The games parents on Reddit actually play with their kids
A r/gaming thread asked parents which game they like playing with their kid. Almost three hundred answers later, the same handful of games keep coming up, often with the same warnings attached.
If you have a kid roughly five to twelve and you want a parent-tested list of co-op games to play together. Less useful if you came in looking for picks for teenagers, because most of the answers in this thread are about younger kids, which is its own interesting signal.
The thread was straightforward. A parent looking for games to play with his friend's teenage boys, ages thirteen and fifteen, both with a PS5 and an Xbox Series X. What came back was almost three hundred replies, most of them about playing games with much younger kids.
That gap is worth pausing on. The Reddit hive mind on co-op with your kid lives somewhere around ages five through ten. The games that get named over and over are not the obvious teen-leaning shooters. They are chaos co-op, builder games, and a small group of titles by one studio that have basically become a genre of their own. The fifteen-year-old gaming PC adjacent multi-platform demographic the original poster asked about is largely absent from this thread, which is its own answer.
What follows is the list of games parents kept coming back to, with the patterns that came along with them.
1. Split Fiction (and It Takes Two)
The closest thing the thread has to a consensus pick. Veteran gamers and brand-new ones both showed up calling Hazelight Studios' co-op games some of the most creative they have ever played, with several parents finishing It Takes Two with kids as young as five.
2. Astro Bot
The top single-game answer in the thread, by upvotes. One parent claimed they had beaten it five to seven times with their toddler. The closest thing PlayStation has to a modern Mario, and parents talk about it that way.
3. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (or any Lego game)
One commenter called any Lego game "the objectively correct answer," and most of the rest of the thread did not disagree. The full catalog (Marvel, Batman, Star Wars, Dimensions) works like a co-op canon for younger kids who can read a little but not a lot.
4. Untitled Goose Game
Short, weird, mean in a cartoon way, and apparently very effective for kids who think it is hilarious to watch a parent narrate the goose in escalating frustration. A frequent top-five answer.
5. Minecraft
The most-named game in the thread by a wide margin. Parents bring it up across every age band, often as a long-running family server that everyone has worked on for years.
6. Rayman Legends
Multiple parents pulled this out as a couch co-op staple, often for kids who are too young for the more demanding platformers but old enough to handle some real challenge.
7. Overcooked 2
Recommended often and warned about almost as often. The thread had a recurring exchange where one parent recommends it and the next one replies that Overcooked has been formally banned in their house due to yelling.
8. Stardew Valley
Showed up as the chill family pick more often than almost any other game. Cross-platform, shared farm between accounts, very low pressure. Several parents play it with kids as young as five.
9. Castle Crashers
An older title that keeps surviving every generational cycle as a four-player beat-em-up that just works. Parents mentioned starting their kids on it as young as four.
10. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mentioned constantly, the way you would mention the kitchen sink. The assist features (auto-steer, auto-accelerate) get specifically called out by parents of younger kids, which is the real reason it deserves the spot rather than just the brand.
The list at a glance
| # | Game | Age | Plays together | Consoles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Split Fiction (and It Takes Two) | Not reviewed | ||
| 2 | Astro Bot | 3+ | Play alone | PlayStation |
| 3 | Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (or any Lego game) | Not reviewed | ||
| 4 | Untitled Goose Game | Not reviewed | ||
| 5 | Minecraft | 7+ | Couch co-op, Local multi, Online co-op | PC, iPhone / iPad, Android, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch |
| 6 | Rayman Legends | Not reviewed | ||
| 7 | Overcooked 2 | 6+ | Couch co-op, Local multi, Online co-op | PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation |
| 8 | Stardew Valley | 8+ | Couch co-op, Online co-op | PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, iPhone / iPad, Android |
| 9 | Castle Crashers | Not reviewed | ||
| 10 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | 4+ | Couch co-op, Local multi, Online vs. | Switch |
Didn’t make the list
- Hollow Knight SilksongOne parent reported their five-to-eight year olds love it. Worth flagging because difficulty assumptions about kids are often wrong, but for most kids this game will still be brutal.
- Cult of the LambOne parent called it "wholesome family fun with a little of everything: torture, indoctrination, manipulation, subjugation, coercion, and exploitation. And funny animals." The honesty is great; calibrate accordingly.
- Portal and Portal 2Multiple parents called these the ultimate co-op picks for kids old enough to think in puzzles. Older now, which kept them off the main list, but they remain on the all-time short list.
- Sackboy: A Big AdventureQuietly showed up several times as a multiplayer platformer that holds up. Worth a closer Recon Review when one of these mentions is ready to graduate.
- Goat Simulator 3The chaos pick. Recommended by parents whose kids think bad goat physics is the funniest thing ever invented. Calibrate accordingly.
Closing note
One thing that comes through reading the whole thread is how rarely parents seem to play their own games with their kids. The list above is overwhelmingly co-op games designed to be played together, not parents bringing kids into the games they already love. The exceptions exist. A parent who let their twelve-year-old try Red Dead Redemption. A dad teaching a daughter Final Fantasy VII. A kid getting handed Borderlands at ten and not quite ready for what the gun says when it reloads. Those stories were rare in the thread, and they read as memorable in part because they are rare.
For most families, the games on this list are deliberate meeting points. They are designed to be the place where a parent who plays a lot and a kid who is just starting can both actually contribute. That is a small but real category, and the names that came back over and over are mostly the same ones serious parents kept arriving at independently.
If you came in looking for picks for a fifteen-year-old, the thread does not have a good answer. That is its own data.