[Math] Mixed-strategy Nash equilibria

game theorynash-equilibrium

I didn't find in books, so I'm asking – Mixed-strategy Nash equilibria is always only one or doesn't exist for the one certain game? And I know that there can be several(and can not be at all) pure strategy Nash equilibria.

Best Answer

Pure strategies can be seen as special cases of mixed strategies, in which some strategy is played with probability $1$. In a finite game, there is always at least one mixed strategy Nash equilibrium. This has been proven by John Nash[1].

There can be more than one mixed (or pure) strategy Nash equilibrium and in degenerate cases, it is possible that there are infinitely many. In a well-defined sense (open and dense in payoff-space), almost every finite game has a finite and odd number of mixed strategy Nash equilibria.

A typical example of a game with more than one equilibrium is Battle of Sexes, which has two pure strategy equilibria and one completely mixed equilibrium, meaning every strategy is played with positive probability.

[1]: J.Nash. Non-Cooperative Games. http://www.cs.upc.edu/~ia/nash51.pdf