Mall Rivals multiplayer

Mall Rivals is not a quiet single-player tycoon that happens to have Steam friends. The design is a shared building. Up to eight players open stores in the same mall, chase the same customers, and vote on the same board. You can play solo — AI rivals or teammates fill the empty slots — but the systems (ShameTV, undercutting, lockpicks, host tools) only make sense if you assume someone else is watching.

This hub is the social layer. Concrete mode rules live on game modes. Votes live on board meetings. If you still need to buy a unit, go to getting started first; this page will not teach grab.

The three social contracts

Co-op. You and your team share a goal. Split cashier, wholesale, and lookout. Labor and Commerce perks stack. Crime still exists, but if you steal from your own teammate you are the content.

Team versus team. Two (or more) crews, one mall. This is where board votes become knives and a second store type is a territory claim. KYRSP33DY’s 3v3 stream is the energy: chaotic, loud, and decided by who remembered to hire.

Free-for-all. Every storefront is a rival. Undercut, lockpick, or ignore them and out-operate. FFA is why the crime page exists. It is also why you should not open the same license as the person across the hall unless you want a tag war.

3 versus 3 Mall Rivals co-op

Online, LAN, and solo fill

Steam lists online PvP, LAN PvP, online co-op, LAN co-op, and single-player. “Single-player” still drops you into a mall with AI if you want opponents. That matches Creedon’s later copy for their spinoff too: left alone, AI joins as rivals or teammates. You are never required to find seven friends. You are required to understand that NPC shopkeepers still occupy space, licenses, and customer flow.

Broadband is on the minimum spec. This is not a pause-the-game sim. If your connection hitch-locks the hotbar when a teammate uses a till — a real community report — wait out the ring rather than alt-tabbing into a worse desync.

Host responsibilities

The host is janitor with god keys. Host tools can reset and sell stores left by trolls or disconnects, and unban from Player Management. Use them. A dead unit in a doorway warps customer pathing for everyone. Sale value is ~50% if you are dumping a wreck — same rule as a normal store sell.

Hosts also set lobby rules: cash targets, buyout races, short matches. If you join a 20-minute lobby and try to build a six-shop empire, that is on you. Read the card.

Etiquette that is actually strategy

• Do not dump boxes in shared corridors. The cop fines you; the pile also blocks everyone else’s wholesale.
• Call your license in voice if you are in co-op. Two Sports shops on the same team is usually a mistake unless you planned it.
• Vote on purpose. Sleeping through a board meeting is how a rival passes a tax on your type. Board meetings.
• ShameTV is a weapon. Getting caught is content for them and a record for you.
• If you must grief, own it and expect Combat/Crime specialists to answer with bats. 1.0 combat is real.

Finding people

Official Discord and Steam discussions are on the links hub. This wiki is unofficial. Public lobbies will include people who skip the tutorial; that is why our guides exist. Private friends-only malls are how you actually learn employees without a lockpick in your back room.

The 3v3 video in the middle of this page is a long co-op/PvP session, not a speedrun. Watch how they split jobs, then steal that split, not the bits.

After you know the social layer

Go rank your shops on the tier list, pick a perk that matches the lobby contract, and check 1.0 so you are not arguing from demo rules. The mall is the same size. The police are not.