10 Best Early Access Co-Op Games On Steam, Ranked

Highlights

• Steam offers a wide selection of co-op games, including both AAA releases and indie gems, providing players with a range of options.
• Sunkenland, Phasmophobia, and Starship Troopers: Extermination are immersive and addictive co-op games available on Steam, offering players a variety of survival, horror, and FPS experiences.
• Co-op games like Sons of the Forest and Lethal Company provide an opportunity for players to team up with friends to survive against dangerous enemies and explore mysterious worlds in a thrilling co-op setting.

Co-op games offer people the chance to play fun and immersive titles with their friends. Ranging from horror, survival, or even just fun party games, players can choose from a whole range of genres. For players using PC setups, the main source of games is on Steam.

Steam has a large selection of co-op games players can buy and play, from AAA releases to small indie gems. For many smaller developers, releasing games early on Steam helps with the funding and furthers development of the title. Steam offers a wide selection of these ‘Early Access’ games, where players get to experience the game before release and support some great creative projects.

10 Voidtrain

Max Players: 4

One of the most unique games on Steam, Voidtrain blends a steampunk style with a cosmic horror twist. With up to 4 players, the game plunges the team into a strange realm, where their only safety is on the mysterious train. Players will need to battle the many creatures they find, gather materials, and customize and upgrade the train to proceed through the game world.

Voidtrain is a survival action game that will test players’ teamwork as they move through the bizarre world. With many monsters to kill and mysteries to uncover, Voidtrain is a memorable and fun experience that is unlike any other.

9 Sunkenland

Max Players: 15

Sunkenland is an open-world survival game set across a large post-apocalyptic ocean where players can explore various islands and underwater locations. Sunkenland allows up to 15 players in a game, but it has been recommended by developers not to exceed 5 for an optimal experience.

In Sunkenland, players can build a home base, craft items and weapons, and battle with different gangs that control the various islands. The game is an immersive and addictive experience that will appeal to all survival fans. Players can enjoy the game solo or with friends.

8 Phasmophobia

Max Players: 4

A popular game that gained prominence through Twitch, Phasmophobia is the perfect game for fans of horror who are looking for a fun experience with their friends. Although a few years old now, the game is still in early access but has consistently been updated, improving the game since 2020.

Phasmophobia brings teams of up to 4 players into various haunted houses, where they’ll need to uncover clues to decipher which ghost is haunting them. Phasmophobia is a fun game that creates genuine tension and a great creepy atmosphere for players to get immersed in.

7 Starship Troopers: Extermination

Max Players: 16

The movie Starship Troopers introduced the world to a dystopian future where humanity wages war against deadly giant bugs, known as Arachnids. Now, in Starship Troopers: Extermination, players can experience all the carnage and mayhem of that war firsthand.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is a co-op first-person shooter, where teams of up to 16 can battle against the endless swarms of Arachnids on far-off worlds. Players can choose their weapons, build bases, and capture objectives in this action-packed game that will pit them against some of the galaxy’s biggest and baddest bugs.

6 Smalland: Survive the Wilds

Max Players: 10

From fighting some of the biggest bugs in Starship Troopers to taking on some of the smallest, in Smalland: Survive the Wilds, groups of up to 10 people can experience the world of the very tiny. The game allows players to explore a vast open world, where puddles can become lakes, and a back garden can become a forest.

This open-world survival game is great for hanging out with friends in a well-designed and immersive world where riding bugs is the best form of transport. Players can craft weapons and armor, build settlements, and even hunt and tame the many creatures that inhabit the world.

5 Escape The Backrooms

Max Players: 4

“Backroom” games have quickly become a whole sub-genre of horror games in recent years. Becoming popular for streamers to play on Twitch, they offer simple gameplay and are filled with fun moments to experience with friends. Revolving around different levels, players need to solve complex puzzles to progress to the next stage, all while being hunted by different monsters that randomly appear.

Escape The Backrooms is one of the best of the Backrooms games and pits 4 friends against different entities, spread over immersive and unnerving levels that often incorporate the idea of liminal space. The game will test players' teamwork and puzzle-solving abilities and can quickly turn to chaos when an entity is close.

4 The Outlast Trials

Max Players: 4

The original Outlast games are two of the most renowned single-player survival horror titles out there. Outlast took players into a dangerous asylum with only a night vision camera to help them survive against the crazed inhabitants.

The Outlast Trials takes all the horror of the original games and brings it into a co-op setting. Teams of up to 4 players can work together to solve puzzles and survive against the various deranged enemies looking to cut them down. The Outlast Trials isn’t for the squeamish but brings a lot of fun for fans of the genre.

3 Valheim

Max Players: 10

The open-world fantasy survival game Valheim is set in the Viking afterlife in a purgatory realm where warriors work to be worthy of entering Valhalla. The game allows groups of up to 10 players to work together, build settlements, farm the land, and hunt animals around a large open world.

The goal of Valheim is to defeat several bosses for the characters to then be seen as worthy. To do this, players can level up their characters and improve their gear. Valheim is great for fans of fantasy who are looking to adventure out with friends in a stunning and immersive world.

2 Sons Of The Forest

Max Players: 8

Sons Of The Forest is the sequel to the popular survival horror game, The Forest. The game brings players into a vast landscape of dense forests, snowy mountains, and flowing rivers inhabited by dangerous cannibals and terrifying mutants. Players will need to find food, shelter, and water to survive while fending off attacks from the local inhabitants.

Sons Of The Forest is perfect for fans of survival games, with plenty of caves to explore and mysteries to uncover. With a maximum of 8 players, a whole team of friends can battle the many enemies in the game or work together to build a settlement.

1 Lethal Company

Max Players: 4

This co-op survival horror game pits teams of up to 4 players against a myriad of monsters, environmental hazards, and traps. In the game, players will attempt to collect and sell materials for 'The Company' over a selection of different maps. With many of the monsters having different mechanics, players never know what they are going to find in the dark corridors of the game.

Lethal Company has become a streaming favorite on Twitch, and with various mods, the number of players can be raised above the 4 limit. Lethal Company is as fun as it is terrifying and is ideal for fans of co-op play.