More specifically, the typical game in the RTS genre features resource-gathering, base-building, in-game technological development, and indirect control of units. These resources are in turn garnered by controlling special points on the map and/or possessing certain types of units and structures devoted to this purpose. In a typical RTS game, it is possible to create additional units and structures, generally limited by a requirement to expend accumulated resources. In a real-time strategy game, each participant positions structures and maneuvers multiple units under their indirect control to secure areas of the map and/or destroy their opponents' assets. The term 'real-time strategy' was coined by Brett Sperry to market Dune II in the early 1990s.

By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to play. Real-time strategy ( RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in 'real time'.

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