The Best Multiplayer Games on Nintendo Switch, Ranked for 2026

Nine years. That's how long the original Nintendo Switch has been kicking around my living room, and honestly, I still reach for it more than I reach for anything else when friends come over. Yes, the Switch 2 is here now and it's lovely, but the original hybrid's library has aged like a well-kept cellar — the bottles are still good, and some of them are genuinely great. The magic was never the hardware; it was the fact that I could yank a console out of a dock, hand half a Joy-Con to somebody who hasn't touched a game since college, and watch their face light up. That trick never gets old.

So here's my personal, slightly opinionated, very 2026-friendly ranking of the ten best multiplayer games on the Switch. Some are competitive, some are cozy, and at least one will end a friendship if you play it wrong. Let's get into it.

Rank	Game	Best For
10	Mario Party Superstars	Family game night
9	Overcooked! All You Can Eat	Testing friendships
8	Fall Guys	Chaotic drop-in fun
7	Super Mario Bros. Wonder	Co-op platforming
6	Rocket League	Competitive teamwork
5	Animal Crossing: New Horizons	Cozy socializing
4	Fortnite	Endless variety
3	Splatoon 3	Stylish competitive shooting
2	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate	Gaming history brawls
1	Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	Literally everyone

10. Mario Party Superstars — The Nostalgia Machine 🎲

Five boards. That's the whole pitch, and somehow it still works. Superstars pulls classic maps like Peach's Birthday Cake and Yoshi's Tropical Island out of the attic, dusts them off, and gives them modern-quality-of-life touches. The online mode is shockingly functional, which is not a sentence I expected to write about a Mario Party game. It's the easiest recommendation in the world for kids, cousins, and anyone who wants to roll dice and giggle. I just wish Nintendo had kept feeding it new boards, because five great maps is a snack, not a meal.

9. Overcooked! All You Can Eat — The Friendship Pressure Cooker 🍳

Overcooked is a pressure cooker with the lid welded shut — you can hear the friendship rattling around inside. This collection bundles both games and every scrap of DLC into one package with crossplay, and it's still the most reliable way to turn calm adults into screaming line cooks. You'll plate dishes on pirate ships, in space, over lava, and on moving trucks, and somewhere around level forty somebody will accuse somebody else of "hoarding the lettuce." That's the point. It's cooperative in name and a friendly argument in practice.

8. Fall Guys — The Bean-Powered Obstacle Derby 🫘

Fall Guys is a battle royale that forgot to be violent and decided to be a game show instead. Forty jellybeans fling themselves through spinning hammers and collapsing platforms until one wears the crown. Load times on the Switch are a bit sleepy, but the game suits handheld mode beautifully — it's a five-minute palate cleanser between bigger sessions. The costumes are ridiculous, the physics are even more ridiculous, and sometimes that's exactly what a game night needs.

7. Super Mario Bros. Wonder — A Platformer With a Wink 🌼

The Wonder Flower is the best gimmick Mario has had in years: grab one and the level turns into a different game entirely. Every single stage has its own transformation, which means co-op never feels like two people dragging each other through the same hallway. It's friendly enough for beginners and still has teeth in the late worlds, especially if you're chasing every collectible. Playing it with a friend is like splitting a bag of candy — chaotic, quick, and over too soon.

6. Rocket League — Car Soccer, But Beautiful 🚗⚽

A game about cars playing soccer should not work this well. Rocket League is easy to start and almost impossible to master, which is why I keep coming back after nine years. The first time you see a car fly off the wall and juggle the ball across the field, you either feel intimidated or hooked. I felt both. The Switch version isn't the prettiest place to play, but it's free, it's portable, and the skill ceiling is somewhere in the stratosphere.

5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons — The Island That Held Us Together 🏝️

Look, New Horizons isn't a multiplayer game in the traditional sense, and in 2026 it's more of a quiet little time capsule than a live service. But I can't leave it off. It launched at exactly the moment the world needed a friendly island, and for a while it was a genuine social space — turnip trading, island tours, and people just wandering around each other's beaches doing nothing in particular. It was a life raft shaped like a leaf, and that counts for something.

4. Fortnite — The Everything Bagel of Battle Royales 🍩

Fortnite has become a platform more than a game. Battle royale is still the anchor, but there's LEGO Fortnite for survival crafting, Rocket Racing for arcade speed, and Fortnite Festival for rhythm-game nights. Crossplay means my friends on other consoles can carry me while I fumble around on a handheld. It runs best elsewhere, sure, but the Switch version is perfectly playable and fits into the gaps of a busy day better than any other version can.

3. Splatoon 3 — Paint as a Second Language 🦑

Splatoon's turf mechanic is like learning a second grammar: once the rules click, you stop seeing floors and start seeing sentences. Painting territory matters more than eliminations, swimming through your own ink is both your escape route and your reload, and every system feeds into the next one. Salmon Run is the co-op mode I recommend to anyone who thinks they don't like shooters — four players versus an escalating tide of creative boss salmonids. There is genuinely nothing else like it.

2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — The Museum Where the Exhibits Punch Back 🥊

Eighty-two fighters. Over a hundred stages. A roster that reads like a love letter to the entire medium, from Nintendo's oldest mascots to guest characters nobody thought would ever show up. Smash Ultimate is a museum where the exhibits punch back — every fighter carries the weight and personality of their home series, and every match is a tiny history lesson wrapped in chaos. It's the best party fighter ever made, and it's still the game I boot up when I want to hear a room full of people gasp at the same time.

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — The Duct Tape of My Social Life 🏁

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the duct tape of my social life — it holds gatherings together even when nobody has anything in common. With the base tracks plus the Booster Course Pass, you're looking at eighty tracks, a huge roster, and driving that feels like butter on a warm pan. It's the one game I can hand to a grandparent, a teenager, and a lapsed gamer in the same evening and watch all three have a great time. It's accessible, deeply competitive if you want it to be, and endlessly replayable.

That's the list. If you're still on the original Switch in 2026, none of these games are going anywhere — and honestly, that's the beauty of a nine-year-old console with a library this deep. Grab a friend, grab a controller, and let the arguments begin. 🎮