Each installment of the Deca Sports series is a compilation of 10 playable sports. While most of the sports availability differ greatly from game to game, some are repeated across multiple titles, such as volleyball being in the first and third games of the main trilogy (albeit in a different setting), for a total of 47 unique different sports across the series. Players assume the role of a coach who leads one of several preset teams to victory, each with their own strengths and weaknesses derived from the body sizes of each athlete in the team (i.e., smaller athletes are fast, larger athletes are strong and medium-sized athletes have balanced performance stats),[1] or may create their own, starting from the sequel. Games released on consoles take advantage of motion controllers, whether they be the Wii Remote and Nunchuk or the Kinect sensor, to control athletes' actions in the sporting events. All Sports in Deca Sports DS and some sports in Deca Sports Extreme, do not support motion controls at all.
All games in the series have several key modes. Players can choose to play single, casual matches against artificial intelligence or other players, enter into a sports league competition among AI-controlled teams consisting of one match from every sport, partake in a three-round, 8-team single-elimination tournament for one particular sport or test their sports skills in special challenge variations of each sport.