A genre of video game that is essentially an electronic Collectible Card Game. It may be an exact conversion of a real-world game, or it may be something entirely new. If it's a new game, there will probably be rules and game mechanics that wouldn't be possible in a real-world game. If the game has a plot, of course, you can expect the card game to be Serious Business, maybe even not being considered a "game" despite the obvious rules workings.
To simulate real Collectible Card Games, you'll have to get cards randomly rather than choosing the ones you want (though in real life, you can usually find single cards in game stores), either by receiving them after battles or by buying booster packs at an in-game shop.
A Sister Trope to Fight Like a Card Player. Compare Deckbuilding Game, a different style of digital card games.
Examples:
- 100% Orange Juice!, combined with a board game
- Against The Moon
- Alteil
- Animal Kaiser
- Angel Master
- Artifact, a spinoff of Dota 2
- Ayakashi: Ghost Guild (defunct)
- Ayakashi: Romance Reborn
- Bahamut Brave
- Baten Kaitos, combined with RPG.
- BattleForge
- Battle G.Girls
- Battle Girl High School
- Bungo to Alchemist
- Calculords
- Caller's Bane (previously titled Scrolls)
- Card City Nights
- Colossal Kaiju Combat!
- Card King: Dragon Wars
- Card Wars - Adventure Time and Card Wars Kingdom, based on Adventure Time
- Card Hunter (card game & RPG hybrid)
- Card Monsters
- Chronicle: Runescape Legends
- Clash Royale
- Culdcept, combined with a board game
- Dark Summoner
- Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT (companion game to Brave Dungeon's Nintendo Switch version)
- Bandai's Data Carddass (you can stop snickering now) arcade games all feature collectible cards that can be scanned in to play. among them are Ganbaride, Dice-O, and others that tie into anime like Dinosaur King, One Piece, and Dragon Ball Z
- Dawncaster
- Deck Dragon
- Deckstorm: Duel of Guardians
- Deity Wars (The Code of Truth: Deity Wars)
- Devil Maker: Tokyo
- Digimon Digital Card Battle
- Digimon Heroes!
- Dragon's Shadow (Dragon's Shadow: The Beginning)
- Duel Masters, three for Gameboy Advance, one for Playstation 2.
- Duel Masters: Entry Gate of Dragon Saga, a Mobile Phone Game
- Earthcore: Shattered Elements
- Eigou no Venus Gear (Venus Gear or Gear Venus)
- Electro Girl (defunct)
- Elements
- Ensemble Stars!
- Epic Cards Battle
- Eldhelm
- The Elder Scrolls: Legends
- Elemental Kingdoms
- Eredan Arena
- Eternal Card Game
- The Eye Of Judgment uses actual physical cards which are scanned with a video camera. Its PSP spinoff, The Eye of Judgment Legends, (obviously) doesn't.
- Fable Fortune
- Falkyrie no Monshou (Emblem of Falkyrie)
- Fate/Grand Order uses cards for Servants and Craft Essences, as well as having you use attack cards when in battle.
- Galaxy Saga (defunct)
- Gensou no Minerva Knights
- Griftlands
- Guild of Dungeoneering, combined with an RPG.
- Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and its spin-off Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
- Hearthstone, which is a derivative (i.e., simpler version) of the paper World of Warcraft TCG which got discontinued in 2013.
- HellFire: The Summoning
- Heroic Armies Marching, combined with Turn-Based Strategy.
- Hero Of Robots
- Hex
- The Horus Hersey: Legions
- THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls
- THE iDOLM@STER: SideM
- Infinity Wars, a game developed by Australian-based studio Lightmare notable for its fully-animated cards.
- Inscryption, which also has elements of roguelike, psychological horror and escape room puzzle, among other things.
- Junketsu Duelion
- Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride, later upgraded into Ganbarizing.note
- KanColle
- KARDS - The WWII Card Game
- Kemono Collection
- The Key of Avalon, a Japan-only series of arcade games where players had to use actual physical cards
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and its Updated Re-release, Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain Of Memories.
- Kiss of Princess
- Kongai
- Kung Fu Panda: Battle of Destiny, based on Kung Fu Panda
- Legend of the Cryptids
- Legends of Runeterra, based on League of Legends
- Library Of Ruina
- Lies of Astaroth (Elves Realm)
- Lost Crusade
- Lost Kingdoms
- Mabinogi Duel
- Makai Touitsu Chaos Blade (defunct)
- Marvel: War of Heroes
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT, a web-based card game accessible via mobile phones. Similar mobile phone card games have appeared for several franchises, including Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
- Magic: The Gathering adaptations.
