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Educational Games and Gamification

Educational Games and Gamification is a research topic within Developmental and Educational Psychology. Science Explorer counts 36k research works in it since 1950. 21.4% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the use of gamification, game-based learning, and digital games to enhance education and learning outcomes. It covers topics such as motivation, student engagement, intrinsic motivation, and the impact of gamification on health. The research delves into the effectiveness of various game elements in educational contexts and their influence on learning and instructional design.

  • Gamification
  • Game-Based Learning
  • Digital Games
  • Motivation
  • Educational Games
  • Serious Games
  • Learning Outcomes
  • Student Engagement
  • Intrinsic Motivation
  • Health Gamification
Research works
36k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
7.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
21.4%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+63%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Educational Games and Gamification research?

By volume, the United States and Indonesia publish the most (1.7k and 1.4k works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 1.7k works
  2. 2 Indonesia 1.4k works
  3. 3 China 624 works
  4. 4 Spain 512 works
  5. 5 Germany 489 works
  6. 6 Brazil 486 works
  7. 7 India 439 works
  8. 8 Malaysia 432 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 411 works
  10. 10 United Kingdom 381 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 24.4%Indonesia: 20.5%China: 9.1%Spain: 7.5%6 others listed: 38.5%24%largest
United States1,668 · 24.4%Indonesia1,404 · 20.5%China624 · 9.1%Spain512 · 7.5%6 others listed2,638 · 38.5%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Educational Games and Gamification research?

By volume in 2022–2025, State University of Malang publishes the most Educational Games and Gamification research, followed by Indonesia University of Education and Binus University.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 State University of Malang Indonesia 68 works
  2. 2 Indonesia University of Education Indonesia 61 works
  3. 3 Binus University Indonesia 61 works
  4. 4 Yogyakarta State University Indonesia 60 works
  5. 5 Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia 59 works
  6. 6 State University of Semarang Indonesia 49 works
  7. 7 Tecnológico de Monterrey Mexico 43 works
  8. 8 State University of Padang Indonesia 41 works
  9. 9 National University of Malaysia Malaysia 40 works
  10. 10 Sultan Idris Education University Malaysia 38 works

Who are the leading researchers in Educational Games and Gamification?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Educational Games and Gamification include Richard E. Mayer and Mark D. Griffiths.

  1. 1 Richard E. Mayer 4.7k citations
  2. 2 Mark D. Griffiths 3.3k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is Educational Games and Gamification research done?

The largest centres of Educational Games and Gamification research in 2022–2025 are Jakarta (Indonesia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Bandung (Indonesia) and Yogyakarta (Indonesia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Vincennes, Durán and Toronto.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Jakarta Indonesia 154 works
  2. 2 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 137 works
  3. 3 Bandung Indonesia 130 works
  4. 4 Yogyakarta Indonesia 111 works
  5. 5 Beijing China 106 works
  6. 6 Malang Indonesia 106 works
  7. 7 Semarang Indonesia 94 works
  8. 8 Surabaya Indonesia 90 works
  9. 9 Taipei Taiwan 90 works
  10. 10 São Paulo Brazil 87 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VincennesUS · 20.0 works60×
  2. Durán31.1 works33×
  3. Toronto20.0 works25×
  4. Tai PoCN · 22.8 works13×
← less than its size predictsmore →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Educational Games and Gamification than the world average.

See Educational Games and Gamification on the map

Where is the best place to study Educational Games and Gamification?

Among universities, judged by research, Education University of Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong and National Yunlin University of Science and Technology score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%25%50%75%mean 36.61%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Education University of Hong Kong: 23, 60.0%University of Hong Kong: 32, 56.1%National Yunlin University of Science and Technology: 12, 41.3%Tecnológico de Monterrey: 43, 15.2%Tampere University: 29, 37.5%National Taiwan University of Science and Technology: 28, 44.8%University of West Attica: 14, 61.2%Binus University: 61, 13.8%University of Aveiro: 29, 26.8%Sultan Idris Education University: 38, 9.4%Education University…University of Hong K…National Yunlin Univ…Tecnológico de Monte…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Education University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 72.660.0%13.3×23 -20.6%
2University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 72.356.1%3.1×32 +363.9%
3National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Taiwan 69.441.3%10.8×12 +262.2%
4Tecnológico de Monterrey Mexico 68.415.2%13.9×43 +366.3%
5Tampere University Finland 66.637.5%8.8×29 +114.9%
6National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Taiwan 66.344.8%12.1×28 +9.6%
7University of West Attica Greece 65.761.2%8.7×14
8Binus University Indonesia 65.213.8%9.4×61 +882.0%
9University of Aveiro Portugal 64.226.8%7.7×29 +304.2%
10Sultan Idris Education University Malaysia 63.09.4%15.8×38 +322.1%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Educational Games and Gamification research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 63% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Educational Games and Gamification.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.