12 Fun Best Games for Brain

Games are primarily for entertainment, but it won’t hurt to gain some unintended benefits from the time-consuming activity. One potential advantage of gaming is to train your brain.

Playing games to improve cognitive function isn’t a rare phenomenon, as there’s an entire category of brain games dedicated to training players’ cognitive abilities. Instead of wasting time playing non-beneficial games, you may consider a foray into the world of the best games for brain.

This article will outline 12 fun best games for brain everyone should try. This collection will feature games for mobile and desktop gamers to be as inclusive as possible. Without more ado, let’s start playing.

12 Fun Best Games for Brain

Many games claim to help in cognitive development, but here are the 12 best games for brain.

1. Sudoku

Describing Sudoku as popular is a big understatement; ubiquitous is a better word. The game first appeared in the late nineties, but it now exists everywhere, from feature phones to smartphones and magazines.

When people think of Sudoku, they think of an unsolvable numbers game with mischievously simple rules: each row and column must contain the numbers 1-9 with no repetition across them. Also, you must ensure each 3×3 grid within the 9×9 puzzle contains the numbers 1-9 to challenge you even further.

An essential benefit of playing Sudoku is that it makes you better at Sudoku, which is a significant advantage per se. According to researchers, other benefits include concentration, critical thinking, and memory, and you won’t wonder why it has those benefits once you understand how the game works.

2. Wordle

Wordle is a simple word game that lets you guess a five-letter word in six chances, hinting you to the answer as you suggest each letter. Apart from being incredibly fun, Wordle is a very challenging game with immense benefits for the brain.

For one, Wordle can do an immense level of good to your vocabulary as an English speaker or learner, but that’s not where it ends. Scientists also theorize the game can help prevent dementia and cognitive decline. While those claims remain unproven, there’s proof that Wordle can boost your mood when you’re down.

3. Peak

Peak Brain Training is one of the best games for brain, as it’s a training program curated to improve players’ cognitive abilities. The app comes with 35 brain games that impact different areas of the brain, suitable for players of all ages.

It comes with brain workouts in different categories, including math, long and short-term memory, coordination, and emotional control. If you love the freely available version of the brain training app, you can buy Peak Pro, which comes with even more of the best games for brain, and at an affordable price.

4. Lumosity

Lumosity describes itself as a research-based program with games that improve different parts of a player’s cognitive function, and it backs up its claims with in-house research supposedly proving the claims. If you’re after a research-backed brain game, Lumosity is as close as you’ll ever get.

According to the official website, Lumosity helps with short-term memory, processing speed, fluid reasoning, and working memory. Lumosity is available as a web app for desktop users and on the Google Play Store and the App Store for all kinds of devices.

5. Braingle

Briangle isn’t an app-first platform; it’s a website featuring an insanely huge collection of some of the best games for brain to keep users’ wits sharp. It seems to have an iOS app, but you can always access it through the web portal on iOS and Android.

Braingle has several categories that impact a player in different ways. Popular categories include riddles and puzzles, optical illusions, trivia quizzes, photo quizzes, and memory tests. You can even take an IQ test on Braingle, compare it with other members, and compete in numerous games. Summarily, this website features the best games for brain.

6. Solitaire

Solitaire has been around for quite a while, but it only got insanely popular with Windows 7 when Microsoft bundled a digital version of the game with the operating system. It may not be the most loved feature in the critically acclaimed operating system, but it has plenty of fans.

Solitaire can be boring if you don’t know how to play it, but once you do, it becomes one of the best games for brain. The objective is simple: build the cards in order from Ace to King while following a strict set of rules.

Winning in solitaire typically comes with an adrenaline rush that can be a great stress reliever, helping to energize your brain. The game also improves short-term memory and builds mental resilience, especially if you play it often.

7. Call of Duty (Mobile or PC)

Call of Duty may seem like a weird entry on a list of this nature, no thanks to its gory and action-packed nature, as opposed to being a casual puzzle like most of the other games in this compilation.

First-person shooters like Call of Duty or PUBG can train the mind to become more focused and filter out distractions when performing unrelated tasks. Also, the game could improve players’ mobility, response time, and ability to predict future events and react to them in real time, making it a valid entry in this compilation.

