All Video Game Genres: Understanding the Major Gameplay Families

So, what genre is this game?

Simple question.

Dangerous answer.

Take a game where you explore an open world, fight creatures in real time, improve your character, craft items, complete quests, and sometimes play with other people.

Is it an action game?

An RPG?

An adventure game?

A survival game?

An open-world game?

A multiplayer game?

Yes.

Probably.

Welcome to video game classification.

For a long time, a few major families were enough to describe much of the landscape.

Action.

Adventure.

Role-playing.

Strategy.

Simulation.

Sport.

Puzzle.

Then games started mixing ideas.

Action met RPG.

Role-playing met strategy.

Platforming met exploration.

Shooters met battle royale.

Roguelikes met pretty much everyone.

And today, some store pages look less like categories and more like recipes:

Open-world Action RPG with Soulslike elements, crafting, roguelite progression, and online co-op.

Very good.

But what does that actually mean?

To understand video game genres, we first have to stop seeing them as boxes.

They are better understood as families of mechanics.

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A genre mainly describes what the player does

In cinema or literature, genre is often closely tied to tone, narrative, or setting.

Science fiction.

Fantasy.

Horror.

Crime.

Romance.

In video games, that is not enough.

A science-fiction game can be:

an FPS,

an RPG,

a strategy game,

a simulation,

a puzzle game,

a visual novel.

Two games with exactly the same setting can therefore belong to completely different genres.

Conversely, two visually opposite games can belong to the same family because the player performs the same kinds of actions in both.

A video game genre mainly describes:

what the player does,

the rules that structure those actions,

the skills the game asks from them,

and the way progression is organized.

That is the first key.

---

There is no official classification

That is why genre lists are never exactly the same.

One store may classify a game as “action.”

Another as “action-adventure.”

Players may call it an “immersive sim.”

The studio may add “RPG.”

And someone on the Internet will spend forty-seven minutes explaining that everyone is wrong.

A normal day in video games.

It is therefore better to build a practical map than an absolute border.

For this article, we will use the following major families:

And dozens of subgenres orbit around these families.

Let us start with the one that requires the least patience before pressing a button.

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Action — act first, think very quickly

In an action game, the heart of the experience generally lies in execution.

React.

Move.

Aim.

Jump.

Dodge.

Strike.

Block.

Synchronize.

Thinking obviously still matters, but success depends heavily on the player’s ability to turn a decision into an action quickly.

Platformer

Run.

Jump.

Avoid obstacles.

Reach a destination.

Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Celeste, and Crash Bandicoot all belong to this great tradition.

Platformers can be:

2D, 3D, precision-based, action-oriented, exploration-focused, or puzzle-driven.

Fighting Game

Two or more fighters face each other in a limited space.

Street Fighter.

Tekken.

Mortal Kombat.

Super Smash Bros.

Positioning, timing, reading the opponent, combos, distance, and knowledge of systems are essential.

Beat ’em up / Brawler

Here, you are generally not fighting one opponent.

You are fighting the entire neighborhood.

Final Fight.

Streets of Rage.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The player advances through areas while fighting many enemies in close combat.

Hack and Slash

Close-range combat becomes faster, more spectacular, and often built around complex chains of attacks.

Devil May Cry.

Bayonetta.

The boundaries with Action RPGs have, however, become particularly blurry.

Shoot ’em up

The player usually controls a vehicle or character facing large numbers of enemies and projectiles.

Space Invaders.

Gradius.

R-Type.

Ikaruga.

When the screen becomes almost entirely filled with projectiles, we notably encounter the bullet hell.

Run and Gun

Run and shoot.

The name deserves credit for being admirably honest.

Contra and Metal Slug are major references.

---

Shooter — shooting becomes the central mechanic

The shooter is broad enough to almost become a family of its own.

The most famous distinction is based on the camera.

FPS — First-Person Shooter

The player essentially sees the world through the eyes of their character.

Doom.

Quake.

Half-Life.

Counter-Strike.

Call of Duty.

Perception, movement, and precision become central.

TPS — Third-Person Shooter

The camera is generally positioned behind or around the character.

Gears of War.

Max Payne.

The Division.

Splatoon.

This view makes it easier to perceive the body, cover, and immediate surroundings.

Tactical Shooter

The emphasis shifts toward:

coordination,

positioning,

lethality,

information,

equipment,

preparation.

Rainbow Six and ARMA follow this philosophy to different degrees.

Arena Shooter

Speed.

Mobility.

Map control.

Weapons collected within the arena.

Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament embody this model particularly well.

Hero Shooter

The shooter meets characters with specific abilities and roles.

