Best Multiplayer Games for 5 Players (The Awkward Number)

The fifth player problem

Most co-op games are designed for 4 players. Your group has 5. Now what?

You've got a few options, and none of them are great: someone sits out, you play something competitive where team size doesn't matter, or you spend 30 minutes searching for a game that supports 5 online.

We've been there. Here's how to handle it without someone getting left out.

Games that actually support 5+

They exist, but they're less common than 4-player games. The genres that tend to support larger groups:

Survival games - Many survival titles support 5+ players on private servers. This is probably your best bet for a group of 5 that wants to play cooperatively. MMO-lite games - Games with MMO elements but not full MMOs. Smaller team content that fits 5-6 people. Party games - Most party games support 5-8+ players. Short rounds, easy rules, everyone's included. Battle royale - Squads of 4 is standard, but some games let you queue as a 5-stack or have larger squad modes. PvP team games - 5v5 is a standard competitive format. If your group is exactly 5, team-based PvP is a natural fit.

Browse games with player count info at pickthe.games/games. Each game page shows the maximum online player count so you can filter before anyone buys something that caps at 4.

The platform problem on top of the number problem

5 players across 3 different platforms with a game that supports 5 AND has crossplay between those specific platforms? That's a narrow search. Doing it manually means checking every game against every person's platform.

This is exactly why we built PickThe.Games. Set up a board with everyone's platforms, and the matching algorithm only shows games that work for the full group. Player count issues are flagged in the results.

The split-group option

If you can't find a 5-player game everyone agrees on, split into groups. 3 and 2, or 2 and 3. Each sub-group picks their own game. Regroup in voice chat after an hour and swap.

This sounds like giving up but it's actually more fun than forcing everyone into a mediocre 5-player game nobody really wanted.

Build a board for your group

Create a board, add all 5 members, and set your platforms. The swipe feed will prioritize games that support your group size. Use the PvP filter or co-op filter while swiping to narrow it down further.

Or try swiping first without an account to see what's out there.