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Video games are associated with small advantages in several measured cognitive skills, and structured game-based training has improved some targeted outcomes in studies. That does not mean gaming broadly boosts intelligence or that any commercial game will improve everyday performance. What matters is what a game asks players to do, who is playing, and whether a study measures improvement on a trained task, another cognitive task, or a real-world skill.
What research says about gaming and cognition
A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis by Zhao and colleagues combined 133 studies published from January 2005 through August 2025. Across 269 effect sizes and 14,245 participants, the authors found statistically significant but small associations between video-game play and memory, spatial ability, visual attention, cognitive control, and intelligence. The review describes associations across different study designs; it does not establish that gaming caused broad cognitive gains in every player. Zhao et al., Acta Psychologica (2026).
The included studies were rated medium quality in 69.93% of cases, high quality in 25.56%, and low quality in 4.51%. The review’s moderator analyses did not identify significant effects for gender, age group, health condition, game type, intervention duration, or cultural context. Those findings are not proof that these factors never matter; they mean the analyses did not detect significant differences across them in this body of studies.
What controlled game-training studies add
A separate 2023 meta-analysis by Evan T. Smith and Chandramallika Basak examined 63 video-game cognitive-intervention studies, covering 118 investigations and 2,079 participants. It found a moderate overall training effect on cognition (g = 0.25, p < .001) and significant evidence of transfer to overall cognition, attention/perception, and higher-order cognition constructs. The authors wrote: “Significant evidence of transfer was found to overall cognition, as well as to attention/perception and higher-order cognition constructs.” Smith and Basak, PLOS ONE (2023).
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These results concern interventions evaluated in studies. They are not a guarantee that picking up any game will produce the same gains, nor do they establish that a measured improvement automatically carries over to school, work, or daily life.
Why game features matter more than genre
Labels such as “action,” “strategy,” or “casual” can conceal important differences between games. Smith and Basak found that specific gameplay features were more useful for predicting selective transfer than broad genre categories. Games can combine demands, so describing what players actually do is more informative than relying on a shelf label.
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| Gameplay demand | Example of what the player does | Potentially relevant measured skill |
|---|---|---|
| Rapidly identify and prioritize threats | Notice changing events and choose what to respond to | Attention and perception |
| Monitor resources and manage simultaneous tasks | Track several evolving demands while planning actions | Working memory and higher-order cognition |
| Navigate or manipulate spatial information | Keep track of positions, routes, or relationships in a game space | Spatial ability |
| Remember and use information over time | Retain rules, locations, or objectives while continuing play | Memory |
These are descriptions of cognitive demands, not proof that every game featuring them improves a particular skill. The outcome depends on the intervention and what researchers measured.
What exergaming studies show—and who they apply to
A 2024 meta-analysis in npj Digital Medicine examined randomized exergaming trials among people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. For participants with MCI, it reported benefits in global cognitive function, learning and memory, working memory, verbal fluency, and executive function; complex attention did not show a significant difference in the reported analysis.
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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →The dementia evidence was more limited: four cohorts contributed to the global-cognition analysis, while one cohort assessed complex attention and executive function and found no significant differences in those measures. The review reported cognitive benefits in studies with longer training durations, including at least 12 weeks, but this is not a general play schedule for healthy people or children. The authors noted that protocols were not standardized, interventions and outcome measures differed, subgroup samples were small, and publication bias was possible. They also noted that virtual-reality activities for people with dementia may need adapted tasks and instruction. npj Digital Medicine (2024).
How to judge claims about a particular game
No cited study establishes one best commercial game for cognitive improvement. To assess a claim about a game, look for the evidence behind the specific title or intervention and ask:
- Which skill was targeted? Look for a defined outcome such as attention, working memory, executive control, or spatial processing rather than a vague promise to “boost the brain.”
- What did players have to do? Identify the relevant actions—such as noticing, remembering, planning, switching tasks, or coordinating—rather than relying on genre alone.
- Who took part? Findings for healthy participants, children, older adults, or people with a clinical diagnosis cannot automatically be applied to other groups.
- What was the intervention? Study schedules and durations apply to the tested program and population, not necessarily to ordinary recreational play.
- What transferred? Separate improvement on the trained task from performance on other cognitive tests and from outcomes in everyday life.
What the evidence does not establish
The evidence supports cautious claims about small associations and selective training effects, not a universal cognitive benefit from all video games. The studies vary in quality, duration, intervention design, and outcome measures. The available findings do not justify prescribing a particular game or a daily play duration as a general brain-training routine.
Research on disordered screen-use behaviours has reported attention/focus and executive-function deficits, but findings about disordered use are not an estimate of what ordinary gaming does. They should not be used to claim that normal play causes those deficits or to set a universal safe time limit.
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