The 25 best online games to play in 2026

If you're on the lookout for the best online games you can play right now in 2026, we're here to help.

Bringing together a broad range of options across all platforms, you'll find everything from indie online experiences to some of the best FPS games that be played against others, and some of the best MMOs around right now. Taking into consideration some of the latest new games, to firm favorites that have been around for longer but continue to get robust updates, you're sure to find something here to try out.

And if you're after something you can play with pals, there's a great selection here, but it's also worth checking out our pick of the best co-op games if you're after some extra recommendations. But for the best online games you can play right now, read on.

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The best online games to play in 2026, starting with...

25. League of Legends

There are a few games on this list that could be described as the definitive article– the one example of a genre that stands tall – and nowhere is that truer than with League of Legends. It's the archetype MOBA, a world-beating sport, and the inspiration for a whole universe of spin-offs.

Pick your champion, pick your lane, pick your poison, and have at it – you and your team need to find a way to push through the opposition team to their base. Sounds simple enough, but 13 years of strategy development, upgrades, and patches mean that while League of Legends is as approachable as it's ever been, the depth of high-level competitive play is remarkable.

RELATED: Best MOBA games, from Arena of Valor to League of Legends

24. Valheim

Survival games are ten a penny; you can't move in the Steam store without treading on another base crafting, resource-gathering title. But Valheim stands out from the pack; it nails the basics of the genre and iterates upon those ideas smartly, and the resulting Early Access experience is truly remarkable.

Core survival mechanics are all present and accounted for: chopping trees, building your base, getting some food, and killing nasties. But developer Iron Gate Studios has excelled by making it all simple to grasp, with layers of depth waiting underneath. Beyond the objective of simple survival, Valheim includes boss battles, making co-operative online play a key focus; get all your vikings as beefy as possible, ready to take on these epic fights. Continuing to grow with updates, it's set to leave Early Access and release on more platforms in September 2026.

RELATED: Best survival games, from ARK: Survival Evolved to Minecraft.

23. Peak

Peak is a physics-based blast to play with pals in online four player co-op. As a climbing adventure that sees you take on the role of a scout, you can team up with a group of other players as you try to scale your way to the top of a mountain in order to be rescued from a mysterious island.

With your team, you can lend each other a hand by setting down ropes, pulling others up ledges, and placing spikes to make their life easy as you try to get over inclines and reach new heights. Of course, one slip could spell disaster, and with its proximity chat feature, hilarity can ensue. While it's playable solo offline, it really is a riot to play online and invite others who want to brave the climb with you.

RELATED: For more, check out our pick of the best couple games.

22. No Man's Sky

One of the all-time great video game fairy tales, a game with a troubled launch pulling itself up by the bootstraps and becoming better than ever thought possible. Update after update has made No Man's Sky a constantly outstanding and surprising title.

Space exploration and survival with friends in this beautiful sci-fi illustration of a game now exists in a much more traditional and satisfying manner, making it easier than ever before to party up, build a home base, and travel the universe together. You never know what you'll find out there in the procedurally generated stars of No Man's Sky, but sharing discoveries with friends makes the experience truly unforgettable.

RELATED: No Man's Sky review: "offers a timeless universe of quiet, compelling exploration"

21. Rainbow Six: Siege

Rainbow Six Siege is not for the faint of heart, it's tense and it's precise, popping your head around the wrong corner will end your match in no time at all, so you have to be careful and you have to be sure. The defending team gets one minute to set up shop, mount their defenses, and plan their tactics until the attackers are unleashed to put pay to all that.

Ubisoft has done fantastic work to transform Rainbow Six into a suspenseful, round-based PvP shooter and the experience that exists today is a truly multiplayer behemoth. Few other games are able to match the level of nervousness and tension that Rainbow Six Siege can generate.

RELATED: Rainbow Six: Siege review: "Brilliantly balanced asymmetrical action"

20. DOTA 2

DOTA 2 might be a decade old, but it's one of the most popular and best online games to this day for a reason. Its satisfying gameplay loop sees two teams of opponents going head-to-head in a battle arena-meets-tower defense-style tactical showdown. It's free-to-play, too, meaning you get a whole lot of content for the cool price of $0.