- Magic Online is a direct simulation of the tabletop game, to the end that the client is actually free, and you have to buy digital cards through the game just as you would buy physical cards to play normally. Furthermore, if you complete a set of digital cards, you can exchange them with Wizards for a physical copy of that set.
- Duels of the Planeswalkers is a more limited simulation; the full ruleset is supported, but the controls are simplified (for example, available lands are automatically tapped for mana when you cast a spell) and instead of building decks from scratch, you use one of several preconstructed decks, for which you can unlock additional cards to add to (in the original) or swap in (in later versions).
- Magic 2015 is a Mobile Phone Game adapatation of Magic: The Gathering
- Magic: Arena is the most recently released adaptation, and is mostly an improved and updated version of Duels.
- The Mega Man Battle Network series is best described as a hybrid of card game and boxing - rather than simply playing "Battle Chips" from your hand directly each turn, they become single-use Special Attacks in a round of real-time combat, in which you must maneuver carefully on a 3x3 grid in order to connect with them while dodging the attacks of your opponent. Aside from cards, Megaman also has a weak Arm Cannon which he can use to attack during these segments, with certain mechanics allowing him to upgrade it or add other options like blocking.
- Played more straight with the Gaiden Game Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge, which plays much more like an actual Card Battle Game than its parent series.
- Played semi-straight with Mega Man Star Force, where Battle Chips are now Battle Cards.
- Metal Gear Ac!d
- Meteorfall
- Might and Magic: Duel of Champions, a game developed by Ubisoft based on Heroes VI.
- Monster Battles
- Monster Maestro (defunct)
- Monster Paradise
- Monster Rancher Battle Card Game
- Monster Summoner
- Monster Train
- Moriah Saga
- Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA- (defunct)
- Nowhere Prophet
- One Step From Eden, taking Mega Man Battle Network and combining it with Roguelike mechanics. And also making it very hard.
- Onmyōji: The Card Game
- Order & Chaos Duels
- Otogi: Spirit Agent, the successor to Ayakashi: Ghost Guild
- Patriotism of War 2
- Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution
- Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes
- Pokémon Trading Card Game (a video game based on a card game based on a video game (from a company that once made card games)!)
- PoxNora
- Quad Clash
- Quantum Protocol
- Qurare: Magic Library
- Rage of Bahamut a simple CCG that focuses on deck building, enhancing, and evolving cards rather than battling strategies. The English version has since shut down, leaving the game Japan-only.
- Reign of Dragons
- Samurai Princess Muramasa
- Senran Kagura: New Wave
- Senran Kagura: New Wave G Burst
- Shadow Era, a cross-platform, free to play CCG that was designed to be easy to pick up on and play.
- ShadowVerse
- Shikihime Garden, which combines elements from this genre with garden simulation and Raising Sim gameplay.
- Shinki Kakusei Melty Maiden
- Sid Story (Magic School Lussid)
- Slay the Spire
- SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash
- Sol Forge
- South Park: Phone Destroyer is a mobile game that combines this with Real-Time Strategy. The player makes a deck of 20 cards that they use to summon units to the battlefield and cast spells.
- Spellstone
- SpellStorm
- Suikoden Card Stories
- Super Sentai Battle Dice O
- Sword Girls where CBG meets cute girls. (defunct except Korea)
- System Crash
- Tekken Card Tournament, a spinoff of the fighting game.
- Teppen, a Massive Multiplayer Crossover card game (with a bit of autobattler mixed in) of various Capcom franchises.
- Tokyo Afterschool Summoners
- Touken Ranbu
- Transformers Legends (defunct)
- Transformers Rising (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan)
- Tyrant: A spin off of (and sequel to) the game War Metal.
- Urban Rivals, a browser based card-battle with the characters from their Web Comic.
- Valhalla Gate of Kamigoku
- Valkyrie Crusade
- Valkyrie Drive: Siren
- Venus Blade
- War of Omens
- Warship Girls
- Wars of Seraphine
- Warstorm (defunct)
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Spirit Caller
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force Series
- Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM and Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM Pocket (defunct)
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Generation, a Mobile Phone Game
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist
- Yu-Gi-Oh! RUSH DUEL: Dawn of the Battle Royale!!
