This is a list of play-by-mail (PBM) games. It includes games played only by postal mail, those played by mail with a play-by-email (PBEM) option, and games played in a turn-based format only by email or other digital format.
It is unclear what the earliest play-by mail game is between chess and Go. Diplomacy was first played by mail in 1963. In the early 1970s, in the United States, Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo Inc, began a number of play-by-mail games; this included games such as Nuclear Destruction (1970). This marked the beginning of the professional PBM industry. Other publishers followed suit, with significant expansion across the industry in the 1980s. This supported the publication of a number of newsletters from individual play-by-mail companies as well as independent publications such as Gaming Universal, Paper Mayhem, and Flagship which focused solely on the play-by-mail gaming industry. The sourcing of play-by-mail games in this list largely comes from these magazines, whether from reviews or advertisements, as well as additional magazines such as Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer, Dragon Magazine, and other publications that serviced the gaming community broadly, resuming with the contemporary online magazine Suspense and Decision, which supported the small but active play-by-mail gaming community into the 2020s.
In some cases, more than one publisher can be found for the same game on the list. The rights to play-by-mail games were occasionally sold among publishers. Additionally, a publishing company might license a game to a company which would offer it for play in another country. Many more play-by-mail games existed in nascent, playtest form. Only games which completed playtesting and were published for play are included here. This list includes games which are still active and those no longer available for play. Game durations range from those briefly available for play, such as Quest of Gorr, to those which have been played for decades or longer, such as Alamaze, Diplomacy, Hyborian War, and Chess.