I've watched my son spend 200 hours in Minecraft and my daughter log countless afternoons in Animal Crossing. And for a long time, I had no idea what to actually play WITH them. Every "best family games" list I found was either written by someone without kids or hadn't been updated since the Wii era.
So I did what any obsessive parent would do. I played dozens of games across every platform, dragged my kids into testing sessions, and figured out what actually works for families where the parent might not know how to hold a controller.
This is the guide I wish existed when I started. Every game on this list has been tested in my house with real kids of different ages and a dad whose gaming skills peaked somewhere around 2004. I've organized everything by age and by YOUR skill level, because let's be honest, that matters just as much.
If you want the bigger picture on why playing together matters so much, check out our complete guide to playing video games with your kids. This article is the practical "what to actually play" companion.
Quick Guide: How to Use This List
Before we dive in, a few ground rules for picking the right game:
Match the youngest player, not the oldest. If your 12-year-old and 6-year-old both want to play, pick something the 6-year-old can handle. The older kid will still have fun. The younger kid will feel included. Picking the right game is only step one; step two is actually sitting next to your kid while they play it. Our guide on how to join your kid's gaming world covers the part most parenting articles skip.
Your skill level matters. I've organized games within each age group by parent difficulty. "Never touched a controller" parents have different needs than "I played some Nintendo back in the day" parents.
Platform matters less than you think. Most of the best family games are available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. I'll note platform exclusives where relevant, but don't stress about buying the "right" console. If you're starting from scratch, get a Nintendo Switch. It's the best family gaming device by a wide margin.
Free vs. paid is noted. Some of the best family games cost nothing. Others are worth every penny. I'll be upfront about cost.
Best Games for Young Kids (Ages 4-7)
This is the "everything is magical" age. Kids at this stage don't care about graphics or complex mechanics. They want to explore, create, and have you next to them. The key here is zero-failure games where nobody loses and there's no pressure.
If You've Never Played a Video Game
Minecraft Creative Mode (All platforms, $30) This is my number one recommendation for families just starting out. Creative Mode removes all enemies, all danger, and all stress. You just build stuff together. My daughter and I spent a whole weekend building a rainbow castle with a moat. The controls are simple, you can't die, and kids at this age treat it like digital LEGO. If you want to understand why this game has staying power, we wrote a whole piece on what Minecraft actually teaches kids.
Paw Patrol: Grand Prix (Switch/PlayStation/Xbox, $40) Yes, it's a branded game. No, that doesn't mean it's bad. This is a simplified racing game designed for little kids. The tracks are forgiving, there's an auto-drive assist, and your 5-year-old will be thrilled to race as Chase or Marshall. You'll finish the cup in 15 minutes. Perfect session length.
Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch, $60) Beautiful, gentle, and designed so younger players can ride on the back of the experienced player's Yoshi. If your kid gets stuck, you literally carry them through. Nintendo understood the assignment with this one.
If You Have Some Gaming Experience
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch, $60) The newest Mario game is genuinely delightful. Up to four players, and the difficulty ramps gradually. Younger kids can play as Nabbit or Yoshi, who can't take damage. You handle the tricky parts. Everyone has fun.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch, $60) A chill island life game where you fish, catch bugs, decorate your house, and visit each other's islands. There's no winning or losing. It's the gaming equivalent of coloring together. Sessions can be 10 minutes or two hours.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch, $60) Kirby games are designed to be completable by young players while offering hidden challenges for experienced ones. Co-op mode lets a second player join as Bandana Waddle Dee. It's cute, colorful, and impossible to fight about.
Best Games for Kids (Ages 8-12)
This is the sweet spot for family gaming. Kids are old enough to handle real game mechanics but still young enough to want you involved. They're developing opinions, competitive instincts, and the kind of strategic thinking that makes games genuinely engaging for adults too.
If You've Never Played a Video Game
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, $60) The undisputed champion of family gaming. Smart steering assist keeps beginners on the track. Items keep races unpredictable so skill gaps matter less. Races take three minutes. You'll play "just one more" ten times. This is the game that convinced me gaming with my kids could actually be fun.
Stardew Valley (All platforms, $15) A farming sim that's secretly about building a life together. Plant crops, raise animals, explore caves, fish by the river. Co-op mode lets you share a farm. It's peaceful, surprisingly deep, and dirt cheap. Some of our longest conversations have happened while we waited for virtual tomatoes to grow.
Unravel Two (All platforms, $20) Two little yarn characters solve puzzles together. It's beautiful, intuitive, and requires genuine cooperation. You can't progress alone. The puzzles are clever enough to make adults think without frustrating kids.
