Traditionally LitRPG books are classified as cyberpunk, but the genre embraces a much wider scope of ideas. The futurustic dystopian setting of cyberpunk focuses on man's relationship with a high tech society and all the innuendo it incurs. A lone hero's crusade against the stifling rule of machines and machine-like humanity is at the center of cyberpunk literature.

Initially unrecognized by traditional publishing, the genre kept growing, gaining a truly insatiable readership that devoured such cult series as Sword Art Online, Ready Player One and The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. In 2012, Russia became the first country in the world where the genre was officially recognised, receiving its current name - LitRPG - and its own place in libraries and book shops. Since then, dozens of new game-set novels have been published in Russia, some of them national bestsellers such as Play to Live by D. Rus and the Way of the Shaman by V. Mahanenko.