Does Payday 2 have cross-play & cross-platform progression?

Payday 2 players are still heisting strong in 2024, but those wanting to play cross-platform may wish to play with their friends via crossplay. Here’s everything you need to know.

Despite the somewhat misshapen update cycle of Payday 3, players are still flocking to Payday 2 with an average of about 25,000 players still playing the game on Steam each day. The modding capabilities of the game are likely why, but this number could be much higher when you consider it’s also available on consoles.

With Payday 2 being so popular it’s inevitable players will want to play with their friends across multiple systems or take their progress from one platform to another.

So, does Payday 2 feature cross-play and cross-platform features? Here is everything we can tell you.

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Does Payday 2 have cross-play multiplayer?

Payday 2 does not have cross-play multiplayer between PC and consoles. You will only be able to play with other players who are using the same platform as you.

However, the game does support cross-play between Steam and Epic Games Launcher. This is because both of these platforms are running the same version of the game, and both use the Epic matchmaking system.

This matchmaking system extends to a Social Hub where you can add your friends using a friend code. The game also has a Lobby Code feature, so you can join a person’s game via the code rather than an invite.

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Does Payday 2 have cross-platform progression?

Payday 2 does not have cross-platform progression. So you can’t take your weapons, skills, masks, and other progression with you should you decide to switch platforms.

The reason for this is that on each platform, Payday 2 is on a different version number. For example, the PC version is the most up-to-date version, having over 240 major content updates. The last update occurred in December 2023.

Meanwhile, the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game stopped receiving updates in 2018, along with the Switch version which didn’t have any updates. 

Therefore, there isn’t parity between each version of the game and crossplay cannot exist. This is an issue that was circumvented in Payday 3.