Overwatch is probably the clearest modern example.

Extraction Shooter

Enter.

Gather resources.

Survive.

And above all:

successfully get out with what you have earned.

Failure can mean losing some of the equipment you were carrying.

Escape from Tarkov largely popularized this structure.

The modern shooter already shows the problem with classification:

the same game can be FPS, tactical, extraction-based, and multiplayer at the same time.

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Action-adventure — when combat meets exploration

Action-adventure is probably one of the biggest areas of overlap in video games.

The player acts directly, but must also:

explore,

search,

solve,

unlock,

progress through an environment.

The Legend of Zelda.

Tomb Raider.

Uncharted.

A simple action sequence is no longer enough.

The world itself becomes part of the problem.

Stealth

See without being seen.

Understand routes.

Manipulate attention.

Avoid or neutralize.

Metal Gear Solid.

Splinter Cell.

Hitman.

Action still exists, but the best fight may be the one you avoid.

Survival Horror

Here, horror becomes mechanical.

Limited ammunition.

Scarce resources.

Dangerous enemies.

Vulnerability.

Exploration under pressure.

Resident Evil and Silent Hill are among the clearest historical references.

The word “horror” alone describes more of a setting or emotional intention.

Survival horror, on the other hand, also describes a way of playing.

Metroidvania

The name comes from two lineages:

Metroid

and

Castlevania.

The central principle is based on an interconnected world in which some areas become accessible after acquiring new abilities.

A door that is impossible today becomes accessible tomorrow because the character can now:

jump higher,

transform,

climb,

break an obstacle,

cross a hazard.

Hollow Knight and Ori show how alive this structure still is.

The world becomes almost a giant puzzle.

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Adventure — understand rather than defeat

Adventure games generally prioritize:

exploration,

narrative,

dialogue,

puzzles,

observation,

understanding the world.

Execution speed is often less important.

Text Adventure / Interactive Fiction

The world exists mainly in text form.

The player reads, then formulates or chooses actions.

It is one of the oldest historical forms of computer adventure games.

Point-and-Click

Observe a scene.

Find objects.

Talk to characters.

Solve puzzles.

Monkey Island.

Broken Sword.

Day of the Tentacle.

The mouse becomes almost an extension of the player’s curiosity.

Modern Graphic Adventure

Games such as those made by Telltale shift more attention toward:

dialogue,

choices,

consequences,

narrative.

Walking Simulator

The term was sometimes used mockingly.

Yet it eventually came to describe a real form of game centered on:

walking,

observation,

environment,

indirect storytelling.

Dear Esther, Gone Home, and Firewatch belong to this family.

Visual Novel

Text.

Illustrations.

Dialogue.

Choices.

Narrative branches.

Especially popular in Japan, the visual novel sits at the border between game, interactive novel, and digital fiction.

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RPG — becoming someone else… while gaining a lot of statistics

RPG means Role-Playing Game.

Its heritage comes largely from tabletop role-playing games.

Characters.

Attributes.

Skills.

Equipment.

Quests.

Progression.

Decisions.

Party building.

The RPG is now so broad that two RPGs can seem to have almost nothing in common.

Western RPG / CRPG

Historically tied to computer role-playing games and systems close to Dungeons & Dragons.

Ultima.

Baldur’s Gate.

Fallout.

Divinity: Original Sin.

Players often find:

lots of statistics,

choices,

dialogue,

character builds,

strong systemic freedom.

JRPG

“Japanese Role-Playing Game.”

The term historically describes a tradition of RPGs developed particularly in Japan.

Dragon Quest.

Final Fantasy.

Persona.

Chrono Trigger.

JRPGs have often been associated with predefined characters, highly structured narratives, and different combat systems, but the category is now far too diverse to be reduced to a single formula.

Action RPG

RPG statistics meet directly controlled combat.

Diablo.

Dark Souls.

The Witcher 3.

Elden Ring.

The boundary between action game and RPG becomes particularly porous here.

Tactical RPG / Strategy RPG

The RPG meets tactics.

Character positioning becomes just as important as statistics.

Final Fantasy Tactics.

Fire Emblem.

MMORPG

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.

The RPG becomes a persistent online world.

Ultima Online.

EverQuest.

World of Warcraft.

Final Fantasy XIV.

Hundreds or thousands of players can share the same universe.

Soulslike

Dark Souls generated enough imitators and inspirations to create its own vocabulary.

Methodical combat.

Stamina management.

High danger.

Rest points.

Potential loss of resources after death.

Demanding bosses.

Often indirect storytelling.

Not every game that borrows one element from Dark Souls automatically becomes a Soulslike.

