What Are Educational Games? The Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers

An educational game is a game built around a specific learning objective, using structured challenges, feedback, and rewards to teach academic skills while keeping players engaged. Unlike games made purely for fun, an educational game's design starts with what a child should learn, then wraps that goal in play. That distinction matters more than ever as families and teachers sort through thousands of apps that all claim to be "educational."

If you've searched for educational games before, you've probably noticed the term gets used loosely. Some apps are true learning tools with research behind them. Others are entertainment games with a light academic theme layered on top. Below, we'll walk through what actually makes a game educational, why the research supports game-based learning for elementary-aged kids, and how to tell the difference between a game that teaches and a game that just entertains.

We'll also share some of the best free educational games for kids by subject, with a closer look at math, since that's where Prodigy can help most directly.

What Are Educational Games?

Educational games are games designed to teach a specific skill or concept, whether that's a math operation, a reading strategy, a science fact, or a historical event. They typically include:

• A clear learning objective tied to a curriculum or skill set
• Interactive gameplay that requires the player to apply that skill to progress
• Feedback loops, like points, levels, or in-game rewards, that respond to correct or incorrect answers
• Adaptive difficulty in stronger designs, so the challenge matches the player's current level

Educational games exist across nearly every subject, including math, reading and language arts, science, social studies, history, geography, art, and technology. Some are built specifically for classrooms and aligned to standards like the Common Core. Others are designed for home use, with parents guiding how and when they're played.

Why Educational Games Work for Elementary-Aged Kids

The research on digital game-based learning is more nuanced than "games help kids learn," and that nuance is actually useful. A 2024 meta-analysis in Review of Educational Research examined school-based studies of digital game-based learning and found a medium effect on overall learning, with a stronger effect specifically on cognitive learning outcomes. Motivational outcomes showed a smaller effect, and the researchers found no significant effect on metacognitive skills, with no evidence of publication bias skewing the results.

That honesty matters. A game that claims to improve every kind of outcome equally is oversimplifying. The more accurate picture is that digital learning games are genuinely effective at building cognitive skills like math fluency or vocabulary, moderately effective at boosting motivation, and not a strong tool on their own for teaching kids how to plan or monitor their own thinking.

One design feature makes a measurable difference: scaffolding. A 2021 meta-analysis in Educational Psychology Review, examining dozens of studies and hundreds of effect sizes, found that scaffolding inside digital learning games improved learning outcomes, with a larger effect for elementary students than for secondary students. Scaffolding was more effective in adventure, puzzle, and simulation-style games than in role-playing or strategy games. In plain terms, a game that breaks a skill into smaller supported steps teaches better than one that just wraps drill practice in a game skin.

Consistent Prodigy use throughout the school year has been shown to help students strengthen foundational math understanding and confidence.*

"Prodigy has shown me the power of game-based learning, especially for students of this generation. Prodigy has them directly doing math, and doing arithmetic in order to power up."

— Tonya Clark, Teacher

It's worth noting that effect sizes across game-based learning research vary widely depending on subject, game design, and how the outcome is measured. Rather than pointing to one number as definitive, the more reliable takeaway is that well-designed games with scaffolding and clear learning goals consistently outperform games without those features.

Educational Games vs. Entertainment Games: What's the Difference

This is the question that matters most once you've decided some screen time is going toward games. Not every game your child enjoys is teaching them something, and not every "educational" label is earned.

Recent research gives this distinction some helpful context. Gaming time among children age 8 and under rose sharply over four years, according to Common Sense Media's 2025 census, even though total screen time for that age group stayed roughly flat. Kids aren't spending more time on screens overall. They're spending a bigger share of that time gaming. That shift is exactly why the type of game matters more than the amount of time.

Parents themselves are more comfortable with structured screen time than headlines might suggest. A 2026 survey from the National Parents Union found that three-quarters of parents think their school's use of computers and tablets is about right, and roughly the same share want schools to set daily limits. Only a small fraction want zero screen time at school. That's not opposition to screens. It's a request for a standard, which is exactly what separates an educational game from an entertainment one: a game built around a standard, versus a game built purely to hold attention.

