A challenge is when you defy yourself or when someone challenges you. More often, challenges concern sports or thinking games, but they may also concern any type of challenging action.

Some strategy games like chess for instance call for challenge in some way, since we defy either an opponent or a computer. We may also take up personal challenges: games like sudoku or master mind, as well as crossword puzzles are little personal challenges very appreciated by people who have free time to spend or want to make a quiet and intellectual activity. These kind of games bring us a certain self satisfaction that delights us all!

We also talk of professional challenges when someone is trying to succeed in a less familiar field or give himself an ambitious goal to reach. For instance, learning French as to develop one's career, or reach a certain sales figures when one opens a new company, are ambitious challenges.

In general, every video game works on the principle of challenge: we try to succeed, level by level, the stages of a game. Hence, challenges are inherent to the game principle, without which we wouldn't find any interest in games.

Some video game players compete to know who is going to finish a game the fastest possible. In 2004, a game player called MMAN finished Tomb Raider II in 2 hours, 44 minutes and 2 seconds!