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
- Zombie Jombie
Games with card battle elements:
- 7th Legion, a 1997 RTS that uses cards to boost units.
- Age of Ishtaria is an RPG with characters represented as cards.
- Anti-Idle: The Game has one of these in the form of the TukkunFCG mode.
- Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale has "Monsters Cards", a kaiju card game played amongst the children in town.
- Captain Heroes: Pirate Hunt is a shooting game with characters represented as cards.
- EA Sports' FIFA and Madden NFL series have a mode called Ultimate Team, in which players manage a team using virtual trading cards.
- Divine Girls is a strategy game with characters represented as cards.
- Dungeon Trackers is an RPG with characters represented as cards.
- Elemental Wings is a Vertical Scrolling Shooter, with characters represented as cards that can be upgraded.
- Fantasica is a tower defense game where units are represented as cards.
- Final Fantasy VIII has the Triple Triad card mini-game. On top of being a fun distraction, the cards can be refined into various useful items, which in turn can be refined into powerful spells. Due to balance issues with the game's level scaling system, gaming the Triple Triad and junction system while keeping your characters low-level is often the preferred playstyle.
- Final Fantasy IX has the Tetra Master card mini-game. Unlike the previous game, it has no bearing on battles whatsoever, and simply serves as a light-hearted relief from the storyline. In addition to that, the The End screen features a secret Blackjack minigame that one can access with a code.
- An update for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn reintroduced the Triple Triad from Final Fantasy VIII as a playable minigame, complete with its original music.
- Game of Dice is a Monopoly clone with abilities represented as cards.
- Girls X Battle (Sexy Academy, Ninja Girls: Moe Moe Moe) is an RPG with characters represented as cards.
- Kindergarten 2 upgraded the Monstermon cards, simply collectibles in the previous game, into a full-fledged minigame where you battle the other characters using the cards you collected against their own cards. It is quite small and simplistic compared to other examples, even those that are also minigames, with only 50 cards total and a handful of opponents.
- Littlewood has Tarott Monster, a card-based mini-game that relies on Elemental RockPaperScissors mechanics. Cards with different functions exist within each element. Cards can either be found, purchased or won by beating certain opponents.
- Hero Manager is an idle RPG with characters represented as cards.
- Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has a new mode called "Heroes and Heralds" in which there are multiple collectible cards that can be used in normal gameplay; they add many kinds of Status Buff such as speed boost, super armor, new combo strings, and many more.
- Monster Avenue has a board game layout with card collecting.
- Rise of Mythos is a strategy game with characters represented as cards.
- Shovel Knight: King of Cards features Joustus as a mini-game which also serves as the centerpiece to the plot, although playing it isn't required to beat the game.
- Soccer Spirits is a Captain Tsubasa-style soccer simulator, with characters represented by cards that battle each other.
- Soul Guardians is an action RPG with character abilities represented as cards.
- Soul Rage is a Vertical Scrolling Shooter with ability cards.
- Spirit Stones is a tile matching game with characters represented as cards.
- Summoners War is an RPG with monsters represented as cards.
- Super Robot Wars: Original Generation Gaiden has as bonus mode that tries to distill the classic Turn-Based Strategy formula into Card Battle Game. It doesn't work all that well, since it requires cards with amounts of text that would be impossible in real life and rolling huge numbers of dice to determine damage, but it's still a good Guilty Pleasure.
- Sword of Chaos is a 3D action game where cards are used for minor upgrades.
- Tale Seeker is a tile matching game with characters represented as cards.
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the originator of Gwent (mentioned above), which served as a mini-game and popular pastime in-universe. One that Geralt may or may not develop an addiction to.
- Xenosaga had a complete card game called "Xeno Card" as a minigame. Unlike other role playing game card games (such as Triple Triad and Tetra Master), Xeno Card was a complete Card Battle Game, complete with boosters, rarity, card types, stack rules, phases, and such.
- Weirdly, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Wheelie Breakers is moreso this than anything actually resembling Yu-Gi-Oh!. While it features actual Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and many of the mechanics are inspired by the actual game, it's more of a straightforward racing game with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards taking the place of power-ups seen in arcade racers.