Borderlands 4

Borderlands 4 is the newest entry on this list and the one with the least settled reputation. The series has always treated couch co-op as a core mode rather than an afterthought, and the loot loop is designed for exactly the kind of session where you and a friend both want to come away with something to show for the evening. Two-player split-screen campaign, deep character builds, and enough variety in the gun roster to keep things interesting across many sessions. Whether it earns a permanent spot here depends on how it ages. Right now it is the freshest split-screen looter-shooter available and worth the gamble.

Borderlands 4 does the thing the series has always done well and does it better than its predecessors: drop-in co-op that works whether your squad is coordinated or chaotic. Someone joins halfway through a mission, gets swept along by the loot economy, and by the end of the session they are already comparing builds. That casual friction-free structure is why the series has always been a go-to for groups on different platforms trying to play together without a long setup ritual. A proper 2025 release with full crossplay makes it the obvious series pick right now over Borderlands 3, which ends up in honorable mentions as a result.

The looter shooter slot on this list belongs to Borderlands 4. I was a Borderlands 3 regular for a long time, so stepping into 4 with a fresh campaign and updated movement felt like a genuine upgrade rather than a roster shuffle. The core formula works because it was always built for co-op. Someone finds a legendary weapon, the rest of the squad wants to know where, and suddenly you are three missions past where you planned to stop. The loot chase keeps sessions going longer than they probably should. It sits at three rather than higher because the best co-op shooters above it require more active teamwork. Here, you are mostly running the same direction and comparing numbers. That is fine, sometimes it is exactly what you want.

Borderlands 4 released in September 2025 and belongs on any honest 2026 PS5 co-op list. Four Vault Hunters, crossplay with Xbox and PC, two-player couch plus four-player online, and loot scaling that keeps players of different levels from being carried rather than contributing. It narrowly missed the top ten because its co-op design, while genuinely good, is a refinement of a formula that has existed for over a decade. For a group that loves loot shooters and wants a long campaign to work through together across platforms, it is an easy recommendation.