Online games to play with your boyfriend or girlfriend

Every couple plays differently. Some of you want to win, badly, and will bring it up at breakfast. Some want something cosy to do side by side. Some just want an excuse to talk for two hours. So instead of one long list, here are online games to play with your boyfriend or girlfriend, sorted by the kind of couple you are.

Whether you live together, live apart or are in different countries for now, all of these work online. Every fact about a game is checked and sourced at the bottom; the sorting and the jokes are ours.

A quick word on setup before you start. If you are in the same house, any of these work on two phones or a phone and a laptop. If you are apart, put a video or voice call on one device and the game on the other, so you can hear each other laugh (or complain). And if one of you is not really a “gamer”, start with the talking games, not the ones with controllers: nobody falls in love with a game during a forty-minute tutorial.

If you are competitive

Lichess

Free, open-source chess with no adverts. Set up a game, send your partner the link, and find out who really is the clever one. Keep a running score on the fridge, or in your notes app if the fridge is in another country.

WorldGuessr

Guess where in the world a Street View image was taken, and see whose pin lands closer. Free, with parties for friends. Arguments about whether that is Accra or Lagos are guaranteed.

Ludo King

The board game that has ended friendships, on your phones. Free with in-app purchases, two to six players online, private rooms and voice chat. Do not let them roll first.

Wordle

One five-letter word a day, free from The New York Times. Who got it in fewer guesses? That is today’s winner, and they will tell you.

If you are cosy

Stardew Valley

Run a farm together online. You can invite up to seven others, but it is at its best as a two-person farm: one of you on crops, one fishing at the river, both pretending you will get up early tomorrow. Paid; on Steam it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Board Game Arena

Board games in the browser, free to join, with private tables for the two of you. Some popular titles need Premium. A quiet evening of cards is nicer than it sounds.

GamePigeon

Small games in iMessage: pool, darts, word hunts, sea battle. Free, Apple devices only. Ideal for a turn on your lunch break and a reply on theirs.

If you are a team

It Takes Two

A 2021 co-op adventure from Hazelight, made only for two, about a couple who have to work together. It won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021. One of you buys it; the other plays free with the Friend’s Pass, on the same family of platform.

Split Fiction

Hazelight’s 2025 co-op game, also two-player only, with a Friend’s Pass that works across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Good if one of you is on a console and the other has a laptop.

If you mostly want to talk

skribbl.io

Free drawing and guessing in the browser. Make a private room with your own word list: pet names, places you have been, that one meal that went wrong. The bad drawings are the point.

AJ Cities

Our own game, so you can discount our enthusiasm. AJ Cities is a free open-world game set on the edge of Ajegunle, Lagos, in the browser on a phone or a computer. In party mode you each make a character, pick the same world and go out together. It is less a game you win than a place you visit: you walk, you talk, you take in the sights.

• Change your look for free at the salon and clothes shop by the main gate, then judge each other’s outfits.
• Talk your way past the gate police: most nights about four in five guests who ask are let in free.
• Walk June 12 Street, head to the beach past the bush, or catch Joe-Izzy at Prizm from 9 pm Lagos time.
• Stand by a radio: it plays the same song at the same moment for every player.

Honest notes: the estate is shared with other real players, up to 60 per estate. The party and the club are virtual, inside the game, with no real venue, date or ticket. Tickets are optional, from ₦250, and last 24 hours (every price). The game is 18+: its single-player story, AJ’s story, deals with crime and police corruption.

Ground rules for gaming as a couple

1. Take turns choosing. Their game tonight, yours tomorrow.
2. Teach, do not take over. If one of you is much better, play on the same side, not against each other.
3. Stop while it is fun. Ending on a laugh beats ending on “just one more round” at 2 am.
4. Have a fair stake. Loser makes breakfast, or, long distance, sends breakfast money.
5. Keep a call on when you are apart. Several of these games have no voice chat of their own.

Quick picks

For more, see our full list of online games for couples, or, if you are apart, games for long-distance couples.

What games can I play online with my girlfriend or boyfriend for free?

Lichess, WorldGuessr, skribbl.io, Wordle and AJ Cities are free in the browser. GamePigeon and Ludo King are free on phones, with in-app purchases.

What is a good co-op game for couples?

It Takes Two and Split Fiction are both built only for two players, and only one of you needs to buy the game thanks to the Friend’s Pass.

Is AJ Cities good for couples?

If you like exploring and talking, yes: you walk a Lagos estate together in party mode. It is shared with other players, and it is 18+.