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A Survey of Deep Reinforcement Learning in Video Games

arXiv 1912.10944 ↗First posted 23 Dec 2019cs.MA cs.AI cs.LGcited by 73

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Abstract (arXiv)

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has made great achievements since proposed. Generally, DRL agents receive high-dimensional inputs at each step, and make actions according to deep-neural-network-based policies. This learning mechanism updates the policy to maximize the return with an end-to-end method. In this paper, we survey the progress of DRL methods, including value-based, policy gradient, and model-based algorithms, and compare their main techniques and properties. Besides, DRL plays an important role in game artificial intelligence (AI). We also take a review of the achievements of DRL in various video games, including classical Arcade games, first-person perspective games and multi-agent real-time strategy games, from 2D to 3D, and from single-agent to multi-agent. A large number of video game AIs with DRL have achieved super-human performance, while there are still some challenges in this domain. Therefore, we also discuss some key points when applying DRL methods to this field, including exploration-exploitation, sample efficiency, generalization and transfer, multi-agent learning, imperfect information, and delayed spare rewards, as well as some research directions.

Key facts. Cited by 73 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 23 Dec 2019.

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 12; 2022: 13; 2023: 10; 2024: 17; 2025: 16; 2026: 5.

73 papers.

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  1. 2024A Survey on Large Language Model-Based Game Agentscited by 106
  2. 2025R1-Reward: Training Multimodal Reward Model Through Stable Reinforcement Learningcited by 65
  3. 2022PD-MORL: Preference-Driven Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning Algorithmcited by 51
  4. 2022Machine Learning in Aerodynamic Shape Optimizationcited by 39
  5. 2021Adversarial Reinforcement Learning for Procedural Content Generationcited by 36
  6. 2022Disentangling Transfer in Continual Reinforcement Learningcited by 31
  7. 2021Direct Behavior Specification via Constrained Reinforcement Learningcited by 30
  8. 2025VideoGameBench: Can Vision-Language Models complete popular video games?cited by 29
  9. 2025Why Do LLM Agents Fail in Exploring New Environments? A World-Modeling Perspectivecited by 28
  10. 2021Learn-to-Race: A Multimodal Control Environment for Autonomous Racingcited by 23
  11. 2021Deep Reinforcement Learning Versus Evolution Strategies: A Comparative Surveycited by 23
  12. 2025Pareto Set Learning for Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learningcited by 18
38 more
  1. 2024Excluding the Irrelevant: Focusing Reinforcement Learning through Continuous Action Maskingcited by 17
  2. 2023Games for Artificial Intelligence Research: A Review and Perspectivescited by 14
  3. 2025Generative Models in Decision Making: A Surveycited by 14
  4. 2021Deep Reinforcement Learning for Band Selection in Hyperspectral Image Classificationcited by 12
  5. 2022Geometry and convergence of natural policy gradient methodscited by 12
  6. 2023Transformers in Reinforcement Learning: A Surveycited by 11
  7. 2025Semantically-Aware Rewards for Open-Ended R1 Training in Free-Form Generationcited by 11
  8. 2025Integrating Reinforcement Learning with Visual Generative Models: Foundations and Advancescited by 11
  9. 2022A Hierarchical Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework for 6-DOF UCAV Air-to-Air Combatcited by 10
  10. 2021Visual Explanation using Attention Mechanism in Actor-Critic-based Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 9
  11. 2021Learning to Shape Rewards using a Game of Two Partnerscited by 9
  12. 2025A Comprehensive Review of Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Video Gamescited by 9
  13. 2022Inspector: Pixel-Based Automated Game Testing via Exploration, Detection, and Investigationcited by 7
  14. 2024Parametric PDE Control with Deep Reinforcement Learning and Differentiable L0-Sparse Polynomial Policiescited by 7
  15. 2024Advances in Preference-based Reinforcement Learning: A Reviewcited by 6
  16. 2025Causal-aware Large Language Models: Enhancing Decision-Making Through Learning, Adapting and Actingcited by 6
  17. 2023ROSARL: Reward-Only Safe Reinforcement Learningcited by 5
  18. 2024Grounded Curriculum Learningcited by 5
  19. 2024LLMs May Not Be Human-Level Players, But They Can Be Testers: Measuring Game Difficulty with LLM Agentscited by 5
  20. 2025Safety Representations for Safer Policy Learningcited by 4
  21. 2021Online reinforcement learning with sparse rewards through an active inference capsulecited by 3
  22. 2024OIL-AD: An Anomaly Detection Framework for Sequential Decision Sequencescited by 3
  23. 2024Knowledge-Informed Auto-Penetration Testing Based on Reinforcement Learning with Reward Machinecited by 3
  24. 2024Explainable Post hoc Portfolio Management Financial Policy of a Deep Reinforcement Learning agentcited by 3
  25. 2024How to Choose a Reinforcement-Learning Algorithmcited by 3
  26. 2024Meta SAC-Lag: Towards Deployable Safe Reinforcement Learning via MetaGradient-based Hyperparameter Tuningcited by 3
  27. 2025HypeRL: Hypernetwork-Based Reinforcement Learning for Control of Parametrized Dynamical Systemscited by 3
  28. 2025Bayesian Optimization-based Search for Agent Control in Automated Game Testingcited by 3
  29. 2023Comprehensive Training and Evaluation on Deep Reinforcement Learning for Automated Driving in Various Simulated Driving Maneuverscited by 2
  30. 2023Deploying Deep Reinforcement Learning Systems: A Taxonomy of Challengescited by 2
  31. 2025Reinforcement Learning in Strategy-Based and Atari Games: A Review of Google DeepMinds Innovationscited by 2
  32. 2025Leveraging LLMs for reward function design in reinforcement learning control taskscited by 2
  33. 2026GraphAllocBench: A Flexible Benchmark for Preference-Conditioned Multi-Objective Policy Learningcited by 2
  34. 2021An Approach to Partial Observability in Games: Learning to Both Act and Observecited by 1
  35. 2022Deep Reinforcement Learning Using a Low-Dimensional Observation Filter for Visual Complex Video Game Playingcited by 1
  36. 2022Bayesian Soft Actor-Critic: A Directed Acyclic Strategy Graph Based Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
  37. 2023Understanding Reinforcement Learning Algorithms: The Progress from Basic Q-learning to Proximal Policy Optimizationcited by 1
  38. 2023An investigation of belief-free DRL and MCTS for inspection and maintenance planningcited by 1

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