In the most general sense the term Queen's Pawn Game can refer to any chess opening which starts with the move:

It is the second most popular opening move. The name is now usually used to describe openings beginning with the moves 1.d4 d5 where White does not follow through with an early pawn advance to c4 (Queen's Gambit). Some of these openings have individual names as well, e.g. the Trompowsky Attack, Torre Attack, Stonewall Attack, Richter-Veresov Attack, London System, and Colle System.

In the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, strict Queen's Pawn Games (1.d4 d5) are classified in the coding series D00–D05. Other openings where Black does not play an early 1...d5 are classified in the A-series.

In the 19th century and early 20th century, 1.e4 was by far the most common opening move by White (Watson 2006:87), while the different openings starting with 1.d4 were considered somewhat unusual and therefore classed together as "Queen's Pawn Game".

As the merits of 1.d4 started to be explored, it was the Queen's Gambit which was played most often—more popular than all other 1.d4 openings combined. The term "Queen's Pawn Game" was then narrowed down to any opening with 1.d4 which was not a Queen's Gambit. Eventually, through the efforts of the hypermodernists, the various Indian Defences (such as the King's Indian, Nimzo-Indian, and Queen's Indian) became more popular, and as these openings were named, the term "Queen's Pawn Game" narrowed further.