In practice? Game launchers (Steam, Epic, GOG) and professional applications often install the exact version they need, leading to a list of 15 different "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable" entries in your control panel. They coexist peacefully.
Note: Starting with VC 140 (Visual Studio 2015), Microsoft changed the naming and introduced strict binary compatibility. A program built with VS 2017 can usually use the runtime from VS 2019. However, the 140 number has stuck. vc runtime
If you encounter an error, do download individual .dll files from random websites—they are often outdated or bundled with malware. The Right Way to Fix It: In practice
You likely discovered the VC Runtime because a game or app failed to launch, showing an error like "The program can't start because MSVCP140.dll is missing." Note: Starting with VC 140 (Visual Studio 2015),