Video games can give players a chance to practise social skills when play requires them to communicate, coordinate, negotiate roles, consider other players’ perspectives, and solve problems together. Those opportunities depend on the game and the people playing; interaction during a game does not by itself prove lasting improvement in everyday relationships.
What social skills can players practise in a game?
In a multiplayer game, players may need to explain a plan, listen to teammates, divide tasks, adapt when a strategy fails, or negotiate what to do next. Those moments can create practice in communication, cooperation, shared problem-solving, and responding to other people. A game may also put players in different roles, giving them a reason to coordinate rather than simply act independently.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The key is what the activity asks players to do. A game that requires teamwork creates different social demands from one played alone or one built around competing against one another. Even in multiplayer play, being online at the same time is not the same as having meaningful social interaction.
Outdated Drivers Are Slowing You Down
One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchWindows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallWhy do some games create more opportunities for social practice?
Social gaming is not one uniform activity. A 2023 systematic review by Gonçalves and colleagues covered 263 publications gathered in February 2021 and described a varied field spanning different forms of interaction and play. That figure counts publications; it is not a measure of how effectively games teach social skills. Read the review.
#1 Best Overall
- Targets the development of essential social skills such as empathy, friendship, manners, and emotional understanding.
- Versatile gameplay options, including action games and sentence-building games, ensure a rich, engaging experience.
- Designed for children aged 5-8, aligning with educational standards for grades 1-2.
- The set includes 4 board games, 6 counters, a spinner, a die, and an answer sheet, providing all you need for endless fun and learning.
- Ideal for both classroom and family settings, offering a fun way to build interpersonal skills through play.
When choosing a game or play setting for shared practice, consider the interaction the game actually requires:
- Interaction: Do players need to talk or coordinate, or can they complete the activity independently?
- Goal: Are players working toward a shared outcome, or mainly trying to defeat one another?
- Roles and group size: Do players have different responsibilities, and how many people must coordinate?
- Social context: Are players communicating with familiar peers, or with people they do not know?
These are useful ways to describe the demands of a game, not a validated consumer ranking. The reviewed evidence does not establish a universally best genre, title, or setting for improving social skills.
Rank #2
- FUN CBT GAME FOR EVERYONE: Great for family game night. Used by many teachers, school counselors, therapists, and small group settings.
- SELF ESTEEM BUILDER FOR KIDS, TEENS, AND ADULTS: Perfect for rapport-building and starting meaningful conversation that encourage players to reflect on their existing strengths and weaknesses.
- PROMOTES POSITIVITY: Thought provoking questions that reinforce a positive self image.
- ICE BREAKER + RELATIONSHIP BUILDER: Encourages players to get to know each other better, all while building confidence and focusing on the positive.
- JUMBO DOUBLE DECK (108 cards total) - You Know: For 2-6 players, ages 7+
What does research show about interaction during play?
A 2026 study examined children playing Ruby’s Mission, an applied multiplayer game. Researchers recorded and annotated gameplay and found a small positive relation between children’s socioemotional skills and the proportion of overlapping social interactions they had during play. Interaction patterns also related to group size, familiarity, personality, and assigned roles. The findings describe associations during this particular game activity; they do not show that the game caused social skills to improve or that any change carried over to everyday life. See the study record.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →This distinction matters: observing players communicate or cooperate is evidence that interaction happened in the game. To show that a game teaches a lasting skill, evidence would also need to establish a change in the skill and whether it appears outside the play session.
Rank #3
- Encourages students to work together to develop their social skills
- Teaching topics include relatable scenarios, differentiate between right and wrong and learn how to express your emotions and recognize how others may be feeling.
- Games have self-correcting elements.
- Includes game guide with instructions.
- Encourages students to work together to develop their social skills.
Do educational games and entertainment games teach skills in the same way?
No. Games designed for education or as serious games may be built around explicit learning aims, while entertainment games are primarily made to be played. A 2023 systematic review of children’s social problem-solving included games with educational, serious-game, and entertainment purposes, but that range does not make those categories interchangeable. Read the review.
