Best Games to Play With Your Partner Who Doesn't Game

8 games listed • Updated 8/19/2026

Handing a controller to someone who has never held one is where most co-op evenings fall apart. It is not about intelligence or interest. It is that twenty years of gaming taught you a physical language, and that language is invisible to you until you watch someone try to move a camera and a character at the same time. The games that work are the ones that ask for less input, not the ones that are easier. A simplified shooter is still a shooter. What actually works is a game where a single stick and one button cover everything, or where your partner can do something meaningful without touching the camera at all. This list is filtered on that basis. Each note describes exactly what the second player has to do physically, so you can pick something that matches the person rather than something you enjoyed alone.