For some, there’s nothing better than stepping into a virtual world filled with nightmare fuel. Whether it’s Zombies, Ghosts, or perhaps a trip through a monster-infested forest, thehorror genreworks excellently with multiplayer. Tackling scary challenges and battling alongside friends can be a tense and exciting experience not for the faint of heart.
However, there are several horror-themed multiplayer games, many of which charge a premium. It’s a crowded space, and deciding where to spend money and which games to skip is challenging. Fortunately, there are several frightening and intense multiplayer games available for free. Some of these games offer jump scares, while others present diabolical puzzles or scenarios in which it’s unclear who should be trusted.
Updated July 09, 2025, by Mohamed El Ouardighi:We’ve expanded the list with extra details for each entry and tossed in a couple more picks to ensure you and your friends get the full dose of that must-play horror experience.
While Cry of Fear is primarily known for its single-player experience, it also offers a cooperative multiplayer system where you and your friends can team up to face the horror together, survive the dark, solve puzzles, and defeat terrifying enemies. The game blends psychological horror with action, creating a tense and immersive atmosphere.
The eerie soundtrack and unsettling environments intensify the fear as you progress through the game. With its nostalgic Half-Life engine aesthetic and regular updates, Cry of Fear remains a unique and memorable horror experience, offering both solo and multiplayer modes that keep players engaged and on edge.
A very simple indie horror game that costs absolutely nothing to play, EXIT 2 from a trio ofindie devsis very enjoyable with the right group. The premise is straightforward, there’s a bunch of keys around the map, and to leave you just need to collect them.
However, chasing the key collector is a horrible creature and if they catch the other player it’s game over. The levels are basic but fun, and for a free game that has perks and customisation options, it’s a fun and free distraction for a few hours.
For the masochists amongst you, Hide and Shriek from Funcom is worth looking into. This spookymultiplayer horror gamehas two teams hunting down objects to win whilst scaring the living daylights out of each other.
The spooks are managed by planting traps that play jumpscares on the other player’s screen. These will either slow them down momentarily, or cause them to jump out of their chair in fright. It’s a great pick for the sadistic, and the fact that it’s completely free is the extra cherry on top.
There’s no right or wrong way to place traps, it all depends on your creativity and how immune to jumpscares your opponent is.
A game that’s sure to cause a lot of arguments, Deceit from World Makers will give your friend group trust issues in a very short space of time. After waking up in a dilapidated manor, it’s up to you and a maximum of five others to figure out who amongst the group is infected with a deadly pathogen.
If the infected aren’t found in time they’ll turn into their monster forms and start eating the other players. To get around this there are plenty of gadgets, tests and other forms of finding out who amongst you is guilty. The rounds are always anarchic, and with a large group you can run into some really tense and funny situations.
Dead By Daylight is an asymmetrical game where you can make a team of four people and go up against a brutal killer, and your only job is to repair the generators to escape the trial. As you’re doing that, the killer will try to find your teammates and sacrifice them to the entity.
There’s also a 2v8 game mode that sometimes appears in the game, and you can even play Killer with your friends in this. The best part about facing the horrors in this game is thatsome of them like Michael Myers or Sadako might be familiar to you.
10Enemy On Board
Retro Styled Among Us
AnImposter style gamewith a lot of retro charm, Enemy On Board from Windwalk Games is a great Early Access pick for an evening of hardcore deduction. There’s two teams, six survivors, two aliens and if you’ve played this kind of game before you’ll feel right at home.
For those that haven’t, the goal is simple. Survivors find the aliens, the aliens kill the survivors without being caught. There’s a number of cartoony and wild looking characters to choose from and a surprisingly big arsenal of weapons to pull out in a pinch. Plus, the aliens are equally weird and varied, so there’s a fair amount of replayability here all for free.
9SCP: Secret Laboratory
A Reddit Classic
This first-person shooter experiencetakes place in a science facility where things have taken a nasty turn. Choose to play as an entity trying to escape the labs, a security forces member trying to lock everything down, a chaos insurgent working against the security forces, or Class-D personnel who are humanoid experiments trying to get free.
With powerful firearms and several melee weapons to choose from, SCP: Secret Laboratory sees players search the darkened and sterile laboratory for each other or a way out. The eerie lighting design perfectly sets the mood, with ambient and sometimes red-colored areas for dramatic effect.
Similar to games likeHello NeighborandFive Nights At Freddy’s, Poppy Playtime came out as a free horror game that gained a cult following. So much so that the creators came out with a free multiplayer horror game in the same universe.
It’s similar to the Poppy Playtime title with a creepy monster that stalk you across the abandoned toy factory that you find yourself in. But, you and your friends don’t just have to survive, you also have to create a giant toy from party you find in the level. It’slike a work sim, but with horrible monster that is controlled by another player.
With a look inspired by the over-the-shoulder third-person Resident Evil games,Dead Frontier 2offers both player vs. environment and player vs. player action. There is an emphasis on gathering and conserving resources with options to trade with other players (if you can trust them).
The moody and dark urban environments make for a tense, continually changing experience, but co-op with a friend can help offset powerful enemies. Another feature allows players to customize and create unique characters along with specific skills that alter how the game is played.
Based on thehighly mod-friendly Source engine, No More Room In Hell is a cooperative zombie shooter that pits up to eight players against the infected horde. The first-person perspective adds unease as the undead can come from any direction. With over 30 weapons (including a chainsaw), players can decide how to approach battles and how many resources to conserve.
Objectives sprawled out through the maps change for every playthrough and offer plenty of replayability. With proximity chat and voice, players need to stay close and coordinate carefully because there is little chance of success once separated.
