The "can my mom play this" test
I use a simple filter: if I cannot explain the controls to someone who has never held a controller in under sixty seconds, the game is not a good introduction. Overcooked 2 passes this test beautifully: move, pick up, put down, and sometimes dash. Four inputs. Every recipe in the game can be completed with those four inputs. Yet the game still creates genuine chaos and teamwork because the complexity comes from the kitchen layout and the timer, not from the controls.
Compare this to Divinity: Original Sin 2, which I love, but which requires understanding turn-based combat, action points, elemental surfaces, party composition, and about eight different menu systems before you make your first meaningful decision. A non-gamer friend will smile politely through the character creation screen and then quietly check their phone for the rest of the session.
Shared-screen games beat online-only for new players
If you are in the same room or using Steam Remote Play, shared-screen co-op games create a completely different energy for new players. The non-gamer can look at your screen and see what you are seeing. They can point at things and ask "what does that button do?" without navigating a menu system. Moving Out is the gold standard here: the entire game takes place on one screen, the objectives are visual rather than textual, and the physics make even failure entertaining.
Online-only games create a barrier where the new player is isolated with their confusion. They have to navigate voice chat, the game UI, and their own inexperience simultaneously, and there is nobody physically next to them to help. If you have the option, start a new player on a shared-screen game before moving them to online co-op.
Party games as gateway drugs
The Jackbox Party Pack series has introduced more non-gamers to gaming than any tutorial or onboarding flow in history. The reason is simple: you play on your phone. Everyone already knows how to use a phone. There is no controller, no keyboard configuration, no "what button opens the inventory" panic. You join a room code, you type or draw or answer trivia, and you are participating within thirty seconds.
Pico Park follows the same philosophy with even simpler mechanics: the entire game is controlled with a few buttons, the puzzles are cooperative rather than competitive, and the pixel-art aesthetic signals "this is not serious, you cannot fail in a way that matters." These games are not the destination. They are the door. Once a non-gamer friend has a few good Jackbox sessions under their belt, they become dramatically more open to trying games with slightly more complexity.
Avoid competitive games entirely for the first five sessions
There is a temptation to throw a new player into a competitive game because "they will learn by losing." They will not. They will learn that gaming feels bad, that their friends are better than them, and that the experience is called "getting destroyed" for a reason.
Stick to cooperative games for at least the first five sessions. The group succeeds or fails together, which means the new player is never the reason the group lost — they are part of the team that either won or had fun losing. Boomerang Fu hits this balance perfectly: it is technically a versus game, but the rounds are so fast and the deaths are so silly that losing does not feel like losing. Ultimate Chicken Horse works similarly: you are competing, but the real game is building a terrifying obstacle course together, and the person who wins is almost incidental.
Read the room: when to push and when to let them quit
Some friends will play one session of Overcooked, laugh a lot, and then never bring it up again. That is fine. Gaming is not a hobby that needs to be converted — it is an activity that some people enjoy occasionally and some people never enjoy. The goal is not to turn your friend into a gamer. The goal is to have a good hour together.
If they ask to play again, great. If they do not, do not push. The worst thing you can do is message them three days later with "hey, I found this other game I think you would like" when they have not expressed interest. Let them come to you. The friends who enjoy it will ask what you are playing next week. The ones who tolerated it politely will appreciate being left alone. For more on sustaining a group over time, see how to start a weekly game night with friends.