Gamers heartbroken TV screens are bigger than ever but splitscreen is basically dead

Remember when we used to huddle around a teeny tiny television set, each of us staring at a minute corner of the screen as we tried not to sneak a peek at what the other players were doing? Those were the days, the glorious moments before splitscreen died.

Technically, there’s still a handful of games that offer a splitscreen experience, like in Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s rare. So rare, in fact, that Reddit users are mourning the heartbreak they feel knowing that TVs are now bigger than ever before, yet splitscreen has all but entered the grave.

We can still splitscreen in BG3 – watch the trailer to get a taste of the game!

On a thread titled ‘Old gaming traditions you think should die already’, people have been sharing some truly heartwarming tales of enjoying splitscreen gameplay, despite the thread being about their greatest pet peeves. LaInquisitione said “Now that TV screens are huge, there is no split-screen in most games anymore to take advantage of that”, which started the snowball that is now crashing down the mountain at 100 plus comments an hour.

“And we managed to play split on like 15” TVs in the good ol days!” replied Straight_Warlock, only for one user to share a story that will stay with me until my dying days; KwamesCorner said “Dude I was retro gaming recently and like HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?! I remember sitting two inches from my little CRT TV playing Goldeneye and my friend trying to punch me in the nuts for screen-peeking”. Yeah, same.

Okay, so I’ve never personally had that experience, and find it unlikely that I ever will. Still, while being hit in the groin wasn’t an occurrence for me, I fondly remember splitscreen gaming dominating video games during a time when televisions were the size of microwaves. It was part of the charm, despite it contributing to my incredibly poor eyesight.

Surely now is the time for splitscreen to be embraced – we wouldn’t have to squint or strain our eyes, we would have such clarity while we sexily speedrun our way through epic RPGs without a care in the world. It’s heartbreaking to know that, unless something dramatic causes every publisher to suddenly see the one true light of splitscreen, we won’t get our giant 4K TV test drive. RIP splitscreen, you will be missed on these ginormous televisions.