If You Have Some Gaming Experience
It Takes Two (All platforms, $40) This won Game of the Year for a reason. Every level has completely different mechanics. One minute you're shrinking and riding bugs, the next you're piloting toy planes. It requires constant communication and teamwork. My son and I played through the entire thing and it was genuinely one of our best shared experiences.
Splatoon 3 (Switch, $60) Think paintball as a video game. You're shooting paint, not bullets. Teams compete to cover the most ground in their color. It's colorful, fast, and hilarious. The online play can be intense, but the single-player story mode is a great way to learn together.
Overcooked! All You Can Eat (All platforms, $40) A chaotic cooking game that will have you yelling "PASS THE ONION" at your 10-year-old. It's stressful in the funniest way possible. Levels get increasingly ridiculous, from kitchen fires to floating ice shelves. You'll fail a lot. You'll laugh more.
Minecraft Survival Mode (All platforms, $30) Once your kid has outgrown Creative Mode, Survival adds monsters, hunger, and real stakes. Working together to survive the first night, build shelter, and explore caves creates genuine teamwork. The difficulty scales naturally, and dying together is weirdly bonding.
The Wildcard: Board Games Go Digital
Ticket to Ride (All platforms, $10-20) The classic board game, digitized perfectly. Build train routes across the map. Easy to learn, strategic enough to keep adults engaged, and games take about 30 minutes. Great for families who like board games but want a quick digital version.
Best Games for Teens (Ages 13+)
Here's where it gets tricky. Teens have opinions. They have games they already love. And they probably don't want to play Yoshi with you. The goal here isn't to pick their games for them. It's to find games where playing together feels natural, not forced.
If You've Never Played a Video Game
Rocket League (All platforms, FREE) Soccer with rocket-powered cars. That's it. That's the pitch. It's free, matches take five minutes, and you can team up against other players online. Being on the same team creates an "us vs. them" dynamic that teens actually respond to. The controls are simple. Mastering them takes forever. You'll both be terrible at first, which is perfect.
Fall Guys (All platforms, FREE) A game show where 60 players compete in silly obstacle courses. You can team up with your teen and try to survive together. It's impossible to take seriously, rounds are two minutes long, and the physical comedy is genuinely hilarious. Also free.
Jackbox Party Packs ($25-30 each, all platforms) These are party games you play on your phone while the game runs on TV. Trivia, drawing games, word games. They're designed for groups and work brilliantly for families. No gaming skill required at all. If you have teens who say they don't like video games, start here.
If You Have Some Gaming Experience
Fortnite (All platforms, FREE) I know. I can hear some of you groaning. But Fortnite's Creative Mode and LEGO Fortnite are genuinely good family experiences. You can build worlds, play community-made games, and avoid the battle royale entirely. If your kid already plays Fortnite, joining them in their world is powerful. We have a whole guide on talking to kids about Fortnite if you want to understand the culture first.
Valheim (PC, $20) A Viking survival game that's best experienced cooperatively. Build a village, fight mythological creatures, sail across oceans. It's atmospheric and rewarding. Teens love the sense of adventure, and building a base together creates shared ownership of something meaningful.
Portal 2 Co-op (PC/PlayStation/Xbox, $10) One of the greatest co-op experiences ever made. You solve physics puzzles using portals. It's funny, brilliant, and requires constant communication. Fair warning: some puzzles will stump both of you. That's part of the fun.
Baldur's Gate 3 (PC/PlayStation, $60) For mature teens (16+) who like storytelling. This is a massive fantasy RPG you can play through together. Choices matter, characters are deep, and the writing is genuinely excellent. Sessions run long, so this becomes an ongoing "show" you experience together. Not for every family, but incredible for the right one.
For the Competitive Teen
FIFA/EA Sports FC (All platforms, $70) If your kid likes soccer, this is an easy entry point. Play together against the AI or against each other. Matches take 15 minutes. The controls are straightforward enough that beginners can score goals, and the sport provides natural conversation.
NBA 2K (All platforms, $70) Same concept, basketball. Play a quick game together. The fun is in the trash talk and the replays.
The "Non-Gamer Parent" Starter Pack
If you read all of that and still feel overwhelmed, here's your simplified starting point. Buy these three things and you're set for years of family gaming:
1. Nintendo Switch ($300) - The best family console. Period. Portable, kid-friendly library, local co-op built into almost everything.
2. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ($60) - Works for ages 5 to 50. Smart steering for beginners. Chaotic fun for everyone.
3. Minecraft ($30) - Infinite replayability. Creative Mode for young kids, Survival for older ones. Cross-platform so everyone can play on their own device too.
