Action

Adventure

3D Platform

Platformer

Fighting

Beat ’em Up

Hack and Slash

Run and Gun

Stealth Action

Shooter

FPS (First-Person Shooter)

TPS (Third-Person Shooter)

Arena Shooter

Tactical Shooter

Hero Shooter

Rail Shooter

Extraction Shooter

Battle Royale (Shooter-based)

Role-Playing Games (RPG)

JRPG

WRPG

Action RPG

Tactical RPG / Strategy RPG

MMORPG

Roguelike RPG

Roguelite RPG

Soulslike

Monster-taming RPG

RTS (Real-Time Strategy)

TBS (Turn-Based Strategy)

4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate)

Grand Strategy

Tower Defense

Auto Battler

Strategy

Planning, resource management, and tactical decision-making.

RTS (Real-Time Strategy)

TBS (Turn-Based Strategy)

4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate)

Grand Strategy

Tower Defense

Auto Battler

Simulation

Realistic or semi-realistic system modeling.

Life Simulation

Vehicle Simulation (Flight, Driving, Space)

City-Building

Farming Simulation

Business / Tycoon

Job Simulators

Sports

Competitive athletic or physical activities.

Traditional Sports

Extreme Sports

Arcade Sports

Simulation Sports

Fantasy Sports

Racing

Vehicle-based competition.

Arcade Racing

Simulation Racing

Kart Racing

Rally

Open-World Racing

Adventure

Exploration, puzzles, and narrative focus.

Point-and-Click

Graphic Adventure

Walking Simulator

Interactive Fiction

Puzzle

Logic-based challenges.

Physics Puzzle

Word Puzzle

Pattern Recognition

Tile-Matching

Escape Room

Horror

Fear-driven atmosphere and survival.

Survival Horror

Psychological Horror

Action Horror

Survival

Resource management under hostile conditions.

Open-World Survival

Crafting Survival

Survival Sandbox

Sandbox

Open-ended creativity and player freedom.

Physics Sandbox

Building Sandbox

Social Sandbox

Narrative / Story-Driven

Player choice and storytelling first.

Visual Novel

Choice-Driven Narrative

Episodic Games

Rhythm / Music

Gameplay tied to music and timing.

Rhythm Action

Music Simulation

Party / Casual

Accessible, social-friendly gameplay.

Party Games

Casual Games

Family Games

Educational / Serious Games

Learning, training, or real-world application.

Edutainment

Training Simulations

Medical / Military Sims

🔀 HYBRID & META GENRES (VERY COMMON TODAY)

These dominate modern AAA and esports titles:

Action-RPG

Shooter-RPG

Roguelike Deckbuilder

Tactical Shooter-RPG

Survival-Crafting Shooter

MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena)

MMO-Lite

Open-World Action-Adventure

🌐 ONLINE & MULTIPLAYER-FOCUSED GENRES

MOBA

MMORPG

Battle Royale

Hero Shooter

Social Deduction

Competitive Party Games

🕶️ PLATFORM & DELIVERY-BASED CATEGORIES

(Not genres, but often grouped with them)

VR Games

AR Games

Mobile Games

Cloud Games

Indie Games

🧩 NICHE / EMERGING GENRES

Cozy Games

Idle / Incremental Games

Gacha Games

Auto-Chess

Asymmetric Multiplayer

Soulslike-Metroidvania (“Soulsvania”)

🔑 TL;DR

There are ~12 core genres, but 50+ recognized sub-genres and hybrids in modern gaming. Most popular games today blend 3–5 genres rather than fitting neatly into one.

If you want, I can:

Turn this into a visual genre map

Rank genres by popularity (2025–2026)

Align genres to esports, mobile, or AAA

Convert this into a WWLTP-ready taxonomy page