Game night does not need a big budget or a beefy PC in the corner. These games are free or a few dollars, they are built for a small group, and you can spin up a private server for any of them on 2hours.gg in a couple of clicks. Your friends just click to join, no port forwarding, no host who has to stay online. Free ones first, then the cheap ones.
Free to play
Nothing to buy. Everyone downloads it on Steam and jumps in.
- Fistful of Frags: A free Wild West shooter. Quick-draw duels and messy team shootouts with revolvers and dynamite. Great for short, silly rounds. Steam. Host a server.
- Zombie Panic! Source: Free co-op survival horror. One player starts as the zombie and turns the rest of you, so the horde grows as people die. Tense and cheap to run. Steam. Host a server.
- Pirates, Vikings & Knights II: Free melee brawler. Three factions, lots of shoving people off ledges. The game mode comes from the map you load, so a server can rotate between objective, capture and deathmatch styles. Steam. Host a server.
- Counter-Strike 2: Free, and still the definitive 5v5. On a private server you get your own match with no strangers and no queue, and you can add bots to fill out teams. Steam. Host a server.
- Team Fortress 2: Free nine-class team shooter. A private server with bots is the easy way to mess around with friends without dropping into a random public match. Steam. Host a server.
- Sven Co-op: Free Half-Life co-op. Play whole campaigns together against the AI. Pure PvE, no competition, ideal for a relaxed evening. Steam. Host a server.
Cheap (a few dollars, often on sale)
These cost a little, but they go on sale constantly. We link Steam (the safe option) and Instant Gaming (usually cheaper, see the note at the end).
- Left 4 Dead 2: The best four-player co-op zombie game there is. On our servers you can go past the vanilla four survivors, run Versus, or load Workshop campaigns. Steam, Instant Gaming. Host a server.
- Counter-Strike: Source: The 2004 classic, still the go-to for surf, bhop and casual gun rounds with mates. Bots on demand. Steam, Instant Gaming. Host a server.
- Counter-Strike 1.6: The original. Runs on anything, and a private de_dust2 server with a few friends is peak LAN nostalgia. Steam, Instant Gaming. Host a server.
- Left 4 Dead: The original four-player co-op zombie shooter. Cheaper than the sequel and still a great short horde night, plus 4v4 Versus on the classic campaigns. Steam, Instant Gaming. Host a server.
- Counter-Strike: Condition Zero: CS 1.6 with a full roster of bots, so you can fill a server even with two or three friends. Cheap and instantly familiar. Steam, Instant Gaming. Host a server.
- Day of Defeat: Source: WW2 team shooter, objective-based, and dirt cheap. A calmer, more tactical pick than the CS games. Steam, Instant Gaming. Host a server.
How hosting works
Pick a game above, choose a size and a region close to your group, and pay by the hour. The server is ready in a few minutes and your friends join by IP (or a Steam invite, depending on the game). One small server is free every week, so a short session can cost nothing. Nothing persists between sessions, these are match and co-op servers, so there is no world to lose.
A note on the store links
The Instant Gaming links are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Instant Gaming is a key reseller, so you get a Steam key to activate on Steam, usually cheaper than the store. Check the region on the product page matches yours. The Steam links are plain, we get nothing from those, they are there as the safe option.