According to a study from 2023, video game play is linked to stronger performance across several mental tasks, while board games showed no measurable effect when the two activities were reviewed together. Findings reveal that video games shape cognitive functions differently from traditional board games.
The research adds new clarity to a long-running question about whether cognitive gains come from the amount of time spent playing or from the type of game itself. The authors said they wanted to take a closer look at everyday play patterns instead of controlled lab tasks, which helped them spot clearer trends across game types.
The study involved 496 participants who completed six cognitive tests and a detailed questionnaire about how many hours they spent each week playing video games and board games. The group included people who did not play at all and others who played more than 40 hours a week. Participants also listed the titles they played most often: League of Legends and Mario Kart were common choices among video game players, while Uno, Monopoly, and chess were the most frequent board game picks.
When the researchers reviewed overall time spent across all game types, they found a steady link between hours played and higher scores on every test. People who logged more time tended to perform better. The clearest differences appeared when video game hours and board game hours were evaluated separately, which helped show which activities related more directly to each type of cognitive skill.
Video game time predicted stronger results in mental flexibility, planning, visual working memory, visuospatial processing, fluid intelligence, and verbal working memory. These relationships held steady even when the team accounted for age, preferred genres, and time spent on other types of games. The findings build on earlier research that points to video games as a way to strengthen attention, improve task switching, build visual memory, and support problem-solving. The authors also stated that fast-paced or strategy-heavy games may play a role in these gains.
Board game hours did not predict performance on any of the cognitive measures once video game hours were included in the model. This does not mean board games provide no benefits. Previous research has shown gains in memory and reasoning from games such as chess. The authors suggest that the advantages seen in earlier studies may come from social interaction, strategy practice, or verbal engagement, none of which were fully captured by the tests used in this project.
The research team encourages future studies to look more closely at individual game features and how much time people devote to specific activities. Their findings point to video games having a distinct influence on cognitive abilities that sets them apart from traditional tabletop play, and they believe more work in this area could help explain why these patterns appear so consistently.
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