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Guide · 5 minute read

Cross-play and cross-save explained: where your progress lives

What the terms mean, why they differ, and what to check before buying.

By the Save Point Review teamUpdated

Key points

  • Cross-play is about who you can play with; cross-save is about where your progress goes.
  • Most cross-save depends on linking one publisher account, so set it up first.
  • Purchases do not always follow your progress between platforms.

A save point is only useful if you can return to it. With online games spread across PCs, consoles and phones, two questions matter more than they used to: can I play with my friends on other devices, and will my progress follow me if I switch? The industry’s answers are called cross-play and cross-save, and they are not the same thing.

Cross-play: who you can play with

Cross-play means players on different platforms can share a match or a world. Rocket League, Brawlhalla and Sea of Thieves offer it across everything they run on. Others are partial. Deep Rock Galactic connects Xbox with the Microsoft Store version on PC, but Steam players are kept separate. A few games have none.

Competitive games often add input-based matchmaking, which pairs controller players with each other in ranked modes. You can usually switch cross-play off in the settings if you prefer to stay within your own platform.

Cross-save: where your progress lives

Cross-save, also called cross-progression, means your character, unlocks and rank are stored on the publisher’s servers and load on any platform you sign in from. Old School RuneScape and Albion Online are the model examples: the same character on a desktop in the evening and a phone at lunch.

It nearly always depends on a single publisher account that you link to each platform. Create that account and link it before you start playing in earnest. Merging two separate sets of progress later is often impossible.

What does not always travel

  • Paid expansions. In Destiny 2, characters move freely between platforms but expansions are bought per platform family.
  • Premium currency. Some platform holders require purchased currency to stay where it was bought.
  • Platform-exclusive items. Promotional cosmetics can be tied to one console.

A short checklist before you buy

  1. Ask your friends which platform and which store they use. Steam and the Microsoft Store are both “PC” yet can be separated.
  2. Read the save file panel on our review for the cross-play and cross-save status.
  3. Create the publisher account, switch on two-step verification and link your platforms.
  4. Confirm the details on the game’s official site, since platform support changes over time.

Want to see every game’s status at a glance? The comparison table can be sorted by cross-play support.