Big Adventure doesn’t pull up any trees like its predecessors, but is instead a robust co-operative platformer with some memorable musical moments. With a cutesy DIY aesthetic and some surprisingly tight action, it excels in an area that Sony has often been accused of overlooking: fun for the whole family.

6. The Nioh Collection (PS5)

Team Ninja's answer to the popular Dark Souls series is Nioh, a punishing but satisfying action RPG based on Japanese history and folklore. The Nioh Collection on PS5 brings the two titles together in one package. Fortunately, both games are excellent — fairly linear but featuring fast, deadly melee combat that has you swapping between stances to gain the upper hand. The pair of games are remastered for the up-to-date hardware, running at up to 120 frames-per-second on the right display, and support DualSense's haptics and adaptive triggers. Two cracking action titles for the price of one, and looking and playing better than ever on PS5? A no-brainer.

5. Helldivers 2 (PS5)

Live service executed effortlessly, Helldivers 2’s success can be attributed to Arrowhead putting gameplay ahead of business models. The game’s systemic approach means cinematic moments unfold emergently, as part of the co-operative action and physics at play. Doing your part has never felt quite so good.

4. Returnal (PS5)

Not that it needed to, but with Returnal, Housemarque has proven itself an incredibly capable studio. This PS5 exclusive is a frantic, ultra-tight third person shooter dressed up with some rogue-like elements to add variety and unpredictability to the mix, and the result is wonderful.

Trapped in a loop on a hostile alien world, Selene is forced to relive her fateful crash landing each time she dies. There's an amazing sense of accomplishment as you slowly progress through challenging boss encounters and explore six diverse environments full of randomised weapons, perks, and power-ups. It feels amazing to play, especially with amazing support for the DualSense's features, and the addictive gameplay is complemented by an enigmatic story that will leave you guessing.

The best part is that's just the start. A slew of additional modes flesh out Returnal, giving you a few extra ways to play when you're done with the single player campaign. The daily challenge mode provides all players with a fixed loadout and room layouts, with the goal of amassing the highest score possible by exploring and playing skilfully. Beyond that is the Tower of Sisyphus, an endless arcade mode that similarly tasks you with getting the highest score you can, only there's more of a sense of urgency. You're rewarded not just for skilled play but for fast play — your multiplier will start to tick down if you loiter for too long. The Tower also contains additional story, adding more layers to the mysterious narrative the main game offers.

Finally, there's two-player online co-op. This allows you to join or invite another player and go through the main campaign with a companion, potentially alleviating some of the challenge. While it isn't the primary focus of Returnal, the co-op works splendidly; resources are shared between you, forcing you to make decisions on who gets what, and a revival mechanic lets you bring each other back into the fight. It's just as much fun taking on the world of Atropos with a friend as it is alone, if not more so.

Whether you're in it for the world class gameplay, the atmospheric sci-fi setting, the intentionally mysterious story, or the variety of extra modes, Returnal is among the most robust, rewarding, and addictive games on PS5.

3. It Takes Two (PS5)

When you think of co-op games, one should spring to mind immediately: It Takes Two. This action adventure is from the makers of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out, and sees you and a partner take on the role of an estranged couple. Turned into dolls by their daughter's tears, you and a friend must go on a wildly imaginative, endlessly varied, adventure to return to normal. Constantly presenting you with new puzzles and ideas, each as good as the last, you'll never grow weary of this brilliant game, playable locally or online.

2. Elden Ring (PS5)

Elden Ring’s crowning achievement is taking a relatively niche gameplay loop – refined over the years with Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, et al – and presenting it to the masses. FromSoftware’s open world magnum opus is a staggering achievement: a sandbox bursting at the seams with vulgar secrets, all presented with enough ambiguity to make combing every square inch of its dramatic Lands Between backdrop feel like true discovery. With a complex combat system enabling an eclectic array of gameplay styles, and some of the most devilish encounters in gaming history, this is an unmissable experience – and then some.

Segmented into a selection of sprawling sinister landscapes, celebrated director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s ambitious open world harbours more secrets than you may imagine. Cliff edges hide untouched catacombs, littered with loot and guarded by grotesque enemies, while the friendly characters you encounter gradually make way to sprawling quest lines that will send you all over the open world.

While you will need assistance to discover much of the game’s more obscure content – and we recommend reading through our Elden Ring guide before you embark – a big part of this fantasy favourite’s appeal is simply getting lost in its world. With the bottlenecks of past entries mostly eradicated due to the sheer scale of its sandbox, no two adventures will ever be the same.

In fact, the title’s versatility is one of its defining features. With a dizzying selection of armaments to choose from, ranging spellbinding incantations through to deadly seven-foot swords, the game gives you the freedom to inject your own personality into it. And whether you’re playing in single player alone or in co-op with a companion, you’ll find what feels like a never-ending array of artillery to experiment with and areas to explore.

FromSoftware has never been blessed with technical chops, and while the painterly art direction borders on the sublime, some minor frame hitching and graphical glitches can be a concern. But these are minor blights in a tour-de-force: a culmination of everything the Japanese developer has spent the past decade and a bit working to achieve.

1. Demon's Souls (PS5)

Sony comfortably hooked the enthusiast crowd by adding Demon’s Souls to the PS5’s launch lineup. FromSoftware’s legendary action RPG – which would go on to spawn the so-called Soulsborne series and, eventually, even Elden Ring – was snubbed by the Japanese giant during the PS3 era, as it felt early builds were simply not up to snuff. Publishers like Atlus and Bandai Namco eventually picked it up, and it went on to become a cult classic. Perhaps as a tacit admission that it made a mistake, its recruited tech specialists Bluepoint Games to remake the game for a modern era – and the results are remarkable. This version uses original PS3 code to make for an incredibly authentic experience, but its visuals are among some of the best you’ll find on Sony’s new-gen console. It’s an extraordinary blend of old and new that comes highly recommended.

That's your list of the best co-op games on PS5. Are you happy with the list? Is the order about what you'd expect, or are there more deserving games that aren't here at all? If you want to make changes, don't forget: you call the shots. Rate games accordingly by using the search tool at the top of this article. Your score can and will affect the rankings! Also, if a game you want to rate isn't in our PlayStation Games Database, please let us know and we can get it added. So, tell us your personal favourite co-op games on PS5 in the comments section below.

Best PS5 Games