What are adult games? A complete guide

Adult games are video games made for players aged 18 and over because they contain explicit sexual content. The term describes content, not genre: an adult game can be a visual novel, a role-playing game, a management sim or a puzzle game. What they share is an adult audience, an adults-only rating, and a market that sits mostly on PC, outside consoles and mainstream shops.

This guide explains what counts as an adult game, how they differ from games that are merely mature, the main kinds, how they are rated and sold, and what the law says. Each section links to a fuller piece where one exists.

Key points

• An adult game is defined by explicit sexual content and an 18+ audience, not by its genre.
• Adult and mature are different things. Mature games are sold on consoles. Adult games are not.
• Most adult games are sold on PC, through labelled sections of general stores and through specialist stores.
• They are legal for adults in most countries, with firm limits around minors.
• The medium has a long history in Japan and a large independent scene in the West.

A definition

In everyday use, an adult game is any video game that is made for adults because of its sexual content. Some people use the phrase more widely to cover games with extreme violence, but the stores, ratings boards and players this site deals with mostly use it in the narrower sense, and so does this guide.

Japanese has its own word, eroge, a contraction of “erotic game”. English speakers also say H-game, NSFW game, or AVN for an adult visual novel. They all point at the same category.

Adult games and mature games are not the same

The difference is easiest to see through ratings. In North America, the ESRB gives a game an M rating (Mature 17+) for strong violence, blood, language or some sexual content. The Witcher 3 and Mass Effect are M-rated games with sex scenes. They are sold everywhere, including on consoles.

The ESRB’s top rating is AO, Adults Only. According to the ESRB’s own history, most AO games are adult games with explicit sexual content. Console makers do not license AO games and most retailers do not stock them, so the rating effectively closes the mainstream market.

Steam draws the same line. Its store preferences separate “Some Nudity or Sexual Content” and “Frequent Nudity or Sexual Content” from “Adult Only Sexual Content”, and only the last is hidden by default.

The main kinds of adult game

Adult games use the same genres as every other game. The ones below are the most common.

Visual novels are the largest group, partly because they are the cheapest to make: one writer and one artist can finish one, and the free Ren’Py engine has been used to make more than 8,000 games. The beginner’s guide to adult visual novels covers the format in detail.

The genres also differ in how much the sexual content matters. Japanese players separate a nukige, built mainly around its adult scenes, from a story-led game in which the adult scenes are a small part. Both are adult games.

Where adult games come from

There are two large traditions.

Japan has made adult games since 1982. Several companies that are now major publishers released them in their early years, and in the late 1990s the visual novel turned the form into a medium known for its writing. Japanese adult games are rated by industry bodies such as the Ethics Organization of Computer Software, and under Article 175 of Japan’s Penal Code their explicit images are obscured with mosaics.

The West produced the first widely sold adult computer game in 1981. Its modern scene is mostly independent: small teams and solo developers who fund their work through monthly subscriptions and sell through open stores.

The short history of adult games covers both traditions in dated steps.

Where adult games are sold

Adult games are a PC market, for reasons of platform rules rather than demand.

• Steam sells adult games under an Adult Only label that customers must switch on. The step-by-step guide explains how.
• itch.io lets anyone publish, within a published list of banned themes.
• Specialist stores such as DLsite, JAST USA, MangaGamer and Nutaku sell adult games as their main business.
• Subscription platforms such as Patreon fund games while they are being made.
• Consoles and mobile app stores do not carry explicit games. Google Play’s policy does not allow apps with sexual content intended to be sexually gratifying, and Apple’s App Review Guidelines exclude overtly sexual material under guideline 1.1.4. The page on adult games on Android and iPhone explains what that means in practice.

Since 2025 the payment companies behind these stores have set many of the limits. Where adult games can be sold and how payment processors decide explain how.

Are adult games legal?

For adults, in most countries, yes. The legal limits fall into three groups.

1. Sale to minors. Everywhere restricts it. In the United Kingdom and Australia, stores must now check age before showing adult content, which is why Steam asks for a credit card there. The page on age verification covers the rules.
2. Depictions of minors. Many countries outlaw sexual depictions of children even when they are drawn or computer-generated. In the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 1466A covers obscene visual representations, including drawings and cartoons. In England and Wales, section 62 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 makes possession of prohibited non-photographic images of children an offence. This is why reputable adult games state that all characters are adults, and why stores enforce it.
3. Obscenity and national rules. Some countries restrict explicit material more broadly, and some require local classification before a game can be sold. Japan requires mosaics. Developers often withhold games from countries where they would break local law.

This is a summary, not legal advice.

Who plays them

There is no reliable public survey of adult game players as a group, and this guide does not repeat the unsourced figures that circulate online. What can be said is that the audience is large enough to support specialist stores that have operated for decades, a subscription economy that funds many independent developers, and a section of the largest PC store in the world.

How to play adult games safely

• Buy from established stores, which are as safe as any other online shop.
• Avoid pirated copies, which are the main source of malware in games.
• Check unfamiliar downloads before running them.

The guide to whether adult game stores are safe covers each store and gives a short checking routine. For playing without paying, see free adult games and where to play them legitimately.

Why take adult games seriously

Adult games have a history of more than forty years, a design tradition that produced some of the most admired story-led games in Japan, and an independent scene that keeps experimenting with form. They also raise real questions, about consent in design, about who decides what can be sold and about how age limits are enforced. Those questions are easier to answer well when the medium is described accurately, which is what this site tries to do.

For what research has found about effects on players, see are adult games harmful? What the research says.

How this page was put together

The definitions and rating details come from the ratings boards’ own guides and the encyclopedia entries listed under Sources. The legal section quotes the statutes directly. This page is the hub for the Journal’s reference pieces and links to each of them; it does not draw on first-hand reviews.

It was written on 3 October 2026 and will be updated as the linked pieces change. To report an error, see the corrections standard.