Best Video Games for Family Game Night in 2026: Switch and PS5 Picks Everyone Can Play, Ranked by Owners

Minecraft on the Switch is the game families play for years rather than weeks. In creative mode there are unlimited blocks, no enemies and no way to lose, so a five-year-old can build a house beside a parent’s castle; in survival mode the same world has nights, mobs and the need to craft armour, which is the step up older kids take on their own. Worlds are randomly generated and effectively endless, the Switch version includes the Super Mario Mash-Up pack and extra texture and skin packs, and it plays in handheld or tabletop mode for the car and the sofa. Tens of thousands of owners rate it excellently. Online play with friends needs a Nintendo Switch Online membership, there is no hand-holding tutorial, and survival mode’s creepers can be too much for the youngest, so start them in creative.

The Disney Classic Games Collection puts the Aladdin, Lion King and Jungle Book games of the 1990s on the Switch for about the price of a movie ticket, including both 16-bit console versions of Aladdin and the handheld editions, upgraded to 1080p with CRT filters for anyone who wants it to look like it did. The modern additions are what make it family-friendly: rewind any mistake in real time, save anywhere, or watch a full playthrough and jump in at any point, which turns the notoriously hard Lion King level into something a child can finish with a parent calling out jumps. A museum mode adds developer interviews. Thousands of owners rate it strongly. It is single player, so it is a pass-the-controller game rather than a co-op one, and even with rewind these are short, tough platformers from an older era.

NBA 2K26 is the sports game for a family because basketball is the easiest sport to play with two controllers: pick a team in Play Now, hand the second pad to a kid and the game is on in a minute, with ProPLAY animation that makes every crossover look like the broadcast. Play Now, MyNBA and The W all work offline, so a parent can run a 30-team franchise with its own storyline while the kids play quick matches; MyCAREER and MyTEAM are the online modes with accounts and purchases, and they are easy to ignore. Thousands of owners rate it excellently, and at the time of writing it was one of the least expensive games on the page. It is an annual title that will be superseded, and the online modes nudge toward spending, so set the console’s purchase controls before handing it over.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is the kart racer for a PlayStation household that does not have a Switch for Mario Kart. It races 23 Sonic characters across 24 tracks, and partway through each race a Travel Ring warps the field into one of 15 CrossWorlds so no lap plays the same, with 23 items including a monster truck to even things out for the slowest driver. Local split screen covers Grand Prix and a Race Park party mode for groups, and World Match takes up to 12 players online. Kids will spend as long in the garage as on the track, with 45 vehicles and 70 gadgets to combine. Owners give it the best rating among the recent releases here, though from a smaller review base than the Switch veterans. The Amazon Exclusive edition adds cosmetic extras only, and the mid-race warps take a race or two to get used to.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D is the game for a family that likes to share a story. It remakes the start of the Erdrick trilogy in HD-2D, with pixel-art characters in 3D worlds, and its turn-based battles are the reason it works across generations: nobody needs reflexes, a child can call the moves while a parent reads the dialogue, and an auto-battle option and adjustable battle speed remove the grinding that put people off old role-playing games. The world map is large, the orchestral score is the real thing, and the story runs for dozens of hours. Thousands of owners rate it excellently. It is single player and text-heavy, so it suits a reading-age child on the sofa with an adult rather than a room of cousins, and anyone who wants to press buttons fast will drift back to Smash.

The Mario + Rabbids double pack is the way to introduce children to strategy games without them noticing. In both Kingdom Battle and Sparks of Hope, Mario, Rabbid Peach and friends take turns moving, taking cover and firing on a grid, so a child can think as long as they like, and the worlds between fights are full of puzzles and secrets. Two award-winning campaigns on one purchase make it exceptional value. The catch is the box: it contains a download code, not a cartridge, and redeeming it needs an internet connection, a Nintendo account and a Ubisoft account, which is the main reason its owner rating is the lowest here. If that does not bother you, it is the pick for a thoughtful eight-to-twelve-year-old and the parent who wants to help plan the next turn.

The Star Wars Heritage Pack is the family pick for a house with teenagers and a parent who remembers the originals. Seven classic Star Wars games sit on one cartridge, from the podracing of Episode I Racer, which is the one to hand a younger child, to the lightsaber duels of Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, the squad shooting of Republic Commando and the Force-throwing spectacle of The Force Unleashed. Thousands of owners rate it excellently and praise the value. Be honest about the audience: several of these titles carry a teen rating for their combat, so it is a game night for twelve-and-ups rather than for the whole family, and everything is single player. For a Star Wars household it is seven weekends of content for the price of one new game.