Otherwise, all it would take is adding a dodge roll to Tetris and we would have serious taxonomy problems.

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Roguelike and Roguelite — die, restart, learn

These are two terms that have become almost everywhere.

They come from the game Rogue.

Historically, the roguelike is associated with a fairly precise set of characteristics:

procedural generation,

grid-based movement,

strong emphasis on systems,

permanent death,

restarting.

But modern usage has become much broader.

Roguelite

The term is often used for games that preserve the repeated-run structure while allowing permanent progression between attempts.

Hades.

Dead Cells.

Rogue Legacy.

The psychological principle is extremely powerful:

you die.

You restart.

But you, the player, learned something.

And sometimes your character also gained a bonus.

Today, roguelite mechanics can be attached to almost anything:

shooter,

platformer,

card game,

Action RPG,

strategy.

It is less an aesthetic than a progression structure.

---

Strategy — win before the battle even begins

In a strategy game, the question is generally not:

“can you press the button fast enough?”

but:

“did you make the right decision?”

Resources.

Position.

Production.

Information.

Time.

Armies.

Economy.

Technology.

Diplomacy.

The player must manage several systems in order to gain an advantage.

RTS — Real-Time Strategy

Everything unfolds in real time.

Build.

Produce.

Move.

Attack.

React.

Dune II.

Command & Conquer.

StarCraft.

Age of Empires.

TBS — Turn-Based Strategy

Time is divided into turns.

The player can think more before each decision.

Civilization is probably one of the best-known examples.

Turn-Based Tactics

The scale becomes smaller.

You are no longer necessarily managing an empire.

You manage a few units on a battlefield.

Position.

Cover.

Range.

Synergy.

XCOM is an excellent representative.

4X

Explore. Expand. Exploit. Exterminate.

Civilization.

Endless Space.

Stellaris.

A match can sometimes last long enough for a new civilization to emerge in real life.

Grand Strategy

The map grows even larger.

Diplomacy.

Economy.

Politics.

Armies.

Dynasties.

History.

Games such as Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis place the player in front of an impressive number of interconnected systems.

Tower Defense

Enemies usually follow specific paths.

The player builds and organizes defenses to stop them.

Easy to understand.

Much harder to optimize.

MOBA

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.

Two teams.

One map.

Characters with different roles.

Temporary progression during the match.

Objectives.

Towers.

Enemy base.

Dota 2.

League of Legends.

The MOBA historically descends from real-time strategy, but its identity has become strong enough to be recognized as a genre in its own right.

Auto Battler

The player selects, combines, and positions units.

Then much of the combat resolves automatically.

Strategy therefore focuses more on:

composition,

synergies,

economy,

positioning.

---

Simulation — build a system and watch what it does

“Simulation” is a dangerous word.

Because it can describe both an extremely demanding flight simulator and a game where you manage a virtual family that stubbornly refuses to wash its dishes.

What connects these games is the idea of modeling a system.

Vehicle Simulation

Car.

Plane.

Train.

Truck.

Ship.

The goal can range from accessible arcade-style handling to extremely detailed reproduction of real behavior.

Microsoft Flight Simulator particularly represents the simulation-heavy end of the spectrum.

Construction and Management

Build, then manage.

SimCity.

Cities: Skylines.

RollerCoaster Tycoon.

Planet Zoo.

Roads.

Money.

Population.

Services.

Resources.

Satisfaction.

Then discover that the highway interchange you built at three in the morning was, in fact, a catastrophic idea.

Life Simulation

The Sims is the unavoidable example.

Relationships.

Needs.

Home.

Work.

Social life.

The player is not necessarily trying to win.

They observe and influence a living system.

Farming / Cozy Simulation

Stardew Valley.

Story of Seasons.

Farming, relationships, construction, and daily progression can create experiences less centered on competition and more on routine and building a personal space.

God Game

The player acts at a scale larger than a single character.

Population.

Civilization.

Ecosystem.

Beliefs.

Populous and Black & White belong to this tradition.

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Be careful with the “Immersive Sim”

Here is one of the wonderful traps of video game vocabulary.

An immersive sim is not simply an “immersive simulator.”

Deus Ex.

System Shock.

Dishonored.

Prey.

The term refers more to a design philosophy based on coherent systems that allow the player several solutions.

A locked door?

Find the key.

Hack the system.

Go through a window.

Stack objects.

Use a power.

Blow up something the developers probably hoped nobody would blow up.

The goal is to let the game’s systems combine.

The immersive sim perfectly shows why some genres are less categories than game design philosophies.

