Fighting games, or fighters and previously Beat 'Em Ups, are divided into the two categories 2D fighters and 3D fighters.

2D Fighters are games which take place on a plane, using sprites or 3D models locked to the plane's axes. Many of the world's hardest and most competetive fighting games are 2D. Examples of 2D fighters include Street Fighter, Guilty Gear and Blaz Blue.

3D fighters are fighting games that exhibit 6 directions of movement (up, down, left, right, foreground, background) and take place in 3D environments. Although it is debated whether or not some 3D fighters are 3D rather than 2.5D, the term 2.5 is now used more popularly to describe a 2D fighting system rendered in 3D without the option to move into the foreground or background. 3D fighting games add an extra dimension of difficulty, but can also become slow due to the ever changing axis of battle. Examples of 3D fighting games include Tekken, Dead or Alive and Evil Zone.