Best multiplayer games of all time

Grand Theft Auto V▲ Rising

GTA Online turned a single-player crime epic into a decade-plus live service, letting players run heists, race, and cause chaos in Los Santos long after the credits rolled. It's sold over 200 million copies and still packs lobbies ten-plus years later, a staggering testament to how much room Rockstar left for players to make their own fun.

Year: 2013Critic score: 9.7/10

added by IJRin 8 rankings

GoldenEye 007▲ Rising

Before online play was standard, four friends crammed onto one couch, split-screening the Facility map with Oddjob banned by house rule, and split-screen console shooters were never the same. It proved a licensed movie game could birth a genre-defining multiplayer mode, laying the groundwork for every console FPS party night that followed.

Year: 1997Critic score: 9.6/10

added by IJRin 8 rankings

Halo 3▲ Rising

Forge mode and matchmaking turned Bungie's trilogy closer into a cultural institution, with Xbox Live parties screaming callouts on Valhalla and Guardian long into the night. The rocket-launcher-and-sniper sandbox, custom game browser, and theater mode set the template for how console shooters would build communities for the next decade.

Year: 2007Critic score: 9.4/10

added by IJRin 5 rankings

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare▲ Rising

Killstreaks, perks, and a leveling system turned every match into a dopamine drip, and the genre pivoted hard toward modern military shooters almost overnight. Nuketown-era maps and the sound of a UAV call-in became gaming shorthand, cementing this as the blueprint Call of Duty still leans on.

Year: 2007Critic score: 9.4/10

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Street Fighter II▲ Rising

Arcades in 1991 became battlegrounds where strangers stacked quarters on cabinets just to challenge the winner, and the phrase 'next challenger' entered gaming's DNA forever. Hadoukens and Dragon Punches taught a generation frame data before anyone had a name for it, inventing the fighting game genre as we know it.

Year: 1991Critic score: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 5 rankings

StarCraft II▲ Rising

It didn't just have esports, it built an entire nation's television programming around it, with Korean pro gamers becoming household names and ladder rank becoming a personality trait. Blizzard's sequel to a legend proved RTS could sustain a global competitive ecosystem for years, even as the genre shrank around it.

Year: 2010Critic score: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 5 rankings

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Rainbow Road blue-shell heartbreak has been a party game staple since the SNES, but this Switch edition perfected it with battle modes, anti-gravity tracks, and enough content to become the best-selling game on its console. It's the rare title that's equally lethal at a competitive tournament or a family Thanksgiving.

Year: 2017Critic score: 9.2/10

added by IJRin 7 rankings

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate▼ Falling

Every fighter ever made, from Mario to Sephiroth, crammed onto one roster turned this into the ultimate crossover brawl and the best-selling fighting game in history. Its endless character reveals became must-watch events unto themselves, and the couch chaos of a four-player Final Destination match remains unmatched party fuel.

Year: 2018Critic score: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 5 rankings

Overwatch▼ Falling

Blizzard fused hero shooters with vibrant, lovable characters like Tracer and Reinhardt, and suddenly 'ultimate' abilities and team comps were dinner table conversation. Its launch reshaped the genre overnight, spawning countless hero-shooter imitators and a devoted esports scene built on six-versus-six team fights.

Year: 2016Critic score: 9.1/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings

Street Fighter 6▼ Falling

Capcom modernized the genre with the Drive Gauge system and World Tour mode, luring in newcomers while keeping frame-perfect execution intact for veterans, proving fighting games could still innovate decades after their arcade origins. Its thriving online scene and constant tournament buzz show the genre Street Fighter II invented is still very much alive and evolving.

Year: 2023Critic score: 9/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings