Four players, one TV — the shooters that made shouting at a screen a hobby.
Split-screen shooting is a nearly extinct genre, which is exactly why the games that still do it are worth knowing about.
This list covers the classics that defined it and the modern games that quietly kept the feature.
1997 · N64, Switch (NSO), Xbox
The game that made console shooting social. Slow by modern standards and still tense in four-player Licence to Kill.
2000 · N64, Xbox
GoldenEye's engine with bots, weapon secondary fires and a co-op campaign. Deeper than its reputation.
2001 · Xbox, PC, Xbox Series X
Two-player campaign co-op plus four-player system-link multiplayer. The Master Chief Collection keeps all of it intact.
2002 · PS2, GameCube, Xbox
Bots, a map editor and a genuinely funny tone. Still the high-water mark for offline shooter content.
2010 · Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Split-screen zombies with a friend is the part people remember, and it holds up better than the campaign.
2014 · PC, Xbox
Six campaigns with split-screen co-op and offline custom games. The single best purchase on this list.
2019 · PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch
Loot shooting with two-player vertical or horizontal split screen and a campaign that runs 30 hours.
2019 · PC, Xbox
Two-player split-screen campaign and Horde mode. Cover shooting still feels heavier here than anywhere else.
2025 · PC, PS5, Xbox
Arena shooting with portals and a split-screen option — a rare modern game built for the couch.
2020 · PC, PS5, Xbox
Enormous enemy counts and co-op that scales to a full lobby. Pure, uncomplicated shooting.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection, because it bundles six campaigns with split-screen co-op and offline multiplayer in one purchase.
Very few. Halo MCC, Borderlands 3, Gears 5, Splitgate 2 and Serious Sam 4 are the reliable current options.
Timesplitters 2 and GoldenEye 007 on original hardware, or Halo MCC on Xbox for four-player local matches.
Yes — it is on Nintendo Switch Online with an Expansion Pack, and on Xbox as part of Rare's catalogue.