Best PS5 Co-Op RPGs 2026

I started a BG3 campaign with a friend playing a couple of evenings a week, and months later we were still mid-Act 2 talking about it between sessions. That almost never happens. What makes this the clear number one is that co-op does not sit alongside the main game here, it is threaded through every dialogue choice, every camp conversation, every moment where your partner decides to do something entirely different than you expected. Classes are deep, builds matter, and every run with a different party composition feels genuinely new. The split-screen local option on PS5 is better implemented than most games twice its budget manage.

I started Diablo IV solo and did not finish it. Started it again with a friend and we were four hours in before either of us noticed the time. That gap tells you most of what you need to know. The classes are distinct enough that two people building differently creates real session-to-session variety, and the loot loop feeds directly into co-op because drops feel meaningful when someone is there to react to them. Seasonal content keeps bringing the group back, and the onboarding is the smoothest on this list. It runs beautifully on PS5. The campaign writing will not win awards, but the co-op loop absolutely earns its number two spot.

Monster Hunter rewards the kind of preparation my LAN party group actually enjoys. Before a big hunt you are comparing weapon builds, debating elemental weaknesses, figuring out who brings which support skill. Then the monster appears and everything goes slightly sideways anyway. Wilds is the most accessible the series has ever been, which matters for co-op groups where not everyone comes in with 200 hours of World under their belt. The story arc is largely solo-paced in the early hours, which is the one real friction point for groups wanting to start together from minute one. Get past that and the co-op hunt loop is exceptional.

Guns in an RPG framework sounds like a compromise, but Remnant II makes it work better than anything comparable on PS5 right now. The archetype system gives every player a defined role without locking you into it forever, and the procedural world variation means a second playthrough with the same group uncovers encounters the first run never showed you. Three-player co-op hits a sweet spot where everyone has space to build differently without the session becoming chaotic. I would put this above Elden Ring for anyone whose co-op group does not want to spend twenty minutes configuring password summons before every boss attempt.

Nobody is going to argue Elden Ring does not belong on a PS5 RPG list. The open world is one of the best designed spaces in recent gaming, the build variety is enormous, and the boss encounters are the kind you still think about weeks later. But the co-op here asks something of you. Password summons, Furlcalling Finger Remedies, session resets after every boss kill. My experience is that it works best when both players are running their own files and dropping in for specific challenges rather than treating it as a shared campaign. On those terms it is genuinely great. Just go in with accurate expectations about what co-op here actually looks like.

Path of Exile 2 has the most complex passive skill tree I have ever tried to understand in a co-op session. My friend and I spent the first hour in character creation debating builds we did not yet have the context to evaluate. That is either a selling point or a warning, depending on your group. For dedicated ARPG players who want to theorycraft between sessions and bring coordinated builds into co-op runs, this is the deepest option on the list. It is still in early access and the PS5 version has occasional rough edges to reflect that. Patience required, but the RPG depth is genuinely among the best in the genre.

Borderlands 3 is not trying to be BG3. What it is trying to be is a ridiculous four-player loot co-op campaign where everyone leaves with better guns than they arrived with, and at that it absolutely succeeds. The skill trees are real, the class identities are distinct, and the moment-to-moment co-op flow is among the most polished on this list. It also solves a real problem for mixed-skill co-op groups because level scaling keeps weaker players relevant without punishing stronger ones. The writing runs hot and cold depending on your tolerance for a particular flavour of humour, but the mechanical loop holds up across a full playthrough.

Wonderlands sits just below Borderlands 3 because the overall package is slightly lighter, but the fantasy framing genuinely changes the feel enough to justify having both on a list. The multiclassing system is the most interesting design choice here: mid-campaign you unlock a second class and the combination options create real character variety in a way the base Borderlands format does not. I played through a chunk of this with someone who does not normally engage with RPG systems and the accessibility of it meant she was building her character actively rather than just following a guide. For casual co-op groups, the lower barrier to entry is a real advantage.

No Man's Sky is not a traditional RPG, and I will not pretend otherwise. But after years of free updates it has accumulated enough progression depth, technology upgrades, ship and multitool builds, and mission structure that dismissing it from this list felt like underselling what it actually offers co-op groups today. My experience with it is exactly what the game does best: you and a friend end up on a frozen moon with a half-built base, each quietly pursuing a different project, and somehow four hours pass. The progression is classless and sprawling rather than structured. For groups wanting something long-term and low-pressure to return to between more demanding sessions, it earns its place.

Outward is rough. The loading times on the PS4 version via backward compatibility are not great, the combat takes adjustment, and the lack of hand-holding will annoy anyone who wants a smooth onboarding. But the co-op design here is something few games on this list match: the entire adventure, survival prep and all, is built around two players navigating a world that treats you as ordinary people rather than chosen heroes. Planning a journey together, managing resources, deciding which path to take knowing you might not have enough supplies if it goes wrong. For a specific kind of duo who wants that friction, nothing else on this list offers it. Just know what you are signing up for.