Gaming Projectors Better for Split Screen and Local Co-op with 120” Screens

For local co-op and split screen gaming, a massive screen 100” or bigger and a high speed 4K gaming projector offer so much more enjoyment than a regular TV. Find out why.

Split screen local co-op and multiplayer have remained in demand among gamers everywhere. From so-called casuals to the alleged hardcore demographic, lots of people want to play with friends and family while comfortable on a couch. There’s a kind of magic to local multi-person play that gaming over the internet just can’t match.

Also, a big screen TV can’t match a projector for making local gaming great. With a good gaming projector, you easily get a 120” image up on a screen or wall with excellent image quality and low latency on projector models aimed at gamers. While modern TVs may have even lower latency, to get a 120” TV of that quality you’d have to be a multimillionaire. Even a good 75” TV will cost a bundle, and won’t offer nearly as much viewing real estate as a projector. Inch to inch and pixel for pixel, gaming projectors offer a better deal than TVs, which are locked to a set screen size while projectors can adjust based on your chosen location.

For clear, big, bright, and fun local co-op/multiplayer, projectors really are a logical and plainly better choice. 

Think about it. If you have multiple players sharing the same screen, obviously there’s going to be more going on and you’ll need more screen to compensate for that. Good luck enjoying a frenetic session of Overcooked 2 on a laptop or even a 43” TV. But with a luxurious 120” screen, everything becomes bigger, bolder, and clearer, matching up naturally with the viewing angles of our eyesight.

Gaming projectors have become quite popular with Nintendo Switch users, because Nintendo games pretty much all support local co-op and multiplayer. Titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity were designed with local competitive play in mind. Plus the usually colorful and bright look of Nintendo-focused titles goes very well with projectors.

It’s not just Nintendo, though. On Xbox, the entire Halo Master Chief Collection now supports split screen, and you want each part of that screen to be as big as possible, because Halo multiplayer is ruthless. On Xbox and PlayStation consoles, major titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War feature split screen local play, which comes in especially handy during the zombies mode. And then we have developers like Hazelight Studios, that only develop multiplayer co-op titles. They released A Way Out and soon It Takes Two. Both games require two players and work superbly in local split screen on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation consoles.

So you see, split screen and local multiplayer remain a big deal, just like in the 1980s! 

There’s more than just big views to projectors. Powerful built-in speakers and the ability to easily hook up external sound systems mean big audio, as well, but do keep it down and don’t annoy your neighbors. Call of Duty sessions can get quite loud.

We’ve already mentioned the low latency of current gaming projectors, but there’s also refresh rate to think about. TVs have moved towards 120Hz gradually, and now select high performance gaming projectors do that as well. You’re guaranteed a smooth 60Hz even with mid-range gaming projectors, but of course the more frames the merrier, so try to look for models that support 120Hz, as that’s becoming quite normative on recent consoles.

Of course, 4K ultra HD resolution and HDR feature on every good gaming projector. In that regard you’re not missing out on anything compared to TVs. With 4K becoming increasingly standard and widely supported on most platforms, you need a projector that fully embraces the resolution. The same applies to high dynamic range, or HDR. You want to have full support for HDR10 at the very least to be able to access the finer aspects of modern game visuals. 

As projector technology strides forward, new models deliver a 100” image from as close as 6.5 feet. That’s very close, meaning you don’t need a lot of space, nor should you place the projector way back and end up with people walking in front of the lens to the bathroom all the time. Short throw support offers one of the most important advancements in projection that we’d like to highlight. Good gaming projectors give you that big screen you crave without demanding you clear an area the size of a football field in front of it, as used to be the case (figuratively speaking).

With this kind of flexibility of placement, gaming projectors are more convenient and appealing than ever. And we really advise those who routinely host local co-op and multiplayer sessions to consider getting a projector instead of yet another TV.