Total cost: $390. That's less than a weekend at a theme park, and this will get used hundreds of times.
If budget is tight, grab the Switch and one free game: Rocket League or Fall Guys. Zero dollars for the games, and both work beautifully for families.
Games to Avoid Playing Together (Learn From My Mistakes)
Not every game works for family play, even if it's technically co-op. Here's what I've learned the hard way:
Anything with long load times or cutscenes. Kids under 10 lose interest. Teens will grab their phone. You'll all be bored.
Competitive games with huge skill gaps. Playing your teen in a fighting game they've practiced for 500 hours is not bonding. It's target practice. Stick to co-op or games with built-in equalizers.
Games that require grinding. If you need to play 20 hours solo before the co-op is fun, it's not a family game. It's a commitment. Premium picks rack up the credit card fast; if you want comparable fun at a lower spend, our list of budget friendly cooperative games has the alternatives.
Games with toxic online communities. Some online games are great for family play in private lobbies but terrible in public matchmaking. If you're playing online together, stick to team modes and mute strangers.
Horror games with young kids. This seems obvious, but some games that look cute have surprisingly scary moments. Always check a gameplay video first if you're unsure.
Why the Game Matters Less Than You Think
I've given you a huge list, but here's the truth I've learned after three years of gaming with my kids: the specific game barely matters. What matters is that you're there, you're engaged, and you're not checking your phone.
My best gaming memory with my son isn't from some epic boss fight. It's from a random Minecraft session where we accidentally built our house on top of a cave full of zombies and spent 20 minutes laughing while trying not to die. The game was the excuse. The connection was the point.
If you want to go deeper on conversations that happen during and between gaming sessions, we built Yakety Pack exactly for this. It's a deck of conversation cards with questions like "What game character would you want as a real friend?" and "What's the hardest thing you've ever done in a game?" They're designed to meet gaming kids where they are. We use them during snack breaks between sessions, and the conversations that come out of them are honestly better than anything I could come up with on my own.
The best game to play with your kids is whichever one they're excited about right now. Start there. Everything else follows. After a good co-op session you want to keep that energy going at dinner; a set of screen free family question prompts carries the conversational momentum across the screen-off transition without losing it.
The Other Half of Game Night: A great pick gets your kid on the couch. A deck of Yakety Pack conversation cards gets them talking once the controllers go down, which is where most of the real connection actually happens.
Related Articles
Looking for more ways to connect with your kids through gaming? Check out these guides:
- Playing Video Games With Your Kids: A Real Parent's Guide - the how-to companion to this list
- Understanding Gaming Culture for Parents - our complete guide to your kid's world
- What Is Minecraft Teaching Your Kids? A Parent's Deep Dive
- How to Talk to Kids About Fortnite
- What Do Video Games Actually Teach Kids? 7 Real Skills
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the single best game for a family that's never played together?
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch. It works for ages 5 to adult, has assist features for beginners, races are short, and it's genuinely fun for everyone. If I could only recommend one game, this is it every time.
Are free-to-play games safe for kids?
Games like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Fall Guys are free to download and play. The catch is cosmetic microtransactions, skins, emotes, and outfits that cost real money. The games themselves are safe, but set up spending controls on your console and have a conversation about in-game purchases before downloading. The gameplay is completely unaffected by whether you spend money.
Do we need two consoles to play together?
For most games on this list, no. The Nintendo Switch supports two-player local co-op with the included Joy-Con controllers. Some games like Minecraft allow cross-platform play where one person is on Switch and another on a tablet. You only need two consoles for games that don't support split-screen, which I've avoided recommending here.
My kid wants me to play Roblox. Is that a good family game?
Roblox is a platform with thousands of games inside it, and quality varies wildly. Some Roblox experiences are great for families (Adopt Me, Natural Disaster Survival). Others are poorly made or have iffy chat interactions. Ask your kid to show you their favorite Roblox games specifically and try those together rather than jumping in blind.
What about mobile games?
Mobile games can work for family play, especially for young kids. Crossy Road, Among Us, and Minecraft all work on phones and tablets. But if you're serious about family gaming, a dedicated console gives you a better experience. The shared TV screen creates a different energy than everyone staring at their own phone.
How do I keep up with new game releases?
You don't need to. The games on this list have been around for years and will stay relevant. When your kid gets excited about something new, ask them to show you. That conversation is more valuable than any review site. If you want to stay generally informed, Nintendo's website and Common Sense Media's game reviews are parent-friendly resources.
About the Author: Kevin Hinton is a dad and co-founder of Yakety Pack and Tru Earth. He writes about parenting in the digital age, helping families turn gaming and screen time into opportunities for connection instead of conflict.
