If you’ve ever queued for a Valorant match on your PC while your friend waits on their PlayStation 5, you’ve probably wondered can you crossplay on Valorant without jumping through hoops. Riot Games’ tactical shooter has grown exponentially since its launch, expanding to console and mobile platforms in recent years, but crossplay support hasn’t always been as straightforward as players hope. I’ve spent dozens of hours testing cross-platform lobbies with friends on different devices, so I’m breaking down exactly what works, what doesn’t, and what you can expect when trying to play with people on other systems.
Can You Crossplay on Valorant Across All Supported Platforms?
First, let’s cut straight to the official answer from Riot Games. Crossplay is fully supported between all console versions of Valorant, but PC players cannot queue with or against console players at this time. Mobile Valorant, which is still rolling out in select regions, also has a separate player pool with no crossplay support for PC or console right now.
I learned this the hard way last year when I tried to queue for unrated with my cousin who just bought Valorant for his Xbox. We spent 10 minutes messing with lobby settings before we realized the invite button was greyed out entirely for cross-PC/console parties. Riot has repeatedly stated this split is intentional to protect competitive integrity, since mouse and keyboard input gives PC players a significant accuracy advantage over controller users on console.
That said, if you and your friends all play on console, regardless of brand, you can team up with no issues. You just need to add each other via your Riot ID, not your platform-specific friend list, to send and accept cross-console invites. PC and console player pools are completely separate as of Riot’s latest updates, with no plans to merge them for the foreseeable future.
Key Crossplay Features Available for Console Valorant Players
If you and your friends all play on console, you get access to a handful of useful crossplay features that make grouping up far easier than many other tactical shooters. I’ve tested all of these with friends on PS5 and Xbox Series S, so I can confirm every one works as advertised:
- Cross-console party support for all game modes: You can queue for unrated, competitive, spike rush, and even custom game lobbies with friends on any supported console, no extra settings required.
- Input-based matchmaking for competitive play: If you choose to use a mouse and keyboard on your console, you’ll only be matched against other mouse and keyboard console players, not controller users, to keep matches fair.
- Unified Riot ID friend system: You don’t need to exchange PlayStation Network or Xbox Gamertags to play together. Just share your Riot ID (the name followed by a # and 4-5 digit code) to add friends across any console platform.
One thing to note here: if you turn off crossplay in your console settings, you’ll only be matched with players on the same console brand as you. This can lead to longer queue times, especially in lower rank tiers or less populated regions, so I recommend keeping crossplay enabled unless you have a specific reason to turn it off.
I tested this last month when I turned off crossplay on my PS5 to see if queue times improved, and my average wait for a competitive match jumped from 2 minutes to nearly 8 minutes. It’s not worth the tradeoff for most players, even if you prefer to avoid playing against people on other consoles.
What About Cross-Progression for Valorant?
A common follow-up question to crossplay support is whether you can carry your progress over between platforms, and the good news is cross-progression is fully supported across all Valorant platforms. That means if you first started playing on PC, then bought the game for your PS5, all your unlocked agents, skin collections, rank progress, and in-game currency will carry over automatically when you log into the same Riot account.
This cross-progression works in both directions, so any progress you make on console will also show up when you log back into your PC account later. The only exception is any platform-exclusive skins you might earn, which will only be accessible on the platform you earned them on, but those are extremely rare as of now.
I switched back and forth between PC and PS5 for two weeks earlier this year to test this, and all my battle pass progress, unlocked Vandal skins, and even my unrated match history synced perfectly between both devices. The only thing that didn’t carry over was my custom keybind settings, which I had to set up separately on each device, which is a small inconvenience at worst.
Just make sure you never share your Riot account login with other people, even if they want to play your skins on their platform, because that violates Riot’s terms of service and can lead to a permanent account ban.
Common Crossplay Issues and How to Fix Them
Even with Riot’s polished crossplay system, you might run into a few small issues when trying to play with friends on other console platforms. I’ve run into almost all of these myself, so these fixes are tested and reliable.
First, if you can’t see a friend’s invite or they can’t see yours, double check that you both added each other via Riot ID, not your platform friend list. Platform friend lists don’t sync with Riot’s friend system, so you won’t see cross-console friends unless you add them through the in-game Riot ID menu.
If you added each other correctly but still can’t join the same lobby, check that you both have the latest game patch installed. Riot rolls out small patches every two weeks, and if one person is on an older version of the game, you won’t be able to queue together.
Another common issue is higher ping when playing with friends in other regions. Crossplay doesn’t increase ping on its own, but if you’re playing with someone on the other side of the world, the lobby will automatically choose a server closest to the party leader, so you might want to swap party leaders to find a server that works for everyone.
I’ve also heard from some players that they get matched against much higher rank players when crossplay is enabled, but that’s almost always a coincidence, not a flaw in the crossplay system. Riot’s matchmaking prioritizes rank and MMR first, so you’ll never be matched against players more than two ranks above or below you in competitive mode, regardless of what platform they play on.
At the end of the day, the answer to can you crossplay on Valorant depends entirely on what platforms you and your friends play on. Console players get full crossplay support across all brands with minimal issues, while PC and mobile players are stuck in their own separate pools for the sake of competitive fairness. If Riot ever changes its stance on PC-console crossplay, we’ll update this guide immediately, but for now, the current system works well for the vast majority of players. Just make sure you add friends via your Riot ID, keep your game updated, and don’t disable crossplay unless you don’t mind waiting longer for matches. It’s never been easier to team up with your friends no matter what console they own, and that’s a big win for Valorant’s growing global community.