So what actually separates the two categories?

Feature	Educational game	Entertainment game
Primary goal	Teach a specific, measurable skill	Hold attention and entertain
Progress tied to	Correctly applying a skill or concept	Time played, reflexes, or luck
Difficulty	Often adapts to the learner's level	Fixed or based on game design alone
Evidence base	Ideally backed by curriculum alignment or research	Rarely evaluated for learning outcomes

 

High Prodigy usage equals higher math performance. The data shows it.*

"Struggling students love Prodigy. They think they're playing a game, but in reality, they are learning and practicing. Some of my heaviest users of Prodigy have become my best students. There is a positive correlation between Prodigy usage and student performance." (Jezer Urena, Teacher)

That's the core of what makes a game educational rather than just entertaining: the child believes they're playing, while the design is quietly doing the work of practice and repetition.

Best Free Educational Math Games for Kids in 2026

Math is where the research base is strongest and where Prodigy is built to help most directly, so we're leading with it. Recent NAEP data shows nine-year-olds gained ground in both reading and math since 2022, with the largest gains among the lowest-performing students. That's an encouraging sign that consistent, well-targeted practice, including game-based practice, can move the needle, especially for kids who need the most support.

Prodigy Math

Play Prodigy Math free

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Web

Age: 6 to 14

Cost: In-game educational content is free, Memberships available

Prodigy Math is the engaging, fantasy-based math game used by over 100 million students, teachers and parents around the world. It's curriculum-aligned and helps kids master math skills in every major topic from 1st grade to 8th grade, including fractions, geometry, and more.

After creating their own personalized math wizard, your child competes in math battles against in-game characters, similar to how role-playing games like Pokemon work. To win, they answer sets of math questions matched to their grade level and adjusted as they play.

Students who regularly engaged with Prodigy achieved greater improvements on state math assessments than their peers statewide.*

"I've seen a 45% increase in my standardized testing scores thanks to playing at least 25 minutes a day in Prodigy. The bulk of their Prodigy time is in the morning when their mind is still fresh for learning and it also helps them get settled in for the rest of the day's learning." (Clayton Carr, Teacher)

Create your free parent account to follow your child's progress as they play. You can also get a Membership to unlock extra in-game benefits for you and your child.

Buzzmath

Available: Web

Age: 8 to 14

Cost: Paid subscription, monthly and annual plans available

A middle school math game aligned with Common Core and TEKS. Kids help an inventor named Alfred save Mathlantis, a world that's lost its math knowledge, by solving problems and meeting famous mathematicians along the way.

Twelve a Dozen

Available: Apple App Store

Age: 8 to 14

Cost: Free, in-app purchases

This game introduces early algebraic thinking through puzzles. Kids join a numeric hero named Twelve on a journey through a universe of numbers, using core math concepts to solve problems along the way.

DragonBox

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play

Age: 5 to 13

Cost: Paid app

DragonBox teaches algebra and geometry concepts through visual puzzles rather than traditional equations, gradually introducing symbols and operations as kids build intuition for the underlying math.

Looking for more math games for kids? Check our list of the 13 best math apps for kids in elementary school.

Educational Games by Subject

Math has the most research behind it and the most search volume, but educational games span every subject. Here's where to look if your child's interests, or your classroom's needs, lie elsewhere.

• Language arts
• Art
• Health and physical education
• Science
• Technology
• Social studies
• History
• Geography

Language arts games

Prodigy English

Available: Web

Age: 6 to 12

Cost: Free to play, with optional Memberships for extra rewards

Prodigy English uses creative, sandbox-style gameplay to build English language skills. Kids collect resources on their own village and build objects to expand their world, while an adaptive algorithm adjusts questions to their grade and ability. It covers Common Core reading and language skills from 1st to 6th grade.