Widely regarded as one of the best Valve games out there alongside the Half Life series, DOTA 2 is one to check out if you're looking for a classic multiplayer experience that, if its track record holds up, looks set to withstand the ravages of time.

19. Marvel Rivals

Marvel Rivals came onto the PvP scene in 2024 to deliver a super hero shooter that quickly started to stand out on its own merits. While it has its fair share of Overwatch similarities, you get to pick from a growing roster of Marvel heroes and villains, and make use their unique powers in team-based matches against other players.

Plus, it supports cross-play over all platforms, and it's simple to use, which means you can easily play with pals no matter if they're on PC or console. With new additions since launch and plenty on 6v6 action offer, Marvel Rivals offers an entertaining online multiplayer experience that's worth trying out if you're a fan of hero shooters.

RELATED: Read our Marvel Rivals review for more.

18. Overcooked 2

To a pair of sweet innocent eyes, it looks like Team17 created a friendly co-op cooking adventure, but be in no doubt, Overcooked 2 is a brutal test of even the closest friendship and family groups. What happens in the kitchen, stays in the kitchen. You will be screamed at, and you will scream at your nearest and dearest – probably about the lack of chopped onions.

The box may claim that Overcooked 2 is a co-op game, working together with your other chefs across a variety of restaurants, but you mark my words: a head chef will emerge. Someone will do more shouting than most, and that kind of thing doesn't get forgotten quickly in social circles.

RELATED: Overcooked 2 review: "Really turns up the temperature over its predecessor"

17. Rocket League

The gulf between a fresh player to Rocket League, and a grizzled veteran is at first glance insurmountable. One will be shifting their car back and forth to get a touch like Austin Powers trapped in a corridor, the other will be gliding gracefully through the air, the ball glancing off the bumper, arcing majestically into the goal.

But that difference soon diminishes, a game or two in and the basics will be down, you'll have your camera of choice, and get a grip on those angles. It might take a while to learn to fly. For a game with turbo boosted cars playing football, communication with your teammates is crucial, and that communication boils down to two essential lines. In order to win a game of Rocket League, someone always has to call out "I'll stay back!" or "Get in the middle!" beyond that, you can do what you like.

RELATED: Rocket League review: "A special kind of brilliance"

16. Dead By Daylight

Four versus one – that seems unfair, doesn't it? Until we consider that the one is a ruthless killer, working at the behest of a malevolent entity of pure evil, and the four are a bunch of scared victims with some iffy generator repair skills. Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer game that stood the test of time.

It's easy to get hooked, whether you're stalking the grounds as a famous horror icon or teaming up with other survivors to fix the generators in a bid to escape. An evergreen title on the Twitch homepage, Dead by Daylight is as exciting to watch as it is to play and is still growing. Both original characters and tie-ins to famous horror franchises are regularly added to keep things fresh.

RELATED: The best horror games around right now, from Alan Wake 2 to Resident Evil 7.

15. Among Us

How good are you at lying? Can you spot a fishy excuse a mile off? That's what Among Us comes down to. Players are randomly selected to become imposters, whose objectives shift from completing wholesome, honest tasks to being much more nefarious: sabotage and murder!

The pure gold in the heart of Among Us is the suspicion, the social drama that plays out when things start to get real as the bodies start to pile up. Can the real crew spot the imposters before it's too late? Will the lies and quickly-improvised stories be enough to fool your friends, or do they know how to spot when you're lying? Among Us isn't just one of the best co-op games out there for all the family; it's one of the best online games full-stop.

14. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Long before the Metaverse became a trademarked term, Nintendo was smashing its brands together to fight it out. From a roster of 12 exclusive Nintendo characters in the 1999 original to an outrageous 89 playable characters in 2018's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from across the gaming multiverse, this is a truly unbeatable fighter.

Nintendo has given us a truly definitive edition of Smash Bros. here – music, stages, costumes, fighters, and modes are in abundance. As well as being a pure party game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has also become a popular competitive fighting game – showing that there's depth hiding behind that glossy surface. No matter how you look at it, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one of the best fighting games of all-time.

RELATED: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate review: "A gem that will not disappoint"

13. Stardew Valley

Almost all of life's rich experiences exist in Stardew Valley; sleeping, planting crops, killing bats in a cave – it's all there. And how better to spend the moments when you just want something incredibly chill than to invite a few friends over to your farm and have a lovely, positive time together?

