7 Games That Marked the End of an Era for Couch Co-Op Gaming

26, 2026, 5:30 PM EDT Zackari Greif is a List Writer at DualShockers who has been covering games professionally since 2021. A lifelong gamer and former writer for GameRant and Fix Gaming Channel, Zackari has written across news, guides, interviews, previews, reviews, features, and lists, bringing a broad background in gaming journalism to his work. At GameRant, Zackari reported on gaming news before expanding into deeper coverage, including interviews, features, previews, and reviews. His work has covered franchises and topics such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokémon, Mario Kart, Sonic Racing, platformers, RPGs, indie games, and game comparisons. Sign in to your DualShockers account We all have our own unique story as to how we got into video games, but I'm willing to bet your story involves a friend, loved one, or another person in some way. Probably more than you think. For a lot of us, myself included, it's likely because someone handed you a controller and told you that you'd get the hang of it and learn as you go. Back in the day, the only way you could share a game with someone like this was through an iconic way to play that still goes strong even today: Couch co-op. The younger you are, though, the more likely it is that you didn't get into gaming because of someone local, but someone far away. Or, maybe not even through anyone at all, but a live-service event you didn't want to miss. Indeed, the rise of the internet and online gaming has become a threat to couch co-op over the years. Gaming online is without a doubt a net positive, and couch co-op is still strongly encouraged in recent titles. There's just more options than ever before, but the rise of online gaming has changed how we play. Let's take a look at how a few co-op games lead the way. 7 Minecraft Play in Person or Play With Mods. Your Choice. Minecraft Sandbox Survival Released November 18, 2011 Developer(s) Mojang Publisher(s) Mojang Franchise Minecraft Platform(s) 3DS, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Xbox 360 Genre(s) Sandbox, Survival Powered by Expand Collapse I got into Minecraft back in 2012 thanks to a friend of mine who is highly invested in the modding scene. Thanks to him, my friends and I have been able to play on super tricked-out servers with mods that let us catch Pokémon, explore Tatooine, and even go fast like Sonic the Hedgehog. Minecraft is a really fun game, no matter if you have mods or not. Playing Minecraft with friends has always been a bit tricky, in my experience. I might have been able to play on these awesome servers, but I had to sit through technical complications regarding mods and the server itself at times. On top of that, I found that trying to play multiplayer on Minecraft without a server was a general hassle. My partner and I were long-distance, and we ended up purchasing Minecraft twice on PC and Switch just to take advantage of our Switch Online memberships in place of my pal's server. Of course, now that we live together, we can play on split-screen on our Switch 2, but sometimes we forget that the mods we have on the server don't exist on Switch. It's strange to have two very different ways to play the game, and I feel like a lot of us would rather enjoy modded Minecraft over split-screen, which has its caveats in person. 6 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Casual Smash Was Never the Same Super Smash Bros. Brawl Fighting Released March 9, 2008 Developer(s) Sora Ltd., Game Arts Publisher(s) Nintendo Platform(s) Wii Genre(s) Fighting Powered by Expand Collapse To my recollection, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the first time a big Nintendo game made online play a prominent feature. It was amazing to me that I could play with my best online friend in Kentucky and her brother despite being states away. Brawl having online play was a game-changer for little old me who struggled to make friends in person but thrived online. At the same time, I feel like Brawl marked a shift. With the addition of online play, Smash Bros. never looked back. There are considerably fewer people playing Smash Bros. as the party game is on the surface. When I attended a midnight launch party for Smash Bros. Ultimate, my local GameStop let us play Smash, and I found myself surrounded by local competitors, not fellow casual players. (I held my own, at least, and I'm impressed with myself for that!) There are still ways to play Smash for fun for sure — there's literally a mode called that, after all — but the competitive side has outweighed the general discussion. Brawl was just the beginning of that. (Not that that's necessarily a bad thing!) 