Co-op Mobile Games

Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors, screenshot from its App Store listing
Vampire Survivors, Poncle. Image from the game's App Store listing.

Can two people play Vampire Survivors on one screen?

Yes. Up to 4 players can play Vampire Survivors co-op on one iPad: same screen or two controllers.

Auto-firing horde survival. Up to four players share one screen and one pile of upgrades, and the whole game is playable that way.

How you play together

  • Two controllers

One controller per player. Co-op is switched on from the character selection screen.

How to start co-op in Vampire Survivors

  1. Connect two controllers to the iPad.
  2. Start the game and go past the main menu to the character selection.
  3. Tap the co-op button in the top right.
  4. Player one picks a character, confirms, then presses Start.
  5. Now it is player two's turn: pick a character on the second controller and confirm.
Vampire Survivors character selection with Player 1 and Player 2 slots at the bottom and two more waiting for a controller
Screenshot taken by us. Vampire Survivors, developed and published by poncle.

The details

Same screen, both at once
Yes
Split screen
No
Pass the device, taking turns
No
Two controllers on one device
Yes
Same mode on Android
Yes
Online, a device each
Yes
Players together
2 to 4
Controllers
Full controller support

Worth knowing

This is the free App Store version, not Vampire Survivors+ on Apple Arcade. Sources say one controller per player. Whether player one can stay on touch is not established.

Our review

Vampire Survivors is a horde survival game with real nostalgic vibes. The pixel art takes you straight back to the Nintendo and Game Boy era, and for me, having grown up with pixels, that feels really nice. The music and the sound effects are perfectly retro and underline the vibe. It has everything you want from retro charm.

It works perfectly with two controllers, and it works for inexperienced players too. I played it with my daughter, who is not a regular player, and we had fun. It is easy to get into, and I totally see how you can spend some time on the couch with it.

One technical note: at first the game only filled about 60% of the screen on my iPad Pro. Switching to another app and back fixed it, and from then on it ran full screen.

What I really liked about the co-op is that you can revive each other, so the game is not over just because one player dies. This game is definitely more fun in co-op than solo.

It is not a game I would come back to again and again. There are other auto-firing horde survivors I find a bit more interesting, and to be fair, this is not my genre. I prefer more depth, and a game in this category does not offer that. But for one or two sessions, or spontaneously while waiting for a doctor’s appointment or the bus, it is totally fair.

Turning on co-op is easy: on the character selection screen right after the main menu, you just tap the button in the top right, and after player one confirms their character and presses Start, it is player two’s turn to pick on the second controller.

Quick, easy to get into, and most of all free. I have to give the developers credit for a good free game.

Two players side by side in Vampire Survivors, a horde of skeletons and ghosts closing in from the left
Vampire Survivors co-op on one screen: one player standing, the other knocked out in a coffin waiting to be revived, ringed by man-eating flowers
1 / 2

Screenshots taken by us while playing. Vampire Survivors, developed and published by poncle.

Where this comes from

We played it ourselves.

  • Publisher stated
    1-4 player couch co-op
    The whole game is also playable in 1-4 player couch co-op in landscape.apps.apple.com
  • Community reported
    One controller required per player
    one controller is required per playertoucharcade.com

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