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From racing and sports, to shoot ’em ups and platformers, to fighting games and first-person shooters, to cozy games and friendslop, this is the history of every video game genre. Ever.
=== Sources ===
[1] Pin Up Girl | Penny Machines
[2] Death Race – First Video Game Controversy | The Dot Eaters
[3] The Sega / Namco Rivalry, Part 1 | Street Writer
More –
=== Chapters ===
00:00:00 – Intro
00:03:53 – Racing
00:08:47 – Pinball
00:09:20 – Light Gun
00:10:46 – Sports
00:14:30 – Action
00:20:07 – Shoot ’em up
00:25:18 – Maze
00:27:04 – Platform
00:35:05 – Beat ’em up
00:38:22 – Fighting
00:41:39 – Hack and Slash
00:44:04 – Run and Gun
00:46:23 – Top-Down Shooter
00:49:21 – First-Person Shooter
00:54:24 – Rhythm
00:56:38 – Action Recap
00:58:46 – Puzzle
01:02:46 – Turn-Based Strategy
01:07:17 – Real-Time Strategy
01:11:53 – Management Simulation
01:16:09 – Life Simulation
01:18:07 – Job Simulator
01:19:22 – Life Simulator
01:20:11 – Vehicle Simulator
01:22:02 – Computer Role-Playing
01:24:00 – Japanese Role-Playing
01:25:41 – Action Role-Playing
01:31:13 – Adventure
01:34:24 – Visual Novel
01:37:27 – Interactive Drama
01:39:37 – Walking Simulator
01:42:10 – Action Adventure
01:46:47 – The Industry
01:53:19 – Indie Games
01:57:43 – Horror
02:01:23 – Roguelike
02:05:38 – Incremental
02:07:37 – Sandbox
02:10:12 – Survival
02:11:21 – Cozy
02:12:39 – Friendslop
02:13:40 – Conclusion
=== Games Shown ===
Donkey Kong (1981, Arcade)
Super Mario Bros. (1985, NES)
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991, Mega Drive)
Celeste (2018, PC)
Pac-Man (1980, Arcade)
Double Dragon (1987, Arcade)
Onimusha: Warlords (2001, PlayStation 2)
Minecraft (2011, PC)
Balatro (2024, PC)
Space Race (1973, Arcade)
Gran Trak 10 (1974, Arcade)
More –
=== Credits ===
Music provided by Epidemic Sound – (Referral Link)
Music by Chris Zabriskie –
Music by Lee Rosevere –
Image Credits
Drive-Mobile Flyer
Grand Prix Flyer
Death Race AP news clipping
More –
Video Credits
Atari Namco F-1 1976 arcade game
Mutoscope Drivemobile Drive Yourself Road Test arcade game at Manitou Springs Penny Arcade
グランプリ(Sega 1969)
More –
Game Footage Credits
Space Race (1973) –
Gran Trak 10 (1974) –
Death Race (1976) –
Monaco GP (1983) –
More –
source
Thanks for watching! This was a mammoth undertaking, resulting in a 2 hour video with over 500 games shown, almost 200 motion graphic comps, 170 sources and citations for every claim – and all that with no AI used!
2026 has been a crazy year for me as I am getting used to life as a dad. But I feel like I'm figuring things out now and so I'm looking forward to bringing GMTK back and better than ever.
Amazing video Mark, can't believe I watched the whole 2 hours 😀 I would love to see the whole graph with all the genres in the end
2:11:04 epic cut!
Sakura taisen (Sakura wars) is a turn based strategy series of games similar to Fire Emblem or Front Mission. The "visual novel" parts are basically the same "walk around and talk to npcs before the next battle".
For those who ask, it's a steam punk mecha strategy game with dating sim elements.
What about "Strand-Like" games tho
Fantastic work, I love it! At the end, most of video game history can be explained as a shift from action to adventure, those two can be considered the two mega genres that encapsulate all the rest. I believe that trend changed on 2020 after Fortnite (action) won popularity over The last if us 2 (adventure). You also see that trend change in the return of boomer shooters (Doom 2016) vs “adventure” shooters (Halo and Gears of War).