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Puzzle — the problem is the real opponent

In a puzzle game, difficulty mainly comes from a problem to understand.

Logic.

Space.

Order.

Physics.

Patterns.

Time.

Classic Puzzle

Tetris.

The principle takes seconds to understand.

Mastering it can take a lifetime.

Physics Puzzle

Understanding physics becomes central.

Portal is one particularly famous example.

Puzzle-Platformer

Movement and platforming themselves become elements of the puzzle.

Braid.

Inside.

Narrative / Exploration Puzzle

Puzzles can also be integrated into a much larger world.

The Witness.

The Talos Principle.

Once again:

one family blends into another.

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Sport — reproduce, interpret, or reinvent a discipline

Football.

Basketball.

Tennis.

Golf.

Skateboarding.

Boxing.

Wrestling.

A sports game generally adopts the rules or imagery of an existing discipline.

Sports Simulation

The game aims more closely to reproduce:

rules,

teams,

tactics,

performance,

the behavior of the discipline.

Arcade Sports

Reality becomes much more flexible.

Exaggeration.

Powers.

Simplified rules.

Spectacle.

The goal is no longer necessarily to reproduce the real sport.

Sometimes it is enough to preserve the idea.

Sports Management

What if playing football mainly meant:

recruiting,

analyzing,

organizing,

managing contracts,

preparing tactics?

Football Manager moves sport toward management simulation.

Further proof that a theme alone never defines a genre.

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Racing — master speed and trajectory

Racing games form their own major family.

Racing Simulation

A search for realistic behavior.

Settings.

Tires.

Grip.

Weather.

Wear.

Assetto Corsa and iRacing push this logic particularly far.

Arcade Racing

Feeling matters more than exact reproduction.

Burnout.

Need for Speed, depending on the installment.

Speed.

Drifting.

Spectacle.

Kart Racing

Mario Kart turns racing into extremely organized chaos.

Items.

Shortcuts.

Attacks.

Defense.

And that blue shell that periodically reminds everyone that justice does not exist.

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Rhythm and Music — playing with time

Here, time is not only a constraint.

It becomes the mechanic.

Press.

Move.

Sing.

Strike.

Follow a musical sequence.

Dance Dance Revolution.

Guitar Hero.

Rhythm Heaven.

Beat Saber.

Rhythm games can use:

buttons,

a dance pad,

a guitar,

movement,

virtual reality.

The platform changes.

The logic remains:

synchronize action with a temporal structure.

---

Party Games and Social Games — the real system is the players

Some games are designed less around an individual mechanic than around what happens between people.

Mario Party.

Jackbox.

Mini-games.

Chance.

Challenges.

Communication.

The occasional betrayal by a family member that will obviously still be mentioned fifteen years later.

Social Deduction

Mafia.

Werewolf.

Among Us.

Some players have hidden information or roles.

The core gameplay then revolves around:

lying,

observing,

convincing,

accusing,

deducing.

The main system is no longer only in the software.

It is in the psychology of the group.

---

Card Games, Deckbuilding, and Board Games

Video games have also absorbed a huge amount of vocabulary from physical games.

Collectible Card Game / Digital Card Game

Cards.

Deck.

Synergies.

Probabilities.

Construction.

Hearthstone.

Magic: The Gathering Arena.

Deckbuilder

The deck is often built during the run or campaign itself.

Slay the Spire notably popularized a particularly effective combination:

deckbuilding + roguelite.

Two genres walk into a bar.

They walk out with several thousand imitators.

Digital Board Games

Chess.

Traditional card games.

Adaptations of board games.

New creations inspired by physical mechanics.

The boundary between video game and board game then becomes mainly a question of interface.

---

What about Battle Royale?

100 players.

A shrinking zone.

One team or person left victorious.

PUBG.

Fortnite.

Apex Legends.

The battle royale is a very good example of a modern genre defined more by match structure than by a precise type of action.

A battle royale can be:

FPS,

TPS,

action,

melee,

fantasy.

What mainly defines the genre is:

large numbers of participants,

elimination,

a play area that progressively shrinks,

survival until the end.

---

Survival — staying alive becomes the progression

Hunger.

Thirst.

Temperature.

Resources.

Construction.

Crafting.

Exploration.

In a survival game, staying alive becomes a central mechanic.

Minecraft in certain modes.

The Forest.

Subnautica.

Rust.

Survival frequently meets:

crafting,

sandbox,

multiplayer,

horror,

open world.

It is one of the major modern families built on the combination of several systems.

---

Sandbox — here are the tools, figure it out

A sandbox gives the player strong freedom to experiment with systems.

Minecraft.

