Best MMORPGs to Play With Friends on PC and Console

The best multiplayer games for a friend group are the MMORPGs that make grouping easy: Final Fantasy XIV for story-driven groups on PC and console, Guild Wars 2 for free, low-friction co-op on PC, and The Elder Scrolls Online for mixed-platform friends who log in on different schedules. Below we rank twelve games to play multiplayer with friends, compare platforms, costs and cross-play, and explain which ones keep a group together past the first month.

How we picked these multiplayer games

Most “best multiplayer games” pages lump MMORPGs together with racing games, LEGO co-op titles and arena shooters, which is fine if you want a party game for one evening but useless if your group wants a persistent world to share for months. We judged every game on this list by the questions a guild officer asks before recruiting friends into anything.

• Catch-up tools. Can a friend who starts three weeks late play alongside the group without grinding alone first? Level scaling, sidekick systems and shared progression matter more than raw content volume.
• Group sizes. We looked at whether the game supports duos, small groups of three to five and larger raid groups, because friend groups rarely land on the exact number a dungeon wants.
• Platform reach. Cross-play between PC, PlayStation and Xbox decides whether your console friends can join at all.
• Cost for the whole group. A subscription that looks cheap for one player becomes a real monthly bill once four or five friends pay it.
• Health of the game. We favoured games with active development and populations large enough that group finders still pop outside peak hours.

We have played every game here in groups, from two-person duos to full static raid teams, and the rankings reflect how each one feels when the group logs in together, not how it reviews as a solo experience.

Quick comparison table

Our population ratings are qualitative. For games sold on Steam we base them on Steam concurrent player charts, and for console-heavy or launcher-based games we lean on official developer statements and our own observation of group finder queue times. Steam numbers undercount any game with a large console audience or its own launcher, so treat these as tiers rather than rankings. For live numbers, our running tracker of the most played MMOs on Steam is updated more often than an evergreen list can be.

Which game fits your group

Group size and schedule matter more than genre preference. A pair of friends who play every night needs something very different from five people who can only agree on Sunday evenings.

1. Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV is our top pick because it solves the hardest problem in group play: getting friends on different platforms into the same content without anyone falling behind. The game supports full cross-play between PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with the Xbox version arriving in March 2024, so a mixed group can share one world as long as everyone creates characters on the same data center.

The current expansion is Dawntrail, released in July 2024 as patch 7.0, which raised the level cap to 100 and added Viper and Pictomancer as new jobs. Because every job can be levelled on a single character, nobody in the group is ever locked into a role they picked on day one. Your tank can swap to healer when the healer cannot make it, which keeps a small group functional far better than most class-locked games.

How grouping works

The Duty Finder handles matchmaking for 4-player dungeons, 8-player trials and raids, and 24-player alliance raids. Friends can queue as a premade party, and the level sync system scales higher players down to the content, so a veteran and a newcomer can run early dungeons together and both earn useful rewards through the Roulette system. For groups that prefer to stay together, Duty Support and the Trust system let players fill empty slots with NPCs for most story dungeons.

Endgame for groups is built around Savage raid tiers and Ultimate fights, which reward a static of eight people who can commit to a weekly schedule. Casual groups get plenty from Extreme trials, alliance raids and the deep dungeons, while the cosmetic side, especially the FF14 glamour system, gives friends who are not raiders a long-term shared goal.

Cost and the free trial

The free trial covers A Realm Reborn, Heavensward and Stormblood up to level 70 with no time limit, which is the most generous trial in the genre and the easiest way to test whether your group enjoys the pace. After that, the Entry subscription costs $12.99 per month and Standard costs $14.99 per month, plus the purchase of the game and current expansion.

Best for: groups of four to eight who want story, structured endgame and full PC-console cross-play.

2. World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft remains the most complete group content machine in the genre, and the reason it sits second rather than first is platform reach: it runs only on PC and Mac. For an all-PC group, it is arguably the stronger choice, because no other MMORPG offers such a refined ladder from casual dungeons to world-first raiding.

The War Within, released in August 2024, raised the level cap to 80 and introduced Delves, which are short instanced adventures designed for one to five players. Delves are the best thing Blizzard has added for friend groups in years, because they work at any group size and scale their difficulty tiers so a duo or trio can push meaningful rewards without five people online. Midnight, the next expansion in the Worldsoul Saga, adds player housing, which should give less combat-focused friends a reason to log in.

