What Does Player Versus Player Mean? + The Best PvP Games

Player versus player (PvP) refers to a game that is designed for gamers to compete against other gamers, rather than against the game’s artificial intelligence (AI). PvP games generally feature an AI that acts as a second player if the gamer plays solo.

What Does Player Versus Player (PvP) Mean?

PvP games are the opposite of player versus environment (PvE) games, where the player contends largely with computer-controlled characters or situations.

Techopedia Explains Player Versus Player (PvP)

PvP elements are also incorporated into PvE games, such as role-playing games (RPG). Hybrid games engage users in several different ways by creating games within games operating under different game play mechanics.

The purest form of a PvP game is a fighting game that pits one player against the other until one is victorious. Other genres that depend on varying levels of PvP elements include:

Racing games
Exercise games
Party games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)
Strategy games
Puzzle games
Musical games

When played solo, many PvP games become repetitive. Designers depend on the competition in the room or over the online platform to create the game’s atmosphere. Without another human, these games can quickly become pure progression games, in which a player merely checks off levels or opponents and never returns to the game once it is complete.

Best PvP Games of All Time

While some of the following games offer modes besides PvP, all of them allow you to pit your skills, reflexes, and intellect against other players in the pursuit of victory. And isn’t that what PvP is all about?

1. Team Fortress 2

Genre: FPS
Developer: Valve
Platforms PC, Mac, Linux

There are lots of free-to-play games vying for your time. But none of them offer the time-tested and top-tier PvP gameplay of Team Fortress 2, which is hands down the best free PvP game you can buy. That’s a joke — you don’t buy free games. You might end up buying cosmetics, though, if you want to be the best-dressed and geared mercenary on the battlefield.

Pay-to-win it’s not, but Team Fortress 2 is a classic that’s still hopping with a strong community and class-based PvP.

2. Old School Runescape

Genre: MMORPG
Developer: Jagex
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Mobile

For many of us, Runescape was our first exposure to both the MMO concept and the idea of PvP combat. The Wilderness is the “anything goes” scorched realm that scoundrels, brigands, and honorable warriors call home. PvP combat in Oldschool Runescape is a surprisingly frantic and skill-based affair. Here, adventurers unleash all their spells and special abilities on opponents in the hopes of harvesting their sweet, sweet loot. It may be old-school, but it’s still one of the best PvP games for PC.

3. Mordhau

Genre: Hack ‘n Slash
Developer: Triternion
Platforms: PC

Medieval combat is a brutal, chaotic affair — which makes it the perfect setting for some incredible PvP action. Bring your zweihanders, crossbows, and battleaxes to bear on war-torn battlefields as you lay siege to castles, raid towns, and destroy enemy encampments. At the heart of it all, the delicate ballet of steel clashing against steel determines the winner. Keep your helmet on, and never turn your back on the enemy.

4. EVE Online

Genre: MMORPG
Developer: CCP Games
Platforms: PC, Mac

Looking for the best MMO PvP game? I’ll be honest: I don’t play EVE Online. But anytime I’m browsing the web, and I stumble across another after-action report of an EVE Online battle, I have to stop what I’m doing and read it. The player-driven politics that go into them weave storylines worthy of A Song of Ice and Fire. And the backstories combine with the sheer, unrivaled scale possible within EVE Online to produce the biggest, most magnificent space battles worthy of a summer blockbuster.

The repercussions of a big EVE battle ripple across the server for months and sometimes years afterward. Sometimes they even warrant monuments placed by the developers to commemorate the occasion. You’ll never find PvP on this scale anywhere else — that’s a promise.

5. Hearthstone

Genre: DTCG
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms: PC, Mac, Mobile

Let’s face it: if you’re looking for a mobile game to play, you’re probably in your jam-jams at the end of the day. High-octane PvP action is nice and all, but sometimes you want to pit your mind, not your reflexes, against your opponents. That’s what makes Digital Trading Card Games (DTCGs) like Hearthstone so satisfying and relaxing to play, and that’s what makes Hearthstone the best PvP mobile game around. Manage your mana to unleash monstrous minions and board-wiping spells plucked from the Warcraft universe, and leave your opponent convinced that you’re simply smarter than they were. It’s not about the size of the card deck — it’s what you do with it.

6. Rise of Nations: Extended Edition

Genre: RTS
Developer: SkyBox Labs
Platforms: PC, Mac

The RTS genre is filled with classics like Age of Empires and Empire Earth. Not to mention sister turn-based games like Civilization that have allowed armchair commanders to engage in a bit of PvP and diplomacy as they conquer the world.

Rise of Nations: Extended Edition is what would result if you put the aforementioned games in a blender — and like a succulent smoothie, all the different flavors taste great together. Lead your empire through the ages, amass resources and wealth, then get your PvP on. If you’re quick and plan well, you can have aircraft performing bombing runs on a rival that has only just unlocked gunpowder’s mysteries. If that doesn’t make this the best online PvP game — I don’t know what could.

7. Destiny 2

Destiny 2
Genre: FPS
Developer: Bungie
Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Stadia

Eyes up, Guardian. Though we’re all on the same team when it comes to the defense of humanity’s last remnant, it pays to practice the art of war. Just as iron sharpens iron, Guardians use one another as crash-test dummies for their light-powered abilities and weapon loadouts. Leave all the PvP in the Crucible where it belongs, and we may live to fight another day against the darkness.

8. Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Genre: FPS
Developer: 343 Industries
Platforms: PC, Xbox

LAN parties flush with copious amounts of cheap soda, and Halo dominated my formative years. Halo is simply one of the best PvP multiplayer experiences, hands down. There’s an infinite amount of replayability here across dozens of game modes. And it’s back as if it never left in the all-in-one package dubbed The Master Chief Collection. Lock and load, Spartans.

9. Half-Life

Genre: FPS
Developer: Valve
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux

Growing up in the 90s meant playing Half-Life. And playing Half-Life meant jumping into any LAN party you could find for some classic deathmatch goodness. Despite its age, Half-Life still has populated servers where you can throw down in wild free-for-all matches and paint the map red. Remember to head inside the bunker when you hear the claxon.

10. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Genre: RTS
Developer: Forgotten Empires
Platforms: PC

Where Mordhau puts you in the thick of the action, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition grants you a king’s eye view on medieval warfare. Build up your towns and castles, muster your forces, and conquer your opponents in grand displays of strategic supremacy. Or you can just turtle up and sap the map dry of resources. It’s like a siege but in reverse, and even if you win, you lose some small part of yourself each time.

What is PvE or PvP?

PVE stands for ‘Player vs. Environment”, while PVP stands for ‘Player vs. Player’. … In PVP worlds, players still work against the same types of NPC combatants and encounters that PVE players do, but are also subject to attack from other players anywhere in the open world.

What are Player vs. Player games?

What Does Player Versus Player (PvP) Mean? Player versus player (PvP) refers to a game that is designed for gamers to compete against other gamers, rather than against the game’s artificial intelligence (AI). PvP games generally feature an AI that acts as a second player if the gamer plays solo.

What does PvP mean in texting?

Summary of Key Points. “Player Versus Player” is the most common definition for PVP on Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. PVP. Definition: Player Versus Player.

What does online co op mean?

Cooperative games in which players each use their own display system are known as “online co-op”, “network co-op” or “multiplayer co-op” games due to the majority of such systems utilizing telecommunications networks to synchronize game state among the player.