Top down without OG GTA?
you made this graft and left out the fall of atari in the 80's. this is incomplete.
it's not called "friendslop" it's called a PARTY GAME
What a MASSIVE documentary on game genres, kudos!!
It does me good to know that there are still people out there actually making stuff and then it's so good as well. That was such a wild ride, thank you.
the history is game is the history of clone games
Maybe I’m just nostalgic, but I kind of miss the days in the early 2000s when you could walk into a store and see a shelf full of big, high quality games from a major studio. I have nothing against indies, I love many of them, but the recent influx of (often AI generated) games makes it harder to find good stuff.
I agree that both American football and association football being the same game with different rules is dumb, but both are equally official forms of the same game. The people who made this decision were British, in London, and they started by making association football and rugby as two different rule sets.
It's an impressive taxonomy video, but there are a number of historical myths being perpetuated here:
– Gary Gygax did not create RPGs. That credit goes to David Wesley's Braunstein players, including most importantly, Dave Arneson. Gygax's contributions to Chainmail and DND are important, but he didn't create the concept.
– Steve Jobs didn't create Breakout. Woz didn't even "create" Breakout. They were handed a completed videogame to make cheaper to produce and Steve outsourced even that work.
– Space War is not even debatably the first videogame, but the first game played on multiple computers. Christopher Strachey's Draughts (1952) is the first computer game on a CRT.
What an amazing video. Absolutely a treat to watch all the way through. Makes me proud to be a video game enthusiast. Keep up the great work man.
No stealth because it's undetected 😂
47:30 well that looks familiar
I'd like to add "boss rush" as a small genre ! with Cuphead, Shadow of the Colossus, and Furi. loved the vid <3
I watched this video multiple times, and you're missing MMORPG's.
This is monumental. You have done something amazing
There doesnt seem to be a universally accepted difference between roguelikes/lites. A common one i see is meta-progression= lite but it's definitely not universally accepted.
Unfortunate traditoinal roguelikes now need "traditional" so you know it's actually more like rogue than the other genres.
That was so much fun to watch! Waiting for particular genres to appear and seeing specific games pop up was kind of like a game in itself
That really got me 1:21:10
I winced super hard when the platformer genre stayed flat after 2016 in the graphic.
The data and trends for stuff before then is pretty interesting and this is a cool look at history, but oof this leaves out 90% of games being released in the last decade (many of which with hundreds of thousands of players).
This channel is like the R* of video game essays YT channels. Absolutely insane. What a great video 🔥
50:42
Marathon From bungie… in 1994?!
"Toohoo"killed me sorry Mark 😂😂😂
are you loose screws my guy, why would you do this to yourself
(thank you you're a hero for this lol)
I much prefer the term “social chaos” to “friend slop”
una investigación increíble!! muchas gracias (:
really interesting to learn more about the early history of games!! its crazy how early they were already figuring out 3d graphics, just cuz they could do a lot more with arcade hardware i guess? so they were noticeably technologically ahead of console games for a while
Can we get an interactive version of that graph? I would love to play around with it!
The escape room game erasure continues. 😢
30:37 I read amost everything looking for the Boogerman fan comment but it looks its you and I
not seeing rhythm heaven in rhythm games makes me sad also warioware kinda fits
I would like to purchase a blu-ray copy of this video thanks
I believed that match 3 or merge games were more noticeable during the rise of the mobile games like candy crush and similar. Remember most of the people around me playing that.
this is a real nordVPN simulator video
Oh my god I had totally forgotten about "Creatures" but you just unlocked something in my brain.. I spent so many hours playing that!
2:00:05 Jumpscare!!!
That's a lot of work! <3 good job!
one look at wikipedia said, steve woz made breakout with the help of steve jobs. not jobs alone
Do you think it would be possible for you to put all this info and visuals into a document or website or API?