Group content ladder

• Follower Dungeons let you run 5-player dungeons with NPC companions, useful when only two or three friends are online.
• Mythic+ turns 5-player dungeons into timed challenges with scaling keystone levels, and it is the best weekly activity for a fixed group of five.
• Raids use flexible sizing on Normal and Heroic, from 10 to 30 players, while Mythic raiding requires exactly 20.
• Party Sync lets a higher-level player sync down to a friend’s quest progress so the newcomer actually advances together with them.

Cross-faction grouping arrived in patch 9.2.5, so your friends no longer need to agree on Alliance or Horde, and the Warband system shares reputation, transmog and many achievements across all of a player’s characters. That makes rolling an alt to fill a missing role much less painful than it was a few expansions ago.

WoW Classic for nostalgic groups

The same $14.99 monthly subscription includes the Classic versions. Classic Era servers recreate the original 2004 experience, the Hardcore ruleset turns death into a permanent loss, and the progression servers follow later expansions, with Mists of Pandaria Classic launching in July 2025. Groups who missed Wrath of the Lich King’s Icecrown Citadel the first time can still find guilds working through that era’s content on progression realms, depending on where the Classic cycle currently sits.

Best for: all-PC groups of five who want Mythic+ or a long-term raid team.

3. Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is the friendliest MMORPG ever made for casual groups, and it costs nothing to try. The core game is free to play, and the paid expansions (Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, End of Dragons, Secrets of the Obscure, Janthir Wilds and Visions of Eternity, which launched in October 2025) are one-time purchases with no subscription.

What makes it special for friends is the design of the open world. Every player who contributes to a kill gets full credit and full loot, resource nodes are individual, and revives are shared, so strangers and friends cooperate instead of competing. Dynamic events and meta-events pull dozens of players together in zones like Dragon’s Stand or the Silverwastes, and your group can drop into those without any formal party coordination at all.

Why it works for uneven schedules

The level cap has been 80 since launch in 2012, and progression is horizontal. New gear tiers do not invalidate old ones, so a friend who takes three months off returns to the same power level as the rest of the group. The game automatically downscales players in lower-level zones, which means a level 80 can accompany a brand new friend through starter maps and still feel useful.

For structured play, Guild Wars 2 offers 5-player Fractals of the Mists with scaling difficulty, 10-player raids and strike missions, structured PvP, and World vs. World, where three server teams fight over objectives across large maps. Mounts, introduced in Path of Fire, and the Skyscale flying mount make travelling between objectives with friends quick.

Best for: PC friend groups who play at different times and want no subscription pressure.

4. The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online is the best choice for groups that cannot all play at once, and it runs on PC, PlayStation and Xbox, though ZeniMax has said cross-play between platforms is still in development and not expected before 2027. Make sure everyone is on the same platform and the same megaserver region, North America or Europe.

The key feature is the One Tamriel update from 2016, which scaled almost every zone in the game to the player. Combined with the Champion Point system that kicks in after level 50, it means any two characters can quest together anywhere in the world. Your group can pick a zone, pick a story, and play it in whatever order suits the evening.

Group content

Group dungeons are built for four players, trials (ESO’s raids) are built for twelve, and the open world has world bosses and public dungeons that reward a small group. PvP takes place in Cyrodiil’s large-scale alliance war and in smaller battlegrounds. ZeniMax moved away from one large yearly chapter in 2025 toward a seasonal content structure, so new zones and stories now arrive in smaller pieces throughout the year.

The ESO Plus question

The base game and DLC are buy to play, and ESO Plus costs $14.99 per month. We recommend that at least the group’s main crafter subscribes, because ESO Plus includes the Craft Bag, which gives unlimited storage for crafting materials, along with access to most DLC zones and dungeons. Friends who do not craft can comfortably play without it.

Best for: mixed-platform groups and friends whose schedules rarely line up.

5. Throne and Liberty

Throne and Liberty is the best free-to-play option for console and PC friends who want to play together without any upfront cost. Developed by NCSoft and published globally by Amazon Games, it launched in the West in autumn 2024 after a short early-access period, with full cross-play between PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S from day one.