"I love that Prodigy reinforces key concepts for my child like idioms, root words, and reading comprehension. I like how my child's motivation for learning has increased." (Diana C, Parent)

"I love how my student is eager to learn and is being delivered content to improve their reading and writing skills." (Lindsay G, Parent)

HOMER

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Web

Age: 4 to 18

Cost: Free trial, then a paid subscription (check current pricing on their site)

HOMER offers a personalized learn-to-read plan built around a child's current reading level and interests, along with a curated library of stories.

Vocabulary Spelling City

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play, Web

Age: 4 to 18

Cost: Free, with a paid family membership available

A K-12 supplemental literacy tool built around spelling, grammar, vocabulary retention, and reading comprehension, with dozens of free games and pre-populated word lists.

Room Recess

Available: Web

Age: 3+

Cost: Free

A wide library of short educational games covering nouns, sight words, phonics, and other ELA topics, plus math and typing games from pre-k through 6th grade.

Art games

Start with Art!

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore

Age: 7+

Cost: Free, in-app purchases

Four foundational art lessons covering language, message, line, and shape in art, aligned to a visual arts curriculum, alongside creativity-building projects.

Tate Kids

Available: Web

Age: 6+

Cost: Free

Free art-related games and quizzes from Tate's family of galleries, including creative tools like building imaginary cities and helping robots save famous artworks.

Colorfy: Coloring Art Game

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play

Age: 4+

Cost: Free, in-app purchases

A digital coloring book with over 1,000 images across florals, animals, patterns, and more, plus an AR feature that shows how the finished art looks in the real world.

Health and physical education games

GoNoodle

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore

Age: 5 to 12

Cost: Free, premium version available

Video-led movement content designed to help parents and teachers get kids moving, with songs, dance, yoga, and mindfulness activities.

Learning Games for Kids: Health

Available: Web

Age: 4 to 13

Cost: Free

36 health-related games across four categories covering allergies, body parts, dental hygiene, and staying fit.

Disaster Master

Available: Web

Age: 4+

Cost: Free

An 8-level game teaching kids how to stay safe during environmental disasters like hurricanes and wildfires.

Science games

Tinybop

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play, Microsoft

Age: 4+

Cost: Paid, per app, with discounted bundles available

A set of educational apps exploring the human body, plants, weather, space, animals, and states of matter through open-ended play.

Toca Lab

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore

Age: 4+

Cost: Free with in-game purchases

Kids meet all 118 elements of the periodic table in Toca Lab: Elements, or explore how plants grow and evolve in Toca Lab: Plants.

Camp Wonderopolis

Available: Web

Age: 4+

Cost: Free

Mini-games covering food chains, melting points, and other biology, chemistry, and physics topics, alongside experiment ideas and quizzes.

Technology games

Tynker

Available: Apple App Store

Age: 4+

Cost: Individual and family plans available

Award-winning, self-paced coding courses with thousands of modules, interactive explanations, and mini-game previews to build programming skills over time.

CodeSpark Academy

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play, Web

Age: 7+

Cost: Paid subscription, with discounts for longer terms

A coding game built around puzzle-solving with characters called the Foos, covering sequencing and other core programming concepts.

Gamestar Mechanic

Available: Web (app access required)

Age: 10+

Cost: Free

An online game and community focused on teaching the guiding principles of game design through three stages: Play, Design, and Share. Kids complete a single-player quest, then use what they've learned to design and publish their own games.

Social studies games

PBS Kids Games

Available: Web, Apple App Store, Google Play

Age: 2 to 11

Cost: Free

Games featuring popular PBS characters that explore culture, environment, identity, and governance.

iCivics

Available: Web, Apple App Store, Google Play

Age: 8+

Cost: Free

Founded to reimagine civic education, iCivics turns abstract civics concepts into real-life scenarios kids can navigate through play.

One Globe Kids - Friends

Available: Apple App Store, Web

Age: 6+

Cost: Free, in-app purchases

Kids "meet" children from around the world through photo and audio stories that teach geographic, cultural, and political facts about different countries.

