video game genre classification assigned to video games based on their gameplay part of a series onvideo games platforms arcade game console game game console home console electronic game audio game electronic handheld handheld game handheld console mobile game online game social network game pc game linux mac genres action beat em up fighting platform shooter survival actionadventure stealth survival horror adventure interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel roleplaying action roleplaying tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management life simulation sports vehicle strategy multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics massively multiplayer online lists arcade video games bestselling video games bestselling video game franchises highestgrossing video game franchises mostplayed video games by player count mostplayed mobile games by player count highestgrossing arcade games video games considered among the best game of the year awards video games notable for negative reception development game ai game design interaction design game programming level design video game art video game design video game graphics video game music vte a video game genre is a classification assigned to a video game based on its gameplay interaction rather than visual or narrative differences as with nearly all varieties of genre classification the matter of any individual video games specific genre is open to personal interpretation moreover each individual game may belong to several genres at once history the first attempt to classify different genres of video games was made by chris crawford in his book the art of computer game design in 1984 in this book crawford primarily focused on the players experience and activities required for gameplay since then among other genres the platformer and 3d shooter genres which hardly existed at the time have gained a lot of popularity as hardware capabilities have increased new genres have become possible with examples being increased memory the move from 2d to 3d new peripherals online and location though genres were mostly just interesting for game studies in the 1980s the business of video games expanded in the 1990s and both smaller and independent publishers had little chance of surviving because of this games settled more into set genres that larger publishers and retailers could use for marketing definition this spacethemed video game is a shoot em up or a sidescrolling shooter due to direct and active participation of the player video game genres differ from literary and film genres though one could state that space invaders is a sciencefiction video game such a classification ignores the differences and similarities which are to be found in the players experience of the game in contrast to the visual aesthetics of games which can vary greatly it is argued that it is interactivity characteristics that are common to all games descriptive names of genres take into account the goals of the game the protagonist and even the perspective offered to the player for example a firstperson shooter is a game that is played from a firstperson perspective and involves the practice of shooting other examples of such prefixes are realtime turn based topdown and sidescrolling the target audience underlying theme or purpose of a game are sometimes used as a genre identifier such as with games for girls christian game and serious game respectively however because these terms do not indicate anything about the gameplay of a video game these are not considered genres in practice video game genres vary in specificity with popular video game reviews using genre names varying from action to baseball in this practice basic themes and more fundamental characteristics are used alongside each other a game may combine aspects of multiple genres in such a way that it becomes hard to classify under existing genres for example because grand theft auto iii combined shooting driving and roleplaying in an unusual way it was hard to classify using existing terms since then the term grand theft auto clone has been used to describe games mechanically similar to grand theft auto iii elements of the roleplaying genre which focuses on storytelling and character growth have been implemented in many different genres of video games this is because the addition of a story and character enhancement to an action strategy or puzzle video game does not take away from its core gameplay but adds an incentive other than survival to the experience popularity according to some analysts the count of each broad genre in the best selling physical games worldwide is broken down as follows genre softalk vgc top 100 esa 2005 2010 2015 2016 2017 action 61 12 15 27 25 22 225 adventure 11 7 6 2 1 0 78 fighting 5 2 5 3 5 58 platform 10 9 4 3 4 puzzle 6 1 0 0 1 racing 13 8 5 4 6 33 roleplaying 18 7 16 12 15 17 129 shooter 8 14 22 24 19 275 simulation 5 0 4 4 0 sports 17 16 12 13 15 117 strategy 10 3 1 0 0 2 43 misc 7 12 7 8 9 41 the most popular genres are currently shooter action roleplaying and sports with platformer and racing having both declined in the last decade puzzle games have declined when measured by sales however on mobile where the majority of games are freetoplay this genre remains the most popular worldwide list of video game genres game classification vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em up tactical survival battle royale actionadventure grand theft auto clone immersive sim metroidvania stealth survival horror psychological horror adventure escape the room interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel mmo mmofps mmorpg mmorts mud roleplaying action roleplaying dungeon crawl roguelike tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management business city government life simulation dating sim digital pet god social simulation sports strategy 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy tower defense time management realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics wargame vehicle simulation flight simulator amateur combat space racing kart racing sim racing submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat other genres artillery breakout clone digital collectible card game eroge exergame incremental music rhythm nongame party programming puzzle sokoban tilematching related concepts aaa game advertising arcade game art game audio game casual game christian game crossover game educational game fmv gamification indie game multiplayer video game nonlinear gameplay open world nonviolent video game online game browser game multiplayer online game online gambling socialnetwork game pervasive game serious game toystolife twitch gameplay video game clone 