Family sharing & co-op

Last reviewed June 2026

A good chunk of the library is available through Steam Family Sharing, which lets one Steam library cover the people in a household. It is not a way to give the whole network free games — but it is a way to make sure the household copy of a title actually gets used, and it answers a lot of "can I play too?" questions before a game night.

How it works

The account that owns a game authorises another account (or a group of them) to borrow the library. The borrower installs and plays the shared titles as if they owned them, with a few limits — which is where most people get caught out.

The rules that matter for co-op

One active borrower per library at a time. If someone is already playing a shared title from the library, a second borrower gets a short grace period and is then asked to buy the game. This matters a lot for co-op nights: two people cannot both play the same shared copy of a title simultaneously from one owner.
The owner cannot play while you do. If the owner boots up a game from their own library, you are given a few minutes to save and exit. Plan around who is actually playing.
You need an internet check-in to start. The borrowed library must verify online before launch. Once running, most titles tolerate a drop, but the initial check-in is mandatory — so offline play of a borrowed title does not really exist.
Some titles are excluded. A handful of games disable sharing (often VAC-secured or licence-restricted ones). If a title will not share, it will say so on its store page.
Region and account rules still apply. Sharing works within a household and follows the usual store region rules. If two accounts are in different regions, a shared title may refuse to run.

For co-op, own copies are the reliable path

If the plan is two people in the same game at the same time — which is most of this library — do not rely on a single shared copy. Family Sharing is for letting a household try a game or cover one player; for a proper co-op session each person should own their own copy. The library pages link to the stores, and sales do the rest.

Setting it up

Log in on the machine, open Steam → Settings → Family (or Steam > Family in the new interface).
Add the household account(s) you want to share with.
On the borrower's machine, they sign in, and shared titles appear in their library under the owner's name.
Check Valve's own guidance for the current sharing rules — the family features have evolved, and the limits above are the ones that stay constant. Steam's official page is at Steam Families.

The community rule of thumb

Share to let people try a title; buy your own copy toplay it together. That keeps game nights simple and honest — which is the whole point of this place.