5 Super Mario Maker 2 Mario Has Joined the Game Super Mario Maker 2 Platformer Released June 28, 2019 Developer(s) Nintendo Publisher(s) Nintendo Platform(s) Switch Genre(s) Platformer Powered by Expand Collapse There are a lot of Nintendo games on this list, but that's because Nintendo has stood on the importance of playing games together in person over online for years. A lot of Mario games had some way of playing together on the couch, no matter how important the single-player experience was. To this day, only a handful of Mario platformers allow you to play together, and the one to mark that shift was Super Mario Maker 2. Super Mario Maker, conceptually, always relied on the internet to make the service go above and beyond. When you're bored with making your own courses, you could easily go play some online ones to get new ideas or make your hands hurt with some Kaizo-level platforming. This is what took the wishful thinking of why Mario couldn't have online play like every other game to a new peak, though. It feels like Nintendo finally relented with Super Mario Maker 2, and other important games have followed since. Mario's preference for couch co-op hasn't gone anywhere, but it certainly made the door wider for more players to play together in a way that might have changed which mode was being used more. 4 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive A Symbol of Changing Times Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Released August 21, 2012 Developer(s) Valve Publisher(s) Valve Platform(s) PS3, Xbox 360, macOS, Linux, PC Powered by Expand Collapse Now, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hasn't done anything to change how we socialize around games entirely, more on that in a moment, but it's a good game to use as an example of how couch co-op has become secondary to online play. It's here to represent the way the internet evolved in the 2010s. The 2010s marked a slow, but palpable change in internet speeds. This roll-out was very gradual, but internet speeds were what helped shape the multiplayer sphere in the naughts. If you had poor internet, and someone else had better internet, it wasn't unheard of to just go to your friend's place to hook your computers up to play together with better performance. Beyond the chaotic situations that'd regularly ensue, this was the whole central point behind LAN parties. With better internet in more homes, there was no real reason to go hang out at your friend's place for a LAN party. Especially if you were already an anti-social nerd. So, why would you go to a CS: Global Offensive LAN party? You had everything you need at home, after all. 3 Super Mario Party Party For One, Now Super Mario Party Party Game Released October 5, 2018 Developer(s) NDcube Publisher(s) Nintendo Platform(s) Switch Genre(s) Party Game Powered by Expand Collapse Like I mentioned before, Nintendo has always been more in favor of couch co-op than online play. If you don't believe me, just look at the longevity of Mario Party. It's been around for nearly thirty years, had plenty of entries that could have had online play, yet it didn't receive the feature until Super Mario Party. It's a great thing that we now have an online Mario Party. Truly, it is. But like many of the situations above, how many times have you gone over to a friend's house to play Mario Party? How many times do you play with long-distance internet friends or even use the match-maker mode instead? It might not have marked the end of Mario Party's chaotic reign, but there's been a change in how we treat Mario Party that's happened with the addition of online multiplayer. In fairness, that's not entirely Mario Party's fault. 2 Pokémon Pokopia The Things We Do For Love Pokemon Pokopia Life Simulation Simulation Released March 5, 2026 Developer(s) Koei Tecmo, Game Freak Publisher(s) Nintendo, The Pokemon Company Platform(s) Nintendo Switch 2 Genre(s) Life Simulation, Simulation Powered by Expand Collapse Now, before I go into this one, I need to preface it by saying that back when handheld and console gaming was more divided, it made sense to require two consoles to play co-op with a friend. It was like that from the days of the Game Boy all the way up to the 3DS. Times have changed, as have prices, though. Nintendo is trying to ease this with features like GameShare, but there's a big flaw in the approach with Pokémon Pokopia. You might need only one copy of the game to play co-op locally through GameShare, but you literally need to have two Switches to pull it off. I'm lucky that I still have my original Switch and a Switch 2, and that works fine, but Nintendo does know people trade in their old ones, right? Pokopia co-op isn't as forward-thinking and player-friendly as it seems in this economy. 1 Among Us I Saw You Kill Couch Co-op in the Med Bay! Among Us Party Game Released June 5, 2018 Developer(s) InnerSloth Publisher(s) InnerSloth Platform(s) PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S Genre(s) Party Game Powered by Expand Collapse This entire list, I've been pulling a few stretches, speaking of my experiences, and leading to something. And it's this. Among Us has always been an online game, but the circumstances surrounding its explosion in 2020 have led to a complete overhaul in how we handle co-op, both in person and not. The COVID-19 pandemic saw huge waves of people getting together, any casual or hardcore statuses thrown to the side, to enjoy games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Among Us in ways that were truly special to the era we were living in. Among Us grew so huge, though, that it bordered on obnoxious for a lot of people. So, if I had to choose a game that represented how the pandemic changed how we socialize, which has had lasting effects on couch co-op that thankfully hasn't erased it entirely, I'd go with Among Us any day of the week.