Co-op games like DEFCON

Still thinking about DEFCON and its competitive and retro tone? These co-op games offer a similar pull for your backlog. Many of them are fun to share with friends.

ICBM
ICBM is a real-time strategy game of global nuclear war where you run a continent, build a stockpile, and trade blows with up to seven other players. For co-op friends it means fixed teams or co-op matches, shared research and strike plans, and the very social joy of starting the apocalypse together.
Competitive, Retro, Tense
91% of 1,663 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 5$19.99
Maestro's Cold War 2
Addictive yet chill. An immersive Cold War sandbox. Revive the Cold War in this classic strategy game—easy to pick up, yet challenging and deep, offering endless replayability.
Competitive, Replayable
91% of 181 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 4$12.99
Wargame: Red Dragon
Cold War gone hot in Asia, with 1,450 painstakingly modeled tanks, jets, helicopters, ships and amphibious units across 17 nations. Build a deck with co-op friends, split the front line, and hold territory together in lobbies of up to 20 players.
Competitive, Tense, Replayable
88% of 15,797 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 162$29.99
WARNO
Cold War goes hot in 1989, and you hold a custom battlegroup of NATO or Warsaw Pact steel. WARNO is a large real-time tactics game about tanks, infantry, artillery, helicopters and jets fighting over German towns, forests and rivers. Bring co-op friends for skirmishes against the AI or huge 10v10 team battles.
Competitive, Tense, Replayable
80% of 14,742 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 2,128$13.59
AI War: Fleet Command
"You are outgunned. You are massively outnumbered. You must win." These are your orders. Humanity has already fought its war against the machines -- and lost. AI death squads stand watch over every planet and every wormhole, the few remaining human settlements are held captive in orbiting bubbles, and the AIs have turned their...
Competitive, Retro, Tense
85% of 992 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 5$9.99
SGS NATO's Nightmare
What if the Warsaw Pact had attacked NATO in the mid-1980s. Or the other way around? Study this titanic conflict, within its most emblematic theater, Germany and Central Europe. Will you be able to achieve your goals without escalating into an uncontrollable nuclear conflict?
Competitive, Tense, Replayable
69% of 106 Steam reviews are positive$34.99
SUPREMACY: WORLD WAR 3
Take a nation, build its army, navy, and air force, then run a slow world war with co-op friends at your side. Plan joint strikes, share defense, and trade messages with allies while the map shifts day by day across matches that last for weeks.
Competitive, Replayable
74% of 6,047 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 448Free
Global Protocol: New World Order
Lead any of 221 countries through a living 2026 world in this data-driven grand strategy game. Shape economies, politics and alliances, wage conventional or nuclear war, run covert operations, and rewrite the global order—alone or online with up to seven friends.
Competitive, Replayable
75% of 106 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 4$19.99
Warzone 2100
A post-nuclear real-time strategy game where you rebuild with The Project, research over 400 technologies, design your own vehicles, and hold the line with artillery and radar. Simple to learn and built for co-op friends to share base-building, skirmishes, and versus matches.
Competitive, Retro, Tense
89% of 1,639 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 17Free
Rebel Inc: Escalation
Rebel Inc: Escalation puts you and co-op friends in charge of stabilizing a war-torn country. Balance schools and roads against soldiers and reputation, hold back the insurgency, and send troops and cash to your partner when their region wobbles. Losing together is half the fun.
Tense, Replayable
82% of 7,012 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 51$14.99
Codename: Panzers - Cold War
Tempelhof, Berlin, dawn of 8th April 1949.A major armed conflict is brewing between the Western powers and the Soviet bloc. The Red Army has been growing ever stronger since the end of World War II. With the growth of their army the Soviets realize that they hold the advantage, and are only waiting for the right moment to attack.
Competitive, Retro, Tense
66% of 229 Steam reviews are positive$14.99
4th Generation Warfare
As the leader of a nation, dispatch and control your team of characters all around the world to destabilize your enemies and establish your supremacy. All methods are fair game: hacking, sabotage, political interference, military strikes, corruption, treachery, assassinations, data theft…
Competitive, Replayable
59% of 129 Steam reviews are positive$14.99

Cheaper than DEFCON

Wargame: European Escalation

Cold War turns hot across 1980s Europe, and you command tanks, helicopters, and infantry for NATO or the Pact.

$9.99

AI War: Fleet Command

"You are outgunned. You are massively outnumbered. You must win." These are your orders.

$9.99

OpenFront

OpenFront is a massively multiplayer real-time strategy game where hundreds of players fight over one shared world map.

$6.99

Ground Control II: Operation Exodus

It’s 2741 and the universe is at war. The Terran Empire is laying siege to the NSA, a treaty of colonies that upholds freedom and democracy.

$4.99

Warnament

Warnament is an approachable turn-based grand strategy sandbox where each of co-op friends takes a nation and redraws the map together.

$9.74

D.O.T. Defence

Welcome to the frontlines! Build towers, muster armies, and conquer the map.

$9.74

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines

Command a small squad of six elite troopers behind enemy lines in World War II, studying patrols and timing a careful strike across 20 missions in…

$4.99

Forts

Forts is a 2D physics strategy game where you and co-op friends build a fort in real time, bolt on guns from machine guns to plasma, and try to drop…

$8.99

Hex Empire 3

Hex Empire 3 is turn-based strategy game where you can fulfill all of your deepest dreams of becoming a bloodthirsty dictator.

$9.99

Mindustry

Build turret lines and conveyor spaghetti with co-op friends, then hold your core against waves or send tanks at each other in team PvP.

$9.99

Frontline Crisis

Defend humanity's last hope, pilot a powerful mech, in Frontlines Crisis!

$5.99

Nuclear Nightmare

Grab co-op friends for an Arctic extraction run: recover classified files, gather supplies, and call the evac chopper before the nuclear strike lands.

$6.99

Hidden gems like DEFCON

Maestro's Cold War 2

Addictive yet chill. An immersive Cold War sandbox. Revive the Cold War in this classic strategy game—easy to pick up, yet challenging and deep…

$12.99

OpenFront

OpenFront is a massively multiplayer real-time strategy game where hundreds of players fight over one shared world map.

$6.99

D.O.T. Defence

Welcome to the frontlines! Build towers, muster armies, and conquer the map.

$9.74

Warnament

Warnament is an approachable turn-based grand strategy sandbox where each of co-op friends takes a nation and redraws the map together.

$9.74

Solar Nations 2

Take a great power in 2092 and carve up the Solar System with co-op friends beside you.

$19.99

ICBM: Escalation

ICBM: Escalation is a grand strategy RTS about running a continent-spanning faction through conventional skirmishes all the way to nuclear war.

$29.99

Frontline Crisis

Defend humanity's last hope, pilot a powerful mech, in Frontlines Crisis!

$5.99

Global Protocol: New World Order

Lead any of 221 countries through a living 2026 world in this data-driven grand strategy game.

$19.99

FrontWars

FrontWars is a free multiplayer strategy game where hundreds of players share one world map.

Free

War of Dots

War of Dots is a minimalist real-time strategy game stripped down to light units, heavy units, and cities.

Free

Retro Commander

Retro Commander is a post-apocalyptic real-time strategy wargame (RTS).

Free

Hex of Steel

Hex of Steel is a WWII wargame across Europe, Africa, and the Pacific where you move infantry, tanks, planes, and ships hex by hex.

$24.99

Co-op games like DEFCON

Cheaper than DEFCON

Hidden gems like DEFCON

Newest co-op games like DEFCON