Multiplayer horror games have becoming a growing genre in recent times. While being terrified out of your wits in single-player games has its own charm to it, more people have been falling in love with sharing these bone-chilling experiences with their friends.
To help you share the terror, we’ve made this list of the best multiplayer horror games you can play with your friends.
Looking for more horror? Here are the best YouTube channels to watch horror games.
1. Phasmophobia
Platform: PC
Number of Players: Up to 4 Players
The go-to multiplayer horror experience, Phasmophobia has made a name for itself through its terrifying scares and unique gameplay.
In Phasmophobia, up to four players take control of paranormal investigators who have to figure out what is haunting each of the premises in the game. To do so, players have to work with their friends by scanning rooms with EMF detectors, motion sensors, spirit boxes and a plethora of other ghost detection tools to interact with whatever supernatural entity is after you and your friends.
But the biggest appeal is the game’s scares. Players are able to use the in-game voice chat to talk to and provoke the ghost. When the ghost starts hunting after the players, it usually ends in someone dying through a jump scare which is perfect for freaking out skittish friends. Plus, the deaths in this game are unsettling, to say the least, especially in VR.
Also check out these survival horror games in addition to Phasmophobia
2. Devour
Platform: PC
Number of Players: Up to 4 players
Devour is like Phasmophobia, but it has far more jump scares, a more active monster hunting after you, and a unique set of tasks to complete in order to exorcise the monster for good.
The goal of Devour is to complete several puzzles in order to exorcise the monster for good. Along the way, level’s monster will chase after you and murder whoever it catches with a horrifying jump scare. Unlike Phasmophobia, players are able to defend themselves with a flashlight that burns the monsters (or its minions). Alternatively, you can also hide in a closet until the danger passes by.
Each challenge has some pretty amusing tasks to accomplish. The first monster requires sacrificing baby goats by burning them in a pit, while the second one requires you and your friends to electrocute rats, which is about as ridiculous as it sounds.
3. Inside The Backrooms
Platform: PC
Number of Players: 3 Players
The Backrooms is a horrifying concept in its own right. Whenever you’re walking around places, there’s a chance you’ll fall through the cracks in reality into a forgotten realm where monsters lurk around the corner ready to finally feed.
Inside The Backrooms throws its players into one such hell hole and tasks them with climbing out. To do so, they have to solve the puzzles in each stage to open a door that will bring them one step closer to freedom.
Navigating the claustrophobic halls and dark passageways is a terrifying experience when you don’t know what’s behind each corner. You could be walking into the next piece of the puzzle to help you escape, or the monster that’s been hunting for you. Coordinating with your teammates is a must, just so you know where each monster is and where the closest hiding place is.
4. The Dark Pictures Anthology
Platform: PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Number of Players: 2 to 5 players
I know this is a surprising addition to a multiplayer horror list, but hear me out. The Dark Pictures Anthology is a bundle of three games – Man of Medan, Little Hope, and House of Ashes. Later in November 2022, the anthology will get one more installment, The Devil In Me, which is available for pre-orders.
While the main mode for these games are its single-player story mode, The Dark Pictures Anthology has two ways to play multiplayer with friends that may not enjoy horror games alone. These two modes are Movie Night Mode and Shared Story.
Movie Night mode is for local play only (or share play on consoles and Steam) and supports up to five players. Each player controls a different character and will pass the controller to one another when it’s their turn. In comparison, Shared Story is a two-player cooperative experience where both players will be playing through different sides of the same story.
5. Labyrinthine
Platform: PC
Number of Players: Up to 4 players
As the name suggests, Labyrinthine puts four players into a massive labyrinth with a monster. In that sense, it’s similar to Phasmophobia, Devour, and Backrooms, but where Labyrinthine differs is how it encourages your group to split up to solve the puzzles and the ways it messes with people. Ambient sounds, flashes of the monster running past, a suffocating sense of claustrophobia, and the horrors living in the labyrinth hiding in a shadowy corner are the common ways Labyrinthine will scare its players.