There are no fixed classes. Each player equips two weapons, and the combination defines their role, so a group can rebalance itself by swapping weapons instead of rolling new characters. Shapeshifting into animal forms for gliding, swimming and land travel makes moving around as a group feel fluid, and the world shifts between day and night and different weather states, which change which events and monsters appear.

Where friends fit in

Throne and Liberty is a guild game at heart. Its most rewarding content involves guild bosses, Boonstone and Riftstone territory battles, and castle sieges, where large organised groups fight over control and taxes. Small friend groups can enjoy party dungeons and open-world dynamic events, but the long-term hook is joining or forming a guild.

The playerbase dropped sharply from its launch peak, which is normal for a free-to-play MMO, and we rate it as medium based on Steam concurrent charts that cover only the PC side of the audience. Groups who arrive together and join an active guild will have a much better time than a lone player.

Best for: console-heavy groups and guilds that want sieges and PvP without a subscription.

6. Old School RuneScape

Old School RuneScape looks like a museum piece, with chunky low-poly models and point-and-click movement, but it is one of the most social games on this list. Jagex’s game runs on PC, Mac and mobile with a single account, so friends can skill on their phones during lunch and group up on a computer at night.

The game is free to play on dedicated free worlds, with a membership that unlocks most quests, skills and areas. Membership can also be paid with Bonds bought using in-game gold, so committed players eventually stop paying cash.

Group Ironman

The best feature for friends is Group Ironman, a mode for two to five players who can only trade with each other. Everything your group owns, you earned together. Shared storage, coordinated skilling and dividing up supply chains (one friend fishes, another cooks, another smiths) turns a solo grind into a group project, and it is the most cooperative progression system any MMO offers.

For endgame, OSRS has three major raids: Chambers of Xeric, Theatre of Blood and Tombs of Amascut. Each supports groups and scales difficulty, and Tombs of Amascut in particular lets players tune their invocation level so a friend group can find a comfortable challenge. Seasonal Leagues offer temporary worlds with boosted progression that are a fun short-term group activity.

Best for: friends who want a long, relaxed grind together and play across PC and phone.

7. Lost Ark

Lost Ark is the action raiding pick, and it rewards groups that like learning mechanics together. Developed by Smilegate and published in the West by Amazon Games, it is free to play on PC, with isometric combat that feels closer to an action RPG than a traditional tab-target MMO.

Getting to endgame is fast, thanks to progression passes and boosts that the Western version has added over time. Once there, the game revolves around item level gates, gear honing and weekly raids. Legion raids and the newer Kazeros raids are built for groups of eight, with the Behemoth raid scaling up to sixteen players. Abyssal dungeons and Guardian raids round out smaller group content.

What groups should know

Lost Ark has a steep monetisation reputation, especially around honing materials, though free players can progress with patience. The bigger hurdle for friend groups is gear parity. Raid entry is gated by item level, so a friend who falls behind cannot simply join the rest. Groups that want to raid Lost Ark endgame should agree on a shared progression pace, and our dedicated raid guide covers the mechanics tier by tier.

Best for: PC groups of four to eight who enjoy mechanics-heavy weekly raiding.

8. Black Desert

Black Desert has some of the best combat and character creation in the genre, but it is the least group-dependent game on this list, and we want groups to go in with clear expectations. Pearl Abyss runs the PC version and a separate console version on PlayStation and Xbox, and the two console families cross-play with each other, while PC sits on its own servers.

Most of Black Desert’s progression, including grinding spots and the deep life-skill economy, works best solo or with a small party. Where friends shine is in guild content: guild bosses, guild missions, Node Wars and Conquest Wars for large PvP guilds, and party dungeons such as Atoraxxion. Life skills also benefit from coordination, since friends can split trading, horse breeding, cooking and alchemy into a shared economy.

Seasonal servers let new characters level quickly with boosted gear, and they are the best on-ramp for a group starting together. Expect a complex game, a lot of systems explained poorly in-game, and a long curve before your group is ready for serious guild PvP.

Best for: console friends who want striking action combat and do not mind independent progression.

9. Albion Online

Albion Online is a classless, full-loot sandbox from Sandbox Interactive, and it is the most demanding friendship test on this list. It is free to play, with an optional Premium subscription that can be bought with in-game silver, and it runs on PC, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS with one shared world per server region (Americas, Asia and Europe).

