The most popular video game genres

Video games today are an artistic and media world whose audience range has truly become wide. From teenage boys and girls to young men and even middle-aged people are engaged with video games. What has caused this audience range is the diversity of computer game genres. Counting subgenres, one can play in more than 20 different styles. Each of these game genres engages a part of the audience's being and answers a particular need of theirs.

Introduction to types of computer game genres and subgenres

The action game genre Action

The most popular video game genre is action. Action-style games are a way to satisfy players' sense of violence. This type of war and shooting game is heavily experience-based and requires less thinking. They are also based on players' speed and reaction power. Action games rest on physical and power challenges, such as combat and shooting.

• Platformer | Platformer
• Shooting game | Shooting
• Fighting game | Fighting
• Beat 'em up | Beat'em up
• Stealth game | Stealth
• Survival genre games | Survival
• Battle Royale style games | Battle Royal

The adventure game genre Adventure

In games of this style, the player must progress by solving a puzzle or solving a problem. Adventure and puzzle genre games for mobile and computer usually do not put much pressure on the audience and do not require high reaction speed.

Role-playing video games Role-playing Video Game

In a role-playing genre game, the player generally takes on the role of a fictional or real character. From the choices and decisions they make during the game, they determine that character's traits and performance. The best role-playing games place great value on the player's freedom of will and action.

• Action role-playing style games | Action RPG
• Tactical role-playing games | Tactical RPG
• Sandbox role-playing genre games | Sandbox RPG
• Massively multiplayer online role-playing style games | MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Game)
• Multiplayer MOBA-style games | MOBA

Strategy computer games Strategy

In the best computer strategy games, thinking and decision-making to advance goals are highly decisive. Typically in strategy-style video games, you can run and manage an army or a country. Here your creativity determines how much success you achieve.

• Types of real-time strategy games | Real-time strategy
• Turn-based strategy genre games | Turn-based strategy
• Tower defense style games | Tower defense

Simulation games Simulation

Simulator games for computer and Android, depending on what they want to simulate, try to give the player a close and engaging experience of the phenomenon in question.

• Life simulator game | Life simulation
• Driving simulator game | Driving simulation
• Construction simulator games | Construction Simulator
• Management and business simulation games | Management

Sports video games Sport

Sports games for computer and mobile try to simulate sports competitions, such as football matches, auto racing, combat sports competitions, and so on. Or they try to create a sports-genre competitive situation that can be combat, auto racing, or so on.

Casual games Games Casual

Casual games are not specifically a separate game genre and can fall within the various genres or subgenres mentioned. Their main characteristic is simplicity, accessibility, and ease in advancing the game's goals. In this way you can easily, with ordinary internet and through the web, or by using a small amount of data on your Android device and without needing powerful game-running platforms (such as consoles or a personal computer), access the best simple casual games and play in spare moments and for short periods.

The most popular video game genres

According to statistics from the Gametree site, the action genre of computer games and its subgenres, with 90.3 percent popularity, have the highest level of popularity among the various video game genres. This trend appears likely to be upward. One of the reasons for the popularity of action genre games has been identified as people's strong interest in the Battle Royal style and the game Fortnite (fortnite).

The popular video game genres after the action style are the adventure and role-playing genres. At the end of this list are various casual-style computer games. Of course it should be noted that casual games, because of easy access to them, are in one sense the most widespread genre of types of games for phone and computer, but they are not necessarily popular.

Increase in the number of Fortnite players

According to the latest data published on the Statista site, there are currently 3.01 billion active video game players in the world. It is predicted that this figure will also reach 3.32 billion by next year.

In terms of the gender of computer game players, every year we witness a reduction in the gap between the percentages of female and male players. Up to 2021 this gap is as follows: 55 percent of players are men and 45 percent of players are women.

According to published statistics, the 18-to-34 age group, at 38 percent, makes up the largest share of video game audiences and players.

Video game classification by age group

According to statistics published on the GameTree site, in games for the 13-to-17 age rating and the adolescent age group, the fighting-game style and action-genre games in general have a greater preference relative to other styles and genres. Role-playing games are this age group's last preference. This is while role-playing genre games in the youth and adult age groups are the first or second preference. It can be explained that the best computer and mobile fighting games, because of greater simplicity and less complexity, have a greater chance of being chosen by the adolescent age group, who are the youngest age group in our review. By contrast, role-playing games, because of greater complexity and difficulty, are generally closer to the taste of adult groups.

