{"id":23197,"date":"2026-07-17T21:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/ground-branch-co-op-multiplayer-guide\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:01:08","slug":"ground-branch-co-op-multiplayer-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/ground-branch-co-op-multiplayer-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"GROUND BRANCH Co-op &#038; Multiplayer Guide: Player Count &#038; How to Play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GROUND BRANCH is at its best played with other people \u2014 it&#8217;s a tactical shooter built around coordination, communication and slow, deliberate teamwork. Here&#8217;s how co-op and multiplayer work in GROUND BRANCH, how many players it supports, and the most reliable way to play together after the V1.0 launch (July 16, 2026).<\/p>\n<h2>Is GROUND BRANCH co-op?<\/h2>\n<p>Yes. Co-op is core to GROUND BRANCH. You can team up against AI in <strong>Terrorist Hunt<\/strong> and <strong>Intel Retrieval<\/strong>, the new V1.0 <strong>Extraction<\/strong> hostage-rescue mode, and the <strong>Operations<\/strong> campaign missions \u2014 all playable online co-op (Operations is also playable lone-wolf). It&#8217;s a PvE-friendly game that rewards a coordinated fireteam over lone-wolf runs.<\/p>\n<h2>How many players does GROUND BRANCH support?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Co-op:<\/strong> up to <strong>8 players<\/strong> against AI.<\/li>\n<li><strong>PvP:<\/strong> <strong>8v8<\/strong> (16 players total) in modes like Team Elimination, Uplink, Defuse and Deathmatch.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Server hard limit:<\/strong> <strong>16 players<\/strong>. A dedicated server&#8217;s <code>MaxPlayers<\/code> ranges from 8 to 16 \u2014 8 is typical for co-op, 16 for full PvP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Does GROUND BRANCH have crossplay or console versions?<\/h2>\n<p>GROUND BRANCH is a <strong>PC (Steam) title<\/strong>. There&#8217;s no console version or crossplay \u2014 everyone plays on PC. The dedicated server is Windows-based and free to run.<\/p>\n<h2>The best way to play together: a dedicated server<\/h2>\n<p>You can host a game peer-to-peer, but that means someone has to keep the game open, and everyone drops if the host leaves or lags. A <strong>dedicated server<\/strong> fixes that: it stays online 24\/7, independent of any player&#8217;s PC, with low latency for the whole group. On a dedicated server you control:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Map rotation and game modes (co-op and PvP)<\/li>\n<li>AI count and difficulty<\/li>\n<li>Round timers and player slots (8\u201316)<\/li>\n<li>A password for private squad-only sessions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Getting a co-op server running<\/h2>\n<p>The GROUND BRANCH dedicated server is officially Windows-only and involves SteamCMD and config files \u2014 or you can skip all that with a managed host. <a href=\"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/ground-branch-server-hosting\">XGamingServer&#8217;s GROUND BRANCH hosting<\/a> runs on AMD Ryzen 9 7950X hardware with instant setup, a visual config panel, one-click updates and DDoS protection \u2014 spin up a 24\/7 co-op server in minutes and invite your squad. New to it? See <a href=\"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/how-to-set-up-a-ground-branch-dedicated-server\/\">how to set up a GROUND BRANCH dedicated server<\/a> and how to <a href=\"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/docs\/ground-branch\/connect-to-your-server\">connect to your server<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Read more<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/ground-branch-game-modes-explained\/\">GROUND BRANCH Game Modes Explained<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/ground-branch-extraction-mode-guide-v1-0-hostage-rescue-explained\/\">GROUND BRANCH Extraction Mode Guide<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/ground-branch-beginners-guide\/\">GROUND BRANCH Beginner&#8217;s Guide<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GROUND BRANCH is at its best played with other people \u2014 it&#8217;s a tactical shooter built around coordination, communication and slow, deliberate teamwork. Here&#8217;s how co-op and multiplayer work in GROUND BRANCH, how many players it supports, and the most reliable way to play together after the V1.0 launch (July 16, 2026). Is GROUND BRANCH [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ground-branch"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.5 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GROUND BRANCH Co-op &amp; Multiplayer Guide: Player Count &amp; How to Play - XGamingServer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/ground-branch-co-op-multiplayer-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GROUND BRANCH Co-op &amp; Multiplayer Guide: Player Count &amp; How to Play\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GROUND BRANCH is at its best played with other people \u2014 it&#8217;s a tactical shooter built around coordination, communication and slow, deliberate teamwork. 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