Your role comes from the weapon and armour you equip, tracked through the Destiny Board, so friends can specialise in complementary builds. The danger level of each zone is colour coded: blue and yellow zones are relatively safe, red zones allow PvP with gear loss, and black zones in the Outlands offer full-loot PvP where your guild can claim territory.

Why groups thrive here

Solo players in black zones get hunted. A group of four or five friends running a coordinated composition, with a tank, healer and damage dealers, turns that same danger into a playground. Crafting and gathering also scale with group cooperation, because the economy is almost entirely player-driven. Groups that like risk, strategy and PvP storytelling will find nothing quite like it.

Best for: PvP-minded groups who want territory, risk and a player-run economy.

10. Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the choice for story-loving friends. Now developed by Broadsword, it runs on PC only and is free to play, with an optional subscription that unlocks the full experience and removes restrictions on free and Preferred accounts.

Its best group feature is the conversation system. When friends play class story content or flashpoints together, each player picks a dialogue option, and the game rolls to decide whose choice the character speaks. Winning rolls earns social points, and the result is a genuinely shared story where your group’s choices compete in real time.

Group content includes 4-player flashpoints and operations, the game’s raids, which run in 8- and 16-player sizes. The population is smaller than in its early years, which is why we rate it niche, but flashpoints still pop through the group finder and the class stories remain some of the best writing in any MMORPG.

Best for: pairs or small groups who mainly want a shared BioWare-style story.

11. Warframe

Warframe is not a traditional MMORPG, but it belongs on any list of the best online multiplayer games to play with friends, especially for console groups. Digital Extremes’ free-to-play co-op shooter runs on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile, with cross-play and cross-save across platforms.

Missions are built for squads of four, and the variety is enormous: fast parkour movement, melee combat, guns of every type, open-world zones, space combat and narrative quests. The 1999 expansion in December 2024 added a new setting and companion systems, and Digital Extremes continues to ship major updates on a steady cadence.

For friends, Warframe works because every player progresses on their own while still helping the squad. A veteran can carry a newcomer through early star chart missions, and the newcomer still earns their own loot and mastery. The monetisation is mostly cosmetic or time-saving, and almost everything can be farmed or traded for in-game.

Best for: console and PC friends who want action-heavy co-op with zero upfront cost.

12. Diablo IV

Diablo IV earns its place for one reason above all: it is the best duo game on the list, and the only one with couch co-op. On PlayStation and Xbox, two players can play locally on one screen, which no MMORPG supports, and the game also offers full cross-play and cross-progression across PC, PlayStation and Xbox for online parties of up to four.

The shared world includes world bosses, Helltide events and seasonal activities where players naturally group up, and Vessel of Hatred, released in October 2024, added the Spiritborn class and the Nahantu region. Seasons reset progression on a fresh seasonal realm every few months, which is perfect for friend groups because everyone starts on equal footing each time.

Diablo IV is buy to play, with optional cosmetics and battle passes. Groups that like to theorycraft together get a lot from planning complementary Diablo 4 builds for each season, such as pairing a crowd control build with a high single-target damage build for bosses.

Best for: couples and duos on console, and small groups who like seasonal resets.

Cross-play and platform cheat sheet

Cross-play decides whether a mixed group can play together at all. This table shows the practical situation for each game.

If even one friend is console-only, the shortlist narrows to Final Fantasy XIV, The Elder Scrolls Online, Throne and Liberty, Warframe and Diablo IV. Controller support in all five is solid, and Final Fantasy XIV’s controller layout is good enough that many PC players use a gamepad over a keyboard and mouse.

What a group of four actually pays

Monthly cost looks small per player but adds up quickly across a friend group. Here is a rough picture of the recurring cost for four friends, excluding the one-time purchase of the game and expansions.

Console players should add the cost of PlayStation Plus or Xbox’s paid online tier for paid games like Final Fantasy XIV. Free-to-play games on both platforms do not require a paid online membership to play multiplayer.

Games we left off and why

A few popular names did not make our main list, and we want to explain the reasoning so your group can make its own call.

New World: Aeternum relaunched in October 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S with full cross-play, and for a while it was a strong console MMO pick. Amazon announced in October 2025 that the game would stop receiving new content updates, with servers continuing to run for a period afterward. We cannot recommend a group invest months into a game without a development future.

