The Best Free Games To Play With Friends in September 2024

If you want to play games with your friends but don’t want to pay, you’re in the right place. Each month, we scour the new additions to services like Xbox Game Pass, Steam, and PS Plus to identify and try out the best new co-op and multiplayer freebies. All so that you can enjoy them with your buds. September’s free games to play with friends will let you awaken the powers of ancient gods, dive into unreleased projects, and assign pickaxes to your pals.

Deadlock

Players: 1-6 (on your team)
Available for free on: PC via Steam (if you have an invite)

Valve’s anticipated shooter-MOBA hybrid is still invite only, but the developer’s recent official acknowledgement seems to have come with an increase in invites – or at least people willing to share theirs publicly. September might be a good month to pester anyone on your Steam friends list that you’ve seen booting it up. And once you’re in, it won’t be long before you can invite more friends to play too.

For those out of the loop, Deadlock takes the rough format of a MOBA like DOTA 2, but with the perspective shifted to become a third-person hero shooter. Crosshair skills therefore combine with a suite of powers as you push minions forward down four lanes and attempt to breach the opposing side’s base. It’s made for six-on-six matches, but even one other friend is enough to start developing some power combos as you learn the fundamentals. Just be prepared for a lot of learning if you’re lucky enough to get in. The tutorial will intro the basics, but the rest is up to you.

A demonic character in a coad leans against a wall in a prohibition-era street with pigeons and hanging lights.

Deadlock

Release Date: Unknown

Windows

Core Keeper

Players: 1-8
Available for free on: Xbox Game Pass

If you’re after something to play with a larger group, Core Keeper’s treasure-hunting spelunking supports up to eight players in co-op. This Game Pass addition offers a mining sandbox in which you dig through the earth, fending off monsters and facing massive bosses as you stock up on the resources required to upgrade your home base and equipment.

Farming, mining, cooking, base-building, dungeon-delving – there’s a lot to keep you occupied in Core Keeper. Given the sheer volume of things to do, it only makes sense to portion some of those tasks out to your pals. The more friends you have, the more you can achieve quickly. Unless you’ve got over seven friends looking to play at once, of course. In which case, we envy your social circles.

Characters build, cook, fish, and hold a pickaxe in an underground cavern

Core Keeper

Release Date: September 27, 2024

Age of Mythology: Retold

Players: 1-6
Available for free on: Xbox Game Pass

Strategy fans are in for a nostalgic treat thanks this September Game Pass addition. Age of Mythology: Retold revives 2002’s spinoff to the iconic Age of Empires series. In this RTS remake, ancient civilizations – Atlantean, Egyptian, Greek, and Norse – wage war with the very direct aid of their gods and mythical beasts. Unleash Zeus’ lightning on your foes, zap your enemies with sun-laser crocodiles, or pair your Viking fleet with a deadly dragon. It’s a deity-packed blast from the past.

Age of Mythology: Retold lets you link up with friends online. If you’re as ancient as us, that means you can revive the spirit of long lost LAN parties as you take on the AI together or direct your godly powers against one another. Retold also includes new co-op challenges in the form of the Arena of the Gods. It’s enough to make an older strategy gamer cry. A Real Tear Stimulator, perhaps.

Gods from Age of Mythology: Retold including Zeus along with several mythical creatures under the game's title.

Age of Mythology: Retold (Digital)

Release Date: September 4, 2024

Digital Only

Still to come: Rider’s Republic

Characters skii, snowboard and bike through a snowy street in Riders Republic — ©Ubisoft

Players: 1-5
Available for free on: Xbox Game Pass (September 11)

While not a new release, Ubisoft’s open-world extreme sports sandbox is joining Xbox Game Pass in September. It packs in mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, and wingsuiting. So even if your sporting interest only lasts about as long as we would in a real wingsuit (i.e. not long at all, likely ending painfully) you can flit between categories the instant you tire of one.

Riders Republic is made for mass races of 50 players down gigantic mountain courses, but you can have just us much fun with a smaller group of friends. The controls for each sport are arcadey enough to learn quickly, but don’t expect that to mean you won’t wipe out entertainingly in your haste to hurtle downhill the fastest. Be sure to save clips of your worst impacts to share with the group afterwards.