The emergence of successful titles and popular games in the role-playing style has certainly also played a role in increasing this style's popularity among adult and youth age groups. The best well-known role-playing games such as Witcher 3, Dota 2, League of Legends, and World of Warcraft have in the past caused an increase in the popularity of this video game genre. It is also expected that with the release of games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Baldur's Gate, the action and role-playing style, which is present in a combined form within the titles mentioned, will find greater popularity among the youth and adult age group.

Among the 33-to-42 age rating, Android and computer role-playing games are still present as the second preference. Strategy-genre games have obtained first rank. After this age group, and in the assessment made of games for the over-42 age rating, we see that casual games are placed as the genre for which the greatest preference exists. It can be assessed that people who are at these ages or older had a more indirect and more distant encounter with video games in their youth. As a result it is natural that if they want to turn to computer games, they go after simple games that can be accessed more easily and whose progress does not require much effort.

The best-selling video game genres in the past ten years

The success and popularity of a mobile, console, and computer game genre depends to a large extent on the successful titles that are released. Sometimes the release of a highly successful title causes a serious jolt and an increase in sales and popularity of a particular genre. In what follows we try, by examining the titles of the world's best-selling games in the past ten years, to examine the best-selling and most popular video game genre.

Action-adventure genre games

This game style, which is a combination of the two adventure and action genres, receives the title of the best-selling video game genre in the past ten years. This position is undoubtedly indebted to the sales of the masterpiece game Grand Theft Auto 5. This video game, from the time of its release, that is in 2013, until 2023 has sold more than 185 million copies. Among other action-adventure style games, one can name the game Red Dead Redemption 2 with sales of 55 million copies and the game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with sales of 30 million copies.

Shooting genre games

Shooting games, which are considered part of the action genre, because of their very high popularity and the history they have, always receive numerous titles. The combined sales of computer and Android shooting games over the past ten years make this genre one of the best-selling genres in the video game industry. The Call of Duty game series among these have greater popularity and sales. The 2019 and 2020 versions of this series, namely Modern Warfare and Cold War, have each separately been able to reach sales of 30 million copies. One can also name the game Halo 5: Guardians with sales of 15 million copies as one of the best-selling shooting games.

Role-playing style games

The role-playing genre is another of the successful and best-selling computer game genres. The role-playing game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim from 2016 with 30 copies, the game The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt with 50 million copies, the game Fallout 4 with 14 million copies, and the acclaimed title Elden Ring with 21 million copies have been the best-selling and best Android and computer role-playing games.

Battle Royale genre games

The Battle Royale style, which is among the online action game genres, has received a great deal of attention in the past decade. This style has generally been brought to prominence with the game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (or, for short, PUBG, PUBG games). This famous computer game, when it had not yet become free, had sold 75 million copies. Alongside this title, the Battle Royale game Fortnite has increased the popularity and spread of this style.

By 2023 about 500 million players have registered in Fortnite and it has 230 million active players on a monthly basis and is in this respect the most popular Battle Royale game. Games in this genre are currently generally free. But one can be sure that through in-app purchases and the sale of various items inside the game they have very high revenue. In this case this makes this style one of the most profitable subgenres of the game industry. One can also name the games Apex Legends, Call of Duty Warzone, and Fall Guys as among the world's best Battle Royale games.

Sports genre games

The most famous and best sports games for computer are NBA 2K, FIFA (currently it has changed to FC Football), and Madden NFL, which have relatively good sales. The success of this genre is more in that publishers release a new version of these titles every year. Among the sports games mentioned, the FIFA game every year, with sales of at least 10 million copies, has a good situation.

Conclusion

It should be borne in mind that there is not always a specific classification of types of mobile and computer game styles, nor a specific definition of what a game genre is, and this can sometimes take various forms. On the other hand, types of computer games can, based on different angles, fall into different genres. For example, a third-person open-world shooting game in which role-playing elements are present may be considered an action game, or role-playing, or adventure. Nevertheless, video game producers themselves usually introduce their game in a specific genre. Knowing this point, at present in general the action style and its subgenres constitute the most popular video game genre, and after that role-playing games are placed.

The world's video game industry, with each year that passes, finds greater breadth; video game platforms become broader, more advanced, and more popular. As a result, over time we are witnessing a further increase in the number of video game players and consumers, and it is predicted that this trend will increase in an upward form.