If you’ve ever wondered why a free-to-play platform fighter with cartoonish physics and a roster pulling from Greek mythology, video game icons, and pop culture crossovers has managed to stay relevant for over a decade, the answer is simple: Brawlhalla is better with friends.
The numbers back it up too, the game has crossed 125 million players worldwide and now packs in nearly 70 playable Legends. It’s free-to-play with no pay-to-win mechanics holding you back competitively, though building out your full roster does take some grinding, you get 9 Legends free on rotation each week, and unlock the rest permanently with in-game Gold or real money.
It’s come a long way since launching in Steam Early Access back in 2014, and after Ubisoft picked up developer Blue Mammoth Games in 2018, the game has only kept expanding, with new Legends, crossovers, and modes dropping on a steady schedule.
Sure, you can grind ranked solo and climb the ladder one bruised ego at a time, but the game truly shines when you’re crammed onto a couch with a few other people screaming about a stolen kill, or coordinating chaos across different platforms without anyone touching a single wire.
That’s what this guide is here for. Whether you’re trying to squad up online across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and mobile, or you just want to know how to get several controllers working on one screen for a proper couch session, we’ve got you covered. And once you’re done with the basics, we’ll walk you through some of the best party modes Brawlhalla has to offer, the ones that turn a casual hangout into a full-blown highlight reel.
Crossplay and room codes: Getting everyone into the same lobby
One of Brawlhalla’s quiet superpowers is how effortlessly it handles crossplay. There’s no separate matchmaking pool for console players, no “PC master race” lobby locking everyone else out, it’s all one big pond, and the game’s Room Code system is what makes it possible to team up regardless of what everyone’s playing on.
Managing crossplay lobbies can be a bit confusing depending on what console you are using. If you’re having trouble getting everyone into the same lobby, check out this quick walkthrough on how to add friends in Brawlhalla to get your group connected.
Local couch co-op: Everyone, one screen
Online play is great, but there’s something about Brawlhalla on a couch, controllers in hand, that just hits different. The game officially supports up to 8 players locally through its dedicated “Couch Party” mode, though most casual setups stick to 4 controllers, since that’s the number most standard configurations handle smoothly without extra tinkering.
Getting there looks largely the same across platforms. Plug in your controllers, Xbox, PlayStation, or generic USB pads all work, and each one joins by pressing a button once you’re in the Couch Party lobby. It’s quick, it doesn’t require separate copies of the game, and it gets you into a match in under a minute.
One quirk worth knowing on PC: running multiple controllers of the exact same type through Steam can occasionally cause them to be treated as identical devices, with one controller ending up in charge of two characters. If that happens, mixing controller types or checking your Steam controller settings usually sorts it out.
If you’re short on controllers, PC players do have a workaround: adding “-multikeyboard” to the game’s Steam launch options lets two separate physical keyboards act as two independent players. It’s a bit of a niche setup and won’t replace a proper controller, but it’s a handy trick if you’re improvising a game night on short notice.
Couch co-op and online play aren’t mutually exclusive either. If you and a friend are sharing one screen but still want to test yourselves against other people, Brawlhalla lets a local guest tag along into the Online Free-For-All queue, so the two of you can jump into real matchmade games together from the same living room. Custom Online lobbies are even more flexible on this front, letting a host bring in several local guests at once alongside players joining remotely.
Pro Tip: local players joining through Couch Party are perfect for casual free-for-alls, but if you’re planning on tackling Ranked 2v2, you’ll need two separate active platform accounts logged in. Brawlhalla’s ranked modes are built around individually tracked accounts, so local setups don’t carry over into competitive queues.
Best party modes to play with a group
Once you’ve got your group connected, it’s time to branch out past standard stock matches. Brawlhalla’s custom game modes are where the game turns from “fighting game” into “the thing we can’t stop playing until 2 a.m.”
Kung Foot is pure, beautiful chaos, and it actually has a bit of history behind it. The mode was introduced as part of a Rayman crossover, styled after Rayman’s own love of a good kickabout, and it’s stuck around as a fan favorite ever since, even getting its own competitive Kung Foot Championship events.
The setup is simple: two teams of two face off on a stage with a net on each side and a giant ball dropped in the middle, and the objective is to smack the ball into your opponents’ net before they smack it into yours. The first team to score 5 goals takes the win. Own goals happen constantly, and it’s the kind of mode that turns even a quiet group into a room full of trash talk within thirty seconds.
Brawlball takes a more tactical approach, closer in spirit to American football than anything else. You’re grabbing a ball that spawns center-map and fighting your way toward the opposing team’s goal zone to score, all while the other team tries to knock you off the stage first. By default, the first team to reach 5 points wins the match, though that score target can be adjusted in Custom Online lobbies if your group wants a longer session. It rewards positioning and teamwork in a way Kung Foot doesn’t, making it the go-to for groups who actually want to strategize instead of just button-mashing toward glory.
Crew Battles flips the format into a relay-style team elimination, and like Kung Foot, it has a fun origin story: the mode debuted alongside Brawlhalla’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover event back in 2021, launched to celebrate the arrival of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo as playable characters.
It was popular enough that it stuck around as a permanent mode long after the Turtles left the spotlight. The format is a 2v2 match played at boosted damage, where only one player from each team is on the stage at a time, lose a stock, and the next teammate in line steps in to keep the fight going. It’s basically Brawlhalla’s answer to a tournament bracket packed into a single match, and a great way to settle who’s actually the best in your group.
Brawlhalla was built for exactly this kind of chaos, friends piling into a lobby, whether that’s a stacked couch session or a crossplay squad scattered across platforms. Round up your crew and fire up a custom lobby.
What’s your go-to game mode when playing Brawlhalla with a group? Let us know in the comments!