Chillout wholesome games are a unique corner of the multiplayer online gaming world, and Stardew Valley is the best of them all. The stakes can be as high or low as you want them, choosing from where to plant your blueberries, to which dagger will save your life deep in Skull Cavern. Stardew Valley may have launched without online multiplayer, but it's now an essential component of the farming sim's composition.

12. Halo Infinite

If you're going to get one thing categorically correct in a Halo game, it's got to be the feel of combat – the unique formula and dynamics that makes Halo… Halo. Thankfully, even with a troubled launch, and a constantly developing and improving raft of content in the pipeline, developer 343 Industries has had that unique combat feel just right from day one.

Whether you're picking from the unfettered chaos of a Big Team Battle, or the tightly contested objective modes in ranked Arena play, there's something undeniably fun about climbing online in Halo Infinite. Given its strong foundations, this is one free-to-play experience that's great now, and only going to get better over time.

RELATED: Halo Infinite review: "Feels like a homecoming"

11. Apex Legends

In a crowded battle royale space, Apex Legends stands out for simply doing so many things right, hitting the balance between fun character abilities and vibrant designs, and just honest-to-goodness great shooting mechanics. For the ping system alone, Respawn Entertainment have left an indelible mark on the formula of battle royale games.

The ability to drop into a squad game, without my usual squad, and non-verbally make my intentions clear is truly game changing – as is the way this system works to improve approachability and accessibility in the genre. Apex Legends continues to thrive, so grab the two biggest FPS fans in your friend group and get online already.

RELATED: Apex Legends review: "An immaculate battle royale"

10. Battlefield 6

While it's single-player campaign might not reach the same heights, Battlefield 6's multiplayer is worth trying out if you're after an online shooter that has polished gunplay, some memorable maps, and destruction physics of the environment make for a tactile experience.

With various modes to get stuck into, from Conquests capture-the-flag to Team Deathmatch, and much more, it's frequently getting updates through its season roll outs to refine the overall experience and introduce new maps, there's plenty to try out right now.

RELATED: Battlefield 6 review: "More refined than innovative, this FPS is on target with multiplayer even if its campaign is just a big shrug"

9. Marathon

If you're looking for an online extraction shooter that supports multiplayer crossplay, then Bungie's sci-fi survival experience, Marathon, may just be for you. Set on the lost colony of Tau Ceti IV, you have to scavenge for loot and survive against enemy forces, rival players, and the world's dangers as you navigate to be extracted.

With various Shells to inhabit which serve as Marathon 's character classes, there's plenty of room to find a playstyle to suit you, and the fast-paced PvP action, coupled with its stylish look work together to bring to life an exhilarating online game that's well worth checking out if you enjoy multiplayer shooters.

RELATED: Marathon review: "An intense shooter that thrives on PvP encounters and a well-realized setting"

8. GTA Online

Even in these advanced years for GTA Online, let's not forget this game launched on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC back in 2013. Almost a decade later, and the world of San Andreas, and the possibilities for stories to be told in its streets, is still astonishing. Rockstar created a wildly malleable online experience in GTA Online, one that will allow your imagination to run wild.

Do you fancy logging on and doing some gun running, set up a little weed empire, or get all heisty with a crew of friends to take down a bank or a casino? You can be whatever you like in GTA Online, although admittedly whatever you like is going to have to involve some level of crime, but come on, the clue is in the title.

7. Forza Horizon 6

While Forza Horizon 6 can be enjoyed solo, the online side of the Playground Games' open world racer brings with it plenty of great additions to expand and refresh the overall experience. From taking on other players in races, to meeting up with them in dedicated social spaces known as Car Meets, you can also create convoys and enjoy driving around the Japan setting with pals.

To top it all off, there's plenty of community creations with sandbox tools that let you shape your own races and share them online with other drivers. There's also the option to customize your own garages to showcase your favorite rides and share them online with others. All in all, Forza Horizon 6 builds on the community features of Forza Horizon 5 to bring to life a great online experience for any would-be racers out there.

