Methodology

Game rankings on Co-Op Now are community-driven rather than manually editorially ranked. Users rate games as Like or Super Like, with Super Likes carrying more weight as a stronger enthusiasm signal. Rankings update in real time as users vote.

A minimum vote threshold prevents games with very few ratings from appearing disproportionately high in rankings. Current rankings are not paid placements — games rise and fall based on community sentiment.

In group contexts, Co-Op Now calculates a Squad Fit score for each game. This score reflects how well a game fits your specific group by combining several signals:

• Shared ownership — whether group members already own the game
• Group votes — how group members have rated the game
• Enthusiasm signals — stronger reactions like Super Likes carry additional weight
• Player count fit — whether the game supports your group's size
• Genre and taste fit — how well the game matches your group's collective genre preferences
• Public rating signals — community reception where available

These signals are combined into a single group-fit score. The relative importance of each signal is tuned to surface games your group is most likely to enjoy and be able to play together.

Each group member can rate games independently as Nah, Like, or Super Like. These preferences are aggregated across the group to surface shared favorites and filter out games that don't have broad support.

Your ratings are consistent across the platform — a vote cast in one group is reflected in your global preferences, and vice versa. This means you don't need to re-rate games when you join a new group.

Learn more about how voting works →

When group members link their Steam IDs, Co-Op Now reads each member's publicly visible game library and identifies co-op titles the group owns in common. This lets your group instantly see what you can play together without manually comparing libraries.

Steam linking works by pasting your public Steam ID or profile URL. Co-Op Now never asks for or stores Steam passwords. Only your publicly visible game list is accessed — the same list anyone can see on your Steam profile if it's set to public.

Learn more about Steam library sync →

The player matching system connects users who are likely to enjoy playing together. It considers several signals where data is available:

• Shared games — games both players own or have rated positively
• Schedule availability — overlap in weekly gaming availability
• Language — shared languages for communication
• Region and time zone — geographic proximity for latency and scheduling
• Play style and life context — casual vs. competitive orientation, session length, and similar lifestyle signals
• Mic preference — whether players prefer voice chat

Not all signals are available for every user. The system works with whatever data is provided and does not require users to fill out every field. When less data is available, the system adjusts to weight the signals it does have.

Learn more about finding co-op players →

When Co-Op Now says a game works for a certain number of players, it means that many people can play together in the same co-op group or party — the group you actually play with. That is deliberately narrower than the numbers stores often advertise.

• Same group — how many people fit in one co-op party. This is the only figure we use to answer questions like "can three of us play this together?".
• Same side / same team — how many can share a team. A game can allow a full team without letting your whole group play cooperatively.
• Lobby, server, match or session capacity — how many people can be in the same match or on the same server. A large lobby is never treated as proof that your whole party fits in one co-op group.

Party sizes are only stated as fact when the underlying group data is confirmed. If a game's group size is unconfirmed or missing, we show it as unverified — we do not round it up into a "yes" or down into a "no".

Transparency note: internally these are stored as separate same-group, same-side and same-session fields with an explicit confidence level, so they can never be mixed up.

Online co-op, local/couch co-op, split-screen and LAN are treated as four independent facts. Each one is answered on its own evidence:

• A game supporting online co-op says nothing about whether it has couch co-op, and vice versa.
• Split-screen is not inferred from local co-op, and LAN is not inferred from online play.
• Where a capability only applies to some platforms, we show that scope instead of claiming it everywhere.

Unknown is not the same as No. A capability is only shown as unavailable when we have an explicit negative for that specific capability. Missing data stays unknown.

Being available on several platforms does not mean a game has crossplay. Crossplay is tracked as its own status, together with the specific platforms or platform families the crossplay evidence covers. We never infer crossplay from a game's store platform list.

• Confirmed / supported — the evidence is strong enough to state crossplay plainly, alongside the platforms it covers.
• Partial or community-reported — shown with its caveat visible. Partial crossplay is never presented as full crossplay, and community-reported crossplay is never presented as confirmed.
• Unknown or not supported — left as-is. Unknown is never upgraded to a positive claim.

Crossplay behaviour can change with patches, platform policies and regional differences, so it is worth verifying in-game before buying for a mixed-platform group.

The PC compatibility checker lets you enter your hardware specs and see which games your system can run. It compares your CPU, GPU, RAM, VRAM, and storage against each game's minimum and recommended requirements.

System requirements are parsed from publicly available Steam store data. When requirement strings are too vague to parse accurately (e.g., "a modern processor"), the system flags results as approximate rather than guessing.

Learn more about PC compatibility checks →

Co-Op Now aims to be transparent about what it can and cannot guarantee:

• Rankings are community-driven — they reflect user sentiment, not official industry rankings or critical reviews.
• Crossplay data is best-effort — it comes from a mix of confirmed records and community-reported evidence, each shown with its own confidence, and may not reflect the latest game updates or platform changes.
• Game data can be incomplete or outdated — a missing co-op fact is never silently turned into a "No", and a large lobby or session capacity is never treated as proof that a whole party fits in one co-op group.
• PC requirements may be incomplete — they come from public store data and can be outdated, vague, or missing for some games.
• Player matching uses available signals — match quality improves as users provide more profile data, but the system does not require every field.
• AI suggestions are labeled — AI-powered recommendations (via the Game Advisor) are clearly marked as AI-generated and are suggestions, not guarantees.
• Unknown data is shown as unknown — when a game's co-op player count, crossplay status, or other metadata is not confirmed, it is displayed as unverified rather than guessed.

Co-Op Now is an independent project. It is not affiliated with Valve, Steam, game publishers, or game retailers.

For details on where game data comes from, see Data Sources. For how your data is handled, see the Privacy Policy.