8. Brain Age 2

Brain Age is a puzzle game for the Nintendo console designed to help improve players’ cognitive abilities. First released on the Nintendo DS, the game has evolved over the years and is now on the company’s flagship console, the Nintendo Switch.

Depending on your location, the game may also be Dr. Kawashima’s Braining, but the concept remains the same.

You take a quick test within the game, and it uses the test to estimate your brain’s age. You can increase your age by playing the game continuously and taking more tests until you achieve a 60-year brain age, which is the game’s ultimate goal. Thanks to the game’s concept, it’s easily one of the best games for brain.

9. Tetris

Tetris is somewhat similar to Sudoku in that it’s almost ubiquitous, probably not as popular as the latter, but it’s doing some impressive numbers. It’s available on all kinds of devices, including feature phones that don’t include support for external games.

The game’s concept is simple: you remove pieces by filling in all the blank spaces in a line, and the game fails when you fill the screen to the top. That doesn’t sound very descriptive, but who needs a description for such a popular game anyway?

Tetris has several benefits; pattern recognition, critical thinking, problem-solving, etc. Since the game requires you to keep track of multiple simultaneous events to ensure the bricks don’t fill the screen to the top, you can gain some decision-making skills from Tetris, which is enough to throw it into this list.

10. Scrabble

Scrabble is another word game played by a team of two to four players. You score by placing tiles containing letters onto a 15×15 board to form words admissible in a crosswords puzzle.

The game is available on numerous platforms, including mini-games on social media platforms like Facebook. It’s also available in 30+ languages, making it one of the best games for brain globally.

While psychologists maintained the absence of any consistent link between playing the game and intelligence, the game’s elements suggest it could improve your memory and ability to recall words speedily.

The adrenaline rush associated with winning on Scrabble is also a mood-booster, which makes it one of the best games for brain.

11. The New York Times Crossword

Crossword puzzles have successfully become one of the best games for brain to combat cognitive decline. Everyone knows what they are: a giant grid of empty squares you fill by inserting the appropriate words based on hints. I also like to call them the letters version of Sudoku.

The newspaper releases new crosswords every day, and you can gain several benefits by attempting to solve each puzzle.

The game improves your written English, and it’s also a proven way to combat cognitive decline and improve memory and quick thinking, as the game forces you to recall words you know from simple prompts. Considering the plethora of benefits, this game is easily one of the best games for brain.

12. Elevate

Like Lumosity, Elevate isn’t a game by itself; instead, it’s an app with several (35+) brain games designed to be educational. The app is freely available on iOS and Android, but you don’t get to play a lot before it starts bugging you to make in-app purchases.

Elevate is as good for kids as it is for elders, with educational games in topics like math, speaking, and writing dominating the platform. During signup, the app allows you to choose your focus, automatically selecting the best lessons to help you reach your goal.

While it doesn’t have as much research backing it as Lumosity, it remains one of the most fun games for brain.

FAQs

Do Brain Games Increase IQ?

While some of the best games for brain promise IQ gains, researchers have found such claims to be mostly false, as performance improvements within the games rarely carry over to even similar tasks.

If you aim to increase your IQ, you should focus on college; researchers discovered staying longer at school positively impacts IQ scores directly.

Do Brain Games Work?

There’s no conclusive evidence that brain games work, but there are some that prove they don’t. Some of the best games for brain listed above may help you in areas like math or vocabulary, but you shouldn’t get your hopes up on preventing cognitive decline or memory loss.

The fact that companies like Lumosity have had to pay hefty fines in the past also doesn’t inspire confidence.

What Game Can Improve Memory?

Dieting and healthier life choices will have more impact on your memory than games. Since you already play, however, you should spend more time on crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and other best games for brain that require storing and recalling items from memory.

Conclusion

Playing games won’t impact your brain significantly; you stand a better chance of trying to improve your cognitive abilities by dieting, sleeping well, and exercising. If you already spend a lot of time on games, you should consider some of the games listed above; they may be the best games for brain, which are also fun to play.

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