RELATED: Forza Horizon 6 review: "A sublime racing engine supercharges this stunning, Japan-set open world, but can sometimes feel a bit too safe"

6. Minecraft

While Mojang has continued to expand the Minecraft universe with its spin off multiplayer titles over the years – Minecraft Dungeons in 2020, and Minecraft Legends set for release in 2023 – the original core title still claims a spot on this list for its purity and approachability.

Players can go from building a basic four walls and a roof shelter to keep out the spiders, to going down a YouTube rabbit hole to look up redstone circuit ideas in a matter of mere hours. It's a cliche to say, but the limit of Minecraft truly is the imagination of the player, something that's exponentially compounded once you log into an online session with friends. If you aren't starting an open play game with the question "so, what are we building today?" you're doing it all wrong!

RELATED: Minecraft review: "Limitless possibilities for play"

5. Sea of Thieves

Rare is certainly sailing with the wind at its backs, constantly delivering new journeys on the high seas for Sea of Thieves players. Following on from its collaboration with Disney in A Pirate's Life, additional adventures and tall tales are regularly introduced as the seasons roll past. Playing Sea of Thieves is truly a unique experience, especially so with a crew of loyal sea dogs beside you, keeping an eye on the horizon, scanning for rival crews to hone in on, or to desperately sail away from.

Whether you're risking solo play in dangerous always-online waters or teaming up with friends – arguing over whether you should drop anchor at that next island to search for more riches, or make a beeline to the nearest port for safety – there really is something for everybody in Sea of Thieves. And thanks to the Custom Seas update, you have more freedom than ever to shape your own experience on board.

RELATED: Sea of Thieves review: "Emergent storytelling at its greatest"

4. Diablo 4

Demonic dungeon-crawler Diablo 4 is the latest chapter in Blizzard's high-octane RPG series, and it's bigger and better than ever. With the Queen of Hell back in action, we're tasked with laying waste to all manner of hellish denizens as we hack and slash our way through Diablo 4's myriad chambers.

Whether you're a Necromancer or Sorcerer, this top-down online experience allows you to customize your build to play and slay however you see fit, and that flexibility is just one reason why it's one of our top online games right now.

RELATED: Diablo 4 review: "A magnificent and absurd loot theme park"

3. Helldivers 2

In the GamesRadar+ Helldivers 2 review, we enthused that it's the most gratifying cooperative gaming experience since the days of Left 4 Dead. That's high praise, and developer Arrowhead Game Studios has earned every bit of it. Helldivers 2 hurls you and three friends into a persistent global war, battling to reclaim Super Earth territories from invading Terminid creatures and Automaton creations.

You'll do this by weaving between hellishly challenging encounters, fighting back waves of enemies with snappy third-person shooting and explosive Stratagems. Friendly fire is an ever-present threat, so accuracy and timing are key to every one of your actions. Helldivers 2 is silly, stressful, and ever-evolving.

2. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe

Look, I'm not going to insult you by describing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to you, it's Mario Kart – only better, and more content rich than any installment to the series before it. While it's true that there are any number of previous Mario Kart titles that are capable of eliciting a warm glow in your heart as a personal favorite, there can be little argument over which Mario Kart is the most luxuriously comprehensive of the bunch.

Not content with adding 16 tracks when Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U had its deluxe lick of paint for the Switch release, a further 48 tracks were added as part of the Booster Course Pack in 2023, bringing the offering to a whopping 96 tracks! We're not going short on bananas and blue shells any time soon. And even with the arrival of Mario Kart World, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and its online community continues to be very active.

RELATED: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review: "The definitive version of the most complete Mario Kart to date"

1. Fortnite

Fortnite has been with us for several years now, but it's become part of the furniture. Everyone has heard of Fortnite, my mum has heard of Fortnite, so we know it's something of a big deal. Given its size you could be forgiven for thinking Epic Games would settle down on their winning formula, but new mechanics, new items, and new quests are constantly popping up in this 100-player battle royale, and it is thriving.

Fortnite's original unique selling point was the building of forts, it's right there in the name; those who were quick on the draw could erect elaborate structures to provide instant cover. But Fortnite has pushed past these boundaries now, with a Zero Build playlist available for those who lack architectural skill, while creative and social hubs exist for those who just want to mess around with friends. Fortnite continues to evolve as a game and transform as a platform, and we can't wait to see what this fantastic online game does next.

For more, check out our pick of the best adventures games.