Idle / incremental game

In an incremental game you build up resources, by clicking at first and then by automating, while costs and rewards climb exponentially. Clicker games stress the clicking; idle games keep playing while you are away. Most add prestige, a voluntary reset in exchange for permanent bonuses.

Where the name comes from

Anthony Pecorella traced the idle genre in a GDC talk to Progress Quest (2002), Eric Fredriksen’s parody of role-playing stat grinding, and Game Developer wrote in 2015 that idle games “first emerged in 2002” with it. Incremental games took off in 2013 with Cookie Clicker.

Where the edges are

Incremental, idle and clicker are used as if they meant the same thing, but they do not. Whether these are games at all is a fair question when the first one, Progress Quest, plays itself; Cow Clicker was a satire of social games. Kongregate’s first idle game was a chat room that ran itself.

Key idle and incremental game games

Each game links to its article; the last column links to the source that puts it in the genre.

Related genres: Roguelike deckbuilder, Cozy game.

At a glance

Parent genre

Casual, simulation

Earliest cited

Progress Quest (2002)

Breakthrough

Cookie Clicker (2013)

Also called

Idle game, clicker

Sources

Checked November 3, 2026.

1. Incremental game — Wikipedia
2. The rise of games you (mostly) don't play — Game Developer