In comparison to the other games, Devour’s puzzles don’t require a crazy amount of coordination between the players in your group. Two players can help gather the puzzle pieces needed, while the others can try to navigate the procedurally generated maze for landmarks and other points of interest.
6. Forewarned
Platform: PC
Number of Players: Up to 4 players
Forewarned has players diving through forgotten ruins to loot treasure from ancient tombs. However, standing in your way are the Mejal, a group of powerful undead warriors cursed to protect the tombs from raiders like yourself.
Games of Forewarned start with players exploring through the procedurally generated tomb for treasure. During this time, the spirit of the Mejal will harass the explorers until someone finds the inner chambers where the Mejal’s personal relic resides. Once the relic has been taken, the tomb will seal itself and players will have to find a way out while the Mejal in physical form hunts them down.
One of the best parts of Forewarned is how even when you’ve been killed, you can still continue participating in the game. Killed players can revive as a regular explorer once per run. After that, players can revive as either a helpful zombie or betray their team and help the Mejal as a mummy.
More zombie survival games here if you can’t get enough of zombies.
7. No More Room In Hell
Platform: PC
Number of Players: Up to 8 Players
If you have a decent sized party and don’t mind the slightly dated graphics, No More Room In Hell is a fantastic game to play. The premise is fairly simple: you’re a group of survivors and you need to defend an objective from unending waves of zombies. However, the twist is that No More Room In Hell leans toward the side of realism – there are no crosshairs, no HP bar, and ammunition is only shown when you reload or when your character checks the magazine itself.
But one of the most interesting points to this game is how, if you get bit by a zombie, you will be infected and eventually turn into an undead as well. Once you’re infected, you can choose to either alert the rest of your team so someone can put you out of your misery, or you can hide the infection from your team, hoping to find a cure later in the game.
8. Dead By Daylight
Platform: PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Number of Players: Up to 5 players (4 survivors, 1 killer)
Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror survival game. Four players will work together to complete objectives that will open an exit for them to leave the murderer’s arena. However, one player will play as the murderer and must hunt down the other players.
This game has plenty of replayability since you can grind to unlock different skills or characters. Experimenting with builds is a huge part of what makes this game so much fun to play.
In recent times, Dead by Daylight has also become a celebration of horror in all of its forms. While DBD has its own cast of original killers, it also features murderers from almost every form of horror medium like the Demigorgon from Stranger Things, Nemesis from Resident Evil, and Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Each of these killers also has its own unique arena, a unique set of skills, and are usually released with survivors from their universes.
9. Deceit
Platform: PC
Number of Players: 6 players
In Deceit, six players are thrown into a map and must make it to the exit in the third area. Between each area, the lights will go out for a short period of time before the doors leading into the next area open. Two players are infected with a virus and will transform into monsters when the lights go out. Once transformed, the infected players will roam around the dark and murder every survivor they see until the lights come back on. Survivors caught by the Infected in this stage will only permanently die if the infected drank enough blood.
Survivors have to work together to complete objectives that reward guns and useful items to help them determine who the infected are. Infected players can sabotage objectives and drink blood bags so they can immediately execute a player when they transform. This dynamic creates a wonderful way to bring your friends together for a night of scaring each other.
10. Depth
Platform: PC
Number of Players: Up to 6 players (4 divers, 2 sharks or 5 Divers and 1 Megalodon)
Few games have been able to send a shiver down the spines of thalassaphobics in the same way Depth has. It’s another asymmetric multiplayer horror game, but this time the murderers are sharks.
Each map is filled with cramped corridors and plenty of dark areas where a shark can ambush divers from. Even wide open areas become disturbing murder grounds because you can’t physically watch every possible angle a shark could appear from, and the sharks in this game are blindingly fast.
Even though Depth isn’t in active development anymore, if you can get together a group of friends to try this game then the experience alone is well worth its price. There’s something special about hearing your friend scream at the top of their lungs because a 2,000lb swimming death machine came speeding out of the dark to feast on their sweet diver flesh.
If Shark is not your kind of scare, check out these games with scary Snake bosses.
Want more scares in your life? Here are the best places to watch cheesy horror movies and the best horror anthology podcasts.