Destiny 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds are excellent co-op games, but neither offers the persistent shared world and long progression arc our list is built around. They are worth a look for groups who want shorter sessions.

EverQuest and EverQuest II still run on Daybreak’s servers and continue to receive annual expansions, and longtime readers of this site know how much they shaped the genre. They are hard to recommend to new friend groups today, though, because their learning curves and dated interfaces push away newcomers. The ill-fated EverQuest Next, cancelled in 2016, was supposed to modernise the franchise, and its absence is a big reason the series never reached a new generation. Veteran groups chasing nostalgia should look at the time-locked progression servers, which reopen older content on a fresh timeline.

If your group is less interested in the persistent-world format and more interested in RPG progression with friends, our broader online RPG roundup covers smaller-scale co-op RPGs that did not fit an MMO-focused list.

How to keep a friend group playing past the first month

Most friend groups that start an MMO together stop playing within a few weeks. In our experience, the game is rarely the cause. The group falls apart because levels drift apart, roles overlap, or no one owns the schedule. These habits keep a group alive.

Plan roles before character creation

A group of four damage dealers will hit a wall the moment it enters a dungeon. Talk through tank, healer and damage roles before anyone rolls a character, and lean toward games like Final Fantasy XIV or Throne and Liberty where switching roles is cheap. If your group cannot agree, Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online are forgiving because their group content tolerates unconventional compositions.

Protect the group night, not just the group

The most reliable groups we have run follow one rule: everyone can play solo during the week, but one evening is reserved for group content, and nobody plays the group’s main story during that week without the others. In themepark games that means saving dungeon roulettes, Mythic+ keys or flashpoints for the shared night. In sandbox games like Old School RuneScape or Albion Online, it means splitting solo tasks that feed a group goal.

Use catch-up tools aggressively

Nearly every game on this list has a catch-up system, and groups underuse them. World of Warcraft’s Party Sync, Final Fantasy XIV’s level sync, Guild Wars 2’s downscaling and Elder Scrolls Online’s One Tamriel all exist so the group can stay together. Use them early rather than asking the faster players to wait.

Make a guild, even a tiny one

Creating a guild, Free Company or clan gives your group a shared chat channel, a shared bank or storage in many games, and a home base. Many games add guild perks over time, and a guild also makes it easier to absorb friends of friends later, which is how small groups grow instead of shrinking.

FAQ

What is the best MMORPG to play with friends on console?

Final Fantasy XIV is our top pick for console friends because it has full cross-play between PlayStation, Xbox and PC, an outstanding free trial to level 70, and group content for four, eight and twenty-four players. The Elder Scrolls Online is a close second for groups with mismatched schedules, and Throne and Liberty is the best free option.

What are the best free multiplayer games to play with friends?

For persistent-world MMOs, Guild Wars 2 (free core game on PC), Throne and Liberty (free on PC and console), Old School RuneScape and Albion Online all have generous free access. For action co-op, Warframe is free on every major platform with cross-play. Lost Ark is free on PC for groups that enjoy raiding.

Which MMO is best for just two players?

Diablo IV is the best duo game because it supports local couch co-op on PlayStation and Xbox and online parties with cross-play. Among traditional MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic are excellent for pairs, with shared loot in Guild Wars 2 and a shared conversation system in SWTOR.

Can PC and console friends play MMOs together?

Yes, in several games. Final Fantasy XIV, The Elder Scrolls Online, Throne and Liberty, Warframe and Diablo IV all support cross-play between PC and console. Black Desert allows PlayStation and Xbox players to play together but keeps PC on separate servers. World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2 are PC only.

Do I need a subscription to play MMOs with friends?

Not always. Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft require a subscription after their free trials, while Guild Wars 2, Throne and Liberty, Lost Ark, Warframe and Diablo IV have no required monthly fee. Console players need PlayStation Plus or Xbox’s paid online tier for paid games, though free-to-play games do not require it.

Which MMO is easiest for a new player joining experienced friends?

Guild Wars 2 and The Elder Scrolls Online make it easiest because their scaling systems let veterans and newcomers play the same zones with equal rewards. Final Fantasy XIV is also friendly thanks to level sync and the Duty Finder, though new players must complete the main story to unlock later content, which takes time.