History games

Civilisations AR

Available: Apple App Store, Google Play

Age: All ages (adult supervision advised for children under 16)

Cost: Free

An augmented reality app from the BBC that brings historical artifacts, like ancient Egyptian relics, to life at true scale.

History for Kids: All Civilizations Learning Games

Available: Apple App Store

Age: 7+

Cost: Free, in-app purchases

Kids explore 14 different civilizations through games and adventures, building an avatar as they progress.

Geography games

National Geographic Kids

Available: Web

Age: 6+

Cost: Free

Fact-filled quizzes and action-adventure games covering geography and the natural world.

Carmen Sandiego

Available: Web

Age: 6+

Cost: Free

Kids track down a globe-trotting criminal organization across a series of geography-based mystery games built with Google Earth.

How Teachers Use Educational Games in the Classroom

Engagement isn't a nice-to-have for teachers right now, it's directly tied to one of the biggest sources of job stress. A 2026 RAND Corporation survey of K-12 public school teachers found that managing student behavior ranked as a top-three source of job stress for over half of teachers, well ahead of low pay. Separately, more than 1 in 3 teachers reported that student behavior was noticeably worse in the most recent school year compared to the year before, according to an EdWeek Research Center survey.

A game that students genuinely want to play can help here. It's not just an engagement bonus, it's a classroom management tool.

When teachers integrate Prodigy into classroom instruction, student performance improves across key math standards.*

"In Prodigy, my low-performing students can compete with my high-performing students without tension or negative consequences, which causes them to perform better." (Krystal Gibson, Teacher)

Teachers can assign Prodigy Math during class rotations or math centers, letting the game's adaptive difficulty handle differentiation automatically. As one researcher studying teacher confidence in math instruction put it, "When teachers are genuinely excited about the content, students tend to engage much more."

See how Prodigy works for teachers, including free classroom tools and standards-aligned reporting.

How Parents Can Use Educational Games at Home

For parents, the goal isn't eliminating screen time, it's making sure the time spent is purposeful. Fifteen to twenty minutes a day of teacher-set, curriculum-aligned game time is a reasonable target for most elementary-aged kids, and it's specific enough to actually track.

Prodigy has been shown to help students build stronger math skills.*

"My son actually begs me to let him play Prodigy." (Rainah Pray, Parent)

"Prodigy is a great way to get kids who don't like math into math." (Caralena Luthi, Parent)

"Prodigy is an engaging way to keep your child interested in learning new math skills and facts." (Amber Gouge, Parent)

That combination, a game kids ask to play paired with real skill-building underneath, is the entire case for educational games at home. Create your free parent account to see what your child is working on and where they might need extra support.

Common Questions About Educational Games

Are educational games actually effective?

Research shows digital game-based learning has a real, measurable effect on cognitive learning outcomes, though the size of that effect varies by subject, game design, and how the outcome is measured. Games with scaffolding, meaning they break skills into smaller supported steps, tend to outperform games without that feature, especially for elementary-aged kids.

What age are educational games good for?

Educational games exist for nearly every age, from preschool-level apps focused on letter and number recognition to middle school games covering algebra and civics. The right age range depends on the specific game and skill, so check the recommended age listed for each game before choosing one.

Are there free educational games for kids?

Yes. Many educational games, including Prodigy Math and Prodigy English, are free to play, with optional paid memberships for extra features. Others offer a free tier with in-app purchases, or free access with premium upgrades for schools and families.

How much game time should kids get on school nights?

There's no single universal number, but fifteen to twenty minutes of teacher-set or curriculum-aligned game time is a reasonable daily target for most elementary-aged kids. Many parents find it works well paired with homework or reading time rather than replacing it.

Ready to See the Impact Educational Games Can Have?

Gamification in education isn't limited to the classroom. Encouraging your child to spend some of their screen time on educational games can strengthen their skills across subjects and help build lifelong learning habits.

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* Among multiple studies commissioned by Prodigy Education. Individual results may vary, results are not guaranteed. Studies may be viewed here: prodigygame.com/main-en/research