Gaming is expensive. Full-price releases sit at $70 a pop, and asking your friend to drop that same amount just to play through a co-op campaign together is a tough sell. Here's the thing, though: a growing number of games have built in a solution. Friend's Pass systems, Guest Passes, and platform-level sharing features mean one person buys the game and their friends can jump in for free.
The list of games supporting this has expanded significantly over the past few years, and it covers everything from horror-adventure campaigns to souls-likes to six-player party games. Here's the lowdown on the best options available right now.
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The Hazelight effect
Hazelight Studios has arguably done more than any other developer to normalize the Friend's Pass model. Both A Way Out and It Takes Two ship with a pass included, and the studio's latest, Split Fiction, continues that tradition. All three games are built exclusively for two-player co-op, so including a Friend's Pass is less a bonus feature and more a logical extension of the design philosophy.
Split Fiction splits its campaign between fantasy and sci-fi settings, alternating based on what the two main characters prefer. The Friend's Pass works across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC, with full cross-play support. It Takes Two, which won Game of the Year at The Game Awards in 2021, follows a couple working through puzzles to save their marriage. A Way Out puts two players in a prison escape that never lets either person forget the other is there, thanks to a persistent split-screen setup. All three are worth your time, and only one of you needs to pay.
Souls, horror, and co-op shooters
Lords of the Fallen extends the Friend's Pass model to the souls-like genre, which is a particularly smart move. Souls games are notoriously punishing solo, and having a partner absorb some of that punishment makes a real difference. The Friend's Pass here supports full cross-play, so it does not matter whether one player is on PC and the other is on console.
Reanimal, the horror-adventure from Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios, lets one player install the full game while the other downloads a free Friend's Pass version. It covers the entire campaign online across PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5. On Nintendo Switch 2, the game uses the platform's built-in GameShare feature instead, which does require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
FBC: Firebreak, Remedy's cooperative shooter set in the Control universe, also ships with a Friend's Pass across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The game is built for three players, so finding a third person who owns the full game helps, but two players with one copy and one Friend's Pass can still get through its missions.
Party games and budget picks
Midnight Murder Club might be the most generous Friend's Pass on this list. The game costs $10 outright, and its Guest Pass lets up to 5 additional players join the person who owns it. Since the game supports 6 players total, that means one $10 purchase can fill an entire lobby. Cross-play between PS5 and PC is supported.
Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics on Nintendo Switch handles sharing differently. Many of its 51 tabletop and card games support local play on a single Switch via the touchscreen, and for two-Switch setups, a Guest Pass lets the second player access any locally-supported game as long as one player has the full version.
Lego Voyagers, the exploration-focused two-player adventure released in late 2025, includes a Friend's Pass on Nintendo platforms and Steam. One player owns the full game, the other downloads the Friend's Pass Edition, and both can complete the entire campaign together online.
A few worth flagging
Little Nightmares 3 from Bandai Namco includes a Friend's Pass for its co-op campaign, but comes with a notable restriction: if you start in co-op mode, you have to finish the game in co-op. Switching from solo to co-op mid-save requires restarting from scratch. Plan accordingly before you commit.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood supports a Buddy Pass, but only in the Deluxe Edition. The standard version does not include it. The game plays better with two people regardless, since the campaign was clearly built around cooperative play even if solo is technically an option.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint takes a different approach entirely. Up to 3 friends can join using a free trial version of the game combined with either PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass Console. It is not the strongest entry in the Ghost Recon series, but it is a functional open-world co-op experience that costs the joining players nothing.
What this means for your wallet
The Friend's Pass model is not new, but the range of games supporting it has grown considerably. Hazelight built it into their entire catalog. Horror games, souls-likes, party games, and shooters all have entries on the list now. The key here is that these passes are not trials or limited demos. Most of them cover the entire game, from start to finish, for the player who did not pay.
For games like Gamble With Your Friends, which sold 1 million copies in its first week, the multiplayer setup works similarly. Check out the how to play Gamble With Your Friends in multiplayer guide for a breakdown of how shared sessions work there, and the before you buy guide if you are still deciding whether it is worth picking up.
For co-op games that require a bit more setup, like Outbound's 4-player shared progression system, the Outbound co-op with friends guide walks through lobby codes and how progression carries across sessions. More guides covering shared-play setups are available at the guides hub.