Garry’s Mod.

The objective can matter less than the ability to:

build,

modify,

experiment,

invent your own situations.

Sandbox can therefore be considered less a classic genre than a structure of freedom.

An RPG can be sandbox.

A survival game can be sandbox.

A simulation can be sandbox.

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Open world is not really a genre

This is an important distinction.

Open world mainly describes the structure of the world.

Not necessarily the gameplay.

Grand Theft Auto V is open world.

The Witcher 3 is too.

Forza Horizon is too.

Elden Ring is too.

Yet these games belong to very different families.

Open world mainly answers the question:

How is the game space organized, and in what order can I explore it?

Not:

What do I do in this game?

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Single-player, multiplayer, and co-op are not genres either

Single-player.

Co-op.

PvP.

PvE.

MMO.

Split-screen.

Cross-play.

These terms mainly describe who you play with and against.

An FPS can be single-player or multiplayer.

An RPG can be solo or MMO.

A survival game can be cooperative or competitive.

It is therefore better to think of them as game modes layered on top of genre.

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2D, 3D, VR, and pixel art are not genres

Same logic.

2D and 3D mainly describe spatial representation.

Pixel art describes a visual approach.

VR describes a technology and interface.

Anime, realistic, and low-poly describe visual styles.

Fantasy, cyberpunk, western, and science fiction describe settings.

Horror often describes tone or emotional intention.

All of these can be combined with many genres.

So we can imagine:

a cyberpunk 3D RPG,

a 2D pixel-art puzzle game,

a horror VR FPS,

a fantasy strategy game,

a science-fiction visual novel.

That is when classification becomes genuinely useful.

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AAA, indie, and free-to-play are still not genres

Three more labels that are often mixed in with the rest.

AAA mainly describes production scale.

Indie describes a production or publishing situation.

Free-to-play describes an access model and often a business model.

An indie game can be an RPG.

A AAA game can be a racing game.

A free-to-play game can be a MOBA.

And we will keep these production and economic questions for the dedicated articles on the video game industry.

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So how do you describe a game correctly?

A single label is rarely enough.

Take this fictional example:

Open-world Action RPG, playable in co-op, with Soulslike progression and survival elements.

Each word describes a different layer.

This is probably the best way to understand modern video game vocabulary.

Not as:

```text id="bjl482" GAME ↓ ONE CATEGORY

but rather as:

```text id="9cev8q"
GAME
↓
Main genre
+
Subgenre
+
Structure
+
Game mode
+
Style
+
Setting
+
Business model

The modern game resembles more a combination of characteristics than a single box.

---

The major families at a glance

Even this list is not final.

And that is perfectly fine.

---

Genres do not stop being born: they cross over

RPG did not replace action.

It met it.

Strategy did not disappear with multiplayer.

It gave rise to the MOBA.

The roguelike left its dungeon and entered:

shooters,

deckbuilders,

platformers,

action games.

Metroidvania combines exploration and progression.

Soulslike combines Action RPG, difficulty, worldbuilding, and systems inherited from a specific lineage.

Battle royale borrows from shooters, survival, and competitive multiplayer.

Video games rarely evolve by replacing one form with another.

They work more like an enormous box of Lego.

Someone takes two mechanics.

Then three.

Adds an idea from an old 1987 game.

Removes something.

Changes the camera.

And suddenly everyone is looking for a new word to explain what just happened.

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A genre is a promise made to the player

In the end, why do we need all these labels?

Because a genre can quickly communicate an expectation.

“FPS” announces:

aiming,

shooting,

moving through a space viewed from the first person.

“RPG” announces:

progression,

character,

statistics,

builds.

“Strategy” announces:

planning,

management,

decision-making.

“Puzzle” announces:

problem,

observation,

solution.

The word does not explain everything.

It simply tells the player:

this is roughly which part of your brain and fingers we are going to ask you to use.

And from there, the game can start surprising you.

---

Maybe one day, genres will disappear into tags

The more games mix together, the less rigid classification works.

You can already see it in digital stores.

A game may be described with many tags:

Action.

RPG.

Co-op.

Difficult.

Open world.

Fantasy.

Crafting.

Exploration.

Narrative.

Soulslike.

These words do not exist on the same level.

And yet, together, they produce a much more precise description than a single category.

That may be where things are going.

We will probably continue to say:

FPS.

RPG.

Strategy.

Adventure.

Because those major families remain useful.

But around them, we will increasingly use subgenres, structures, and tags to describe hybrid experiences.

After all, video games have always had a small problem with boxes.

The moment you give them one, a developer is already wondering what happens if they break through the walls.