There is no single fixed number of genres, because “genre” is defined differently in different fields (music, books, films, games) and new genres and subgenres keep emerging over time.
Why there’s no fixed count
- In music alone, large catalog sites and projects list hundreds to thousands of genres and subgenres, and they still describe the total as effectively open‑ended.
- In literature and film, educators and industry guides usually talk about a small set of broad “major genres” (for example, 4 major literary genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama; or 8–10 core film genres), but each has many subgenres under it.
Useful rules of thumb
- For literature , expect a handful of major categories (often 4) with dozens of commonly used subgenres like romance, mystery, fantasy, sci‑fi, historical, thriller, and so on.
- For music , expect hundreds or thousands of named genres and subgenres worldwide, depending on how finely they are divided.
- For movies , professional lists often count around 10–15 broad genres but 90+ when subgenres and hybrids are included.
If you say which area you care about (music, books, movies, games), a more specific count or breakdown can be given.
