Platform games (often simplified as platformer or jump 'n' run games) are a video game genre and subgenre of action games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in a rendered environment. Platformers are characterized by their level of use in jumping and climbing to navigate the player's environment and reach their goal. Levels and environments feature uneven terrain and suspended platforms of varying height that requires use of the player character's abilities in order to traverse. Other acrobatic maneuvers factor into the gameplay as well, such as climbing, swinging from objects such as vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, air dashing, gliding through the air, being shot from cannons or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in The Legend of Zelda series, fall outside of the genre.
While commonly associated with console gaming, there have been many prominent platform games released for video arcades, as well as for handheld game consoles and home computers.
During the peak of platform games' popularity, platform games were estimated to consist of between a quarter and a third of all console games, but have since been supplanted by first-person shooters. In 2006, the genre experienced a decline in popularity, representing a 2% market share as compared to 15% in 1998; however, the genre still exists in the commercial environment, with a number of games selling in the millions of units.