A 2021 review of serious games intended to develop young people’s social skills described the evidence as fragmented. The existence of a learning goal or a cooperative mode is not, on its own, proof that a game produces a particular outcome. Read the review.
Rank #4
- Boosts Social & Emotional Intelligence Skills: Guide children into situational dialogues through fun & engaging River and Ladder Games. Includes 37 scenario cards featuring real-life illustrations of emotions kids commonly experience at school and at home, along with thought-provoking questions, and focuses on helping kids foster social skills, build empathy, and enhance communication
- Play, Learn, and Grow: A captivating classic chutes board game - When landing on a positive emotion square, climb the ladder, while landing on a negative emotion square, get swept down the waterfall. Designed to encourage positive behavior, build confidence, and nurture resilience and social skills in kids
- Real-Life Scenarios with Relatable Kid Characters: Features 19 simple scenario cards corresponding to the board and 18 more complex everyday-life scenario cards. Encourages kids to look at each scenario card and describe who what why. Supports kids in exploring clues, describing characters, and practicing critical thinking through relatable everyday situations at home or school
- Perfect for Parents, Counselors, Teachers & Therapists: This speech therapy game is designed for ages 5+. A great speech therapy resource for language disorders and phonics vocabulary. An ideal Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT) tool for developing self-awareness, coping strategies, and interpersonal skills. An excellent conversation starter for SEL curriculum, classroom group activity, and calm down corners
- Learning Gift for Kids: As a speech therapy material, this educational game aims to encourage kids to observe, think critically, and then talk about the situational details to improve articulation, emotion identification, and expression of feelings. A great gift for kids, birthdays, Christmas, Easter, and back to school day
Can a cooperative game be an example?
Overcooked! All You Can Eat is one concrete example of a game built for shared play: Team17 lists local and online cooperative multiplayer. Players can use a session as an opportunity to communicate and coordinate around a shared task. The publisher’s page verifies the cooperative modes, not therapeutic effectiveness or lasting social-skill transfer. See Team17’s game page.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →What can and can’t be concluded about real-world benefits?
Research supports a cautious conclusion: some games and play settings create opportunities to practise social interaction, but the evidence does not establish that ordinary video games reliably improve social skills in the general population. The 2023 social-gaming review noted methodological limitations, including few studies in everyday play settings and a lack of established constructs for measuring social outcomes. It also does not provide a dependable general estimate of how much ordinary games improve social skills. Read the review.
Best Value
- Winner, Brain Child Award: Teach social skills and communication; help kids and tweens understand expectations, social blunders, manage frustrations & distractions, deal with disappointment, team work, peer pressure, resolve conflicts, handle bullying
- Aligns with Social Emotional Standards: Includes skills assessment, grade-level performance checklists for parent-teacher conference; identify and track student strengths and development needs from back to school to grade level graduation
- FREE Online Curriculum and "How to Respond" Facilitator Guides: each card comes with social scripts and talking points from counselors, online library with card game directions, discussion prompts, learning materials, and follow up questions
- Practice problem solving skills and growth mindset: roleplay age-appropriate real life social scenarios to succeed in school; know how to start and maintain a conversation to overcome social anxiety, build self control, confidence, motivation, respect
- Easy to use: For busy parents, teachers, social workers, and therapists; card deck organized by difficulty and SEL topic, weave bite-size "what would you do" social stories in home, therapy, and classroom, such as morning meeting, one to one intervention
For children with neurodevelopmental disorders, keep the evidence within its studied scope. A 2022 systematic review covered eight studies involving 242 children with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, or developmental coordination disorder. Its authors called for more research on treatment fidelity and whether skills generalize to real-life situations. Those findings should not be extended to all children or all games, and a game should not be treated as a replacement for evidence-based care. See the review record.
In practice, a cooperative game can be a setting in which people communicate and work toward a shared goal. Whether that practice leads to a lasting change beyond the game is a separate question, and the available reviews do not establish a universal effect size or a best game for achieving it.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
