The gamification statistics worth quoting come from market reports, academic meta-analyses and named customer cases, and each one should come with its source and year. Research shows that gamification usually has a positive but modest effect that depends a lot on context, and market reports estimate the global gamification market at around USD 26–29 billion in 2025. Many popular figures online, like "gamification increases engagement by 48%", have no original source we could find.
Search for gamification marketing statistics and you get long lists of percentages. Few of them link to a study, many are copied from blog to blog, and some go back more than ten years. That makes them risky to put in a deck for your CMO.
So we did it the slow way. Every external number below comes from a page we opened and read ourselves, and each one links to the original report or paper with the publisher and year. Where a well-known number had no source we could find, we say so.
Market size: big numbers, big spread
Market research firms publish free summaries of their gamification reports. The full methods sit behind a paywall, and the estimates differ, so treat them as ranges, not facts.
| Source | Base year value | Forecast | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMARC Group, updated 2026 | USD 26.3 billion (2025) | USD 113.2 billion by 2034 | 17.08% a year (2026–2034) |
| Mordor Intelligence, updated 2026 | USD 29.11 billion (2025) | USD 112.32 billion by 2031 | not used here |
Two things stand out:
- Marketing is a big slice. Mordor Intelligence says marketing and sales platforms held 25.24% of gamification revenue in 2025. It also expects HR and training uses to grow faster.
- Old reports stay online. Grand View Research's gamification page still shows a forecast period of 2019 to 2025, "published July 2014" and "last updated July 2020". If a blog quotes a market forecast, check which edition it comes from.
Engagement: why game mechanics feel familiar
Games are not a niche habit. In the US, the Entertainment Software Association's 2025 Essential Facts report found that nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 5 to 90, or 205.1 million people, regularly play video games (ESA with YouGov, online survey of 5,000 people, February 2025).
That doesn't prove a scratch card on your website will work. It does explain why people understand a wheel, a quiz or a leaderboard without instructions. For the "why" behind it, read our guide to the psychology of gamification.
What the research says: does gamification work?
This is where the best evidence is. Researchers have studied gamification for more than a decade, mostly in learning, health and work, and the answer is "yes, usually a little, and it depends".
The early review (2014)
Juho Hamari, Jonna Koivisto and Harri Sarsa's literature review, "Does Gamification Work?" (HICSS conference, 2014), is one of the most cited papers on the topic.
- It examined 24 peer-reviewed empirical studies.
- Most reported positive results for some of the game elements tested, but only 2 found all their tests positive.
- None of the studies were explicitly done in a marketing context, and no paper looked at the link between gamification and purchase behaviour.
The authors concluded that gamification gives positive effects, but that the effects depend greatly on the context and on the users.
The big follow-up (2019)
Koivisto and Hamari came back to the topic five years later in The rise of motivational information systems (International Journal of Information Management, 2019). The field had grown fast:
- 819 studies reviewed in total.
- 273 empirical studies analysed in detail.
Results mostly leaned positive, but mixed results were common. Points, badges and leaderboards were the most studied mechanics, and education, health and crowdsourcing the most common settings.
Learning: a meta-analysis
Michael Sailer and Lisa Homner's The gamification of learning: a meta-analysis (Educational Psychology Review, 2020) pooled controlled studies and found significant small effects on:
- Cognitive learning outcomes: g = 0.49 (19 studies, 1,686 people)
- Motivational outcomes: g = 0.36 (16 studies, 2,246 people)
- Behavioural outcomes: g = 0.25 (9 studies, 951 people)
"g" is an effect size: the higher, the bigger the difference between the gamified and the non-gamified group. Only the cognitive effect held up in the most rigorous studies. Game stories and social interaction made a difference to behaviour.
Health and behaviour
- A systematic review by Daniel Johnson and colleagues, Gamification for health and wellbeing (Internet Interventions, 2016), found 19 papers with empirical evidence: 59% reported positive effects and 41% mixed effects, mostly with moderate or lower quality evidence.
- Mazéas and colleagues' meta-analysis, Does gamification improve physical activity? (Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2022), covered 16 studies and 2,407 participants. It found a small to medium effect on physical activity (g = 0.42). In a secondary analysis of 7 studies, gamified programmes added about 1,610 steps a day. About 14 weeks after the programmes ended, the effect was much weaker (g = 0.15).
That last point matters for marketers too. Novelty fades. A game helps people act now, and you need a reason for them to come back, like a Christmas calendar or a follow-up email flow.
Predictions that aged
Some of the most repeated "statistics" are predictions made around 2011 and 2012.
- Gartner, 2011: over 50% of organisations managing innovation processes would gamify parts of their business by 2015. We couldn't open Gartner's original release. We found it cited in Hamari, Koivisto and Sarsa's 2014 paper.
- Pew Research Center, 2012: in The Future of Gamification, 1,021 technology experts were asked about 2020. 53% expected gamification to be widespread, and 42% expected it to stay big only in some areas. It was an opt-in survey, so Pew itself says the results can't be generalised.
They are interesting history. They are not evidence about your campaign in 2026.
Numbers we couldn't verify
- "Gamification increases engagement by 48%." Widely quoted, but we could not find the original source. Different blogs credit it to different research firms and publications, and none link to a study.
- Popup and email sign-up benchmarks. The average popup conversion rates you see online come from popup builders and email tools sharing their own customer data, often without saying how they measured it. We couldn't find an independent primary source, so we left them out. Your own A/B tests are a better benchmark.
Scratcher's own figures
Here are our numbers, from our own platform:
- 35M+ sign-ups collected for customers
- 25K+ campaigns built
- 1,000+ users
And a few results from named customers. These are some of the best campaigns, not averages, and the measures differ (a conversion rate here is usually visitors to the game who signed up).
| Customer | Format | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Dansk Outlet | Scratch card | 13,000 sign-ups from 16,000 visitors, an 81% conversion rate |
| BOBO | Spin the wheel | Cost per lead of €0.18 |
| Whiteaway | Advent calendar with a wheel | 82% of new subscribers still subscribed after six months |
| Wolt | Mystery box | 150% more marketing permissions |
| Burger King | Mystery box | 45.5% coupon redemption and 9% more Whopper orders |
| POWER | Spin the wheel | 300,000+ game plays and 60,000 new email permissions |
| Toyota Denmark | Christmas calendar | 450,375 doors opened, with participants returning 18 of 24 days |
| Rascals | Spin the wheel | 259% ROI |
More stories are on our customer stories page.
How to use these numbers
- Quote the source, not the blog. Link the report or paper, with the publisher and year. If you can't find the original, don't use the number.
- Check the year. A 2012 prediction or a 2014 market page tells you little about today.
- Check what was measured. "Conversion rate" can mean sign-ups per visitor, per player or per popup view. Compare like with like.
- Respect the context. Most research is about learning, health and work, not marketing. Use it to explain why games motivate people, not to promise a result.
- Use your own numbers. Your best benchmark is your previous campaign. Our guides to gamification ROI and gamification marketing KPIs show what to track.
FAQ
How big is the gamification market?
Estimates for 2025 range from USD 26.3 billion (IMARC Group) to USD 29.11 billion (Mordor Intelligence). Forecasts for the 2030s are above USD 110 billion, but the methods are not public.
Does gamification actually work?
Mostly yes, with caveats. Reviews and meta-analyses find positive effects in most studies, but the effects are often small, depend on context and can fade after the novelty wears off.
Is there research on gamification in marketing specifically?
Less than you'd think. The 2014 review by Hamari and colleagues found no studies done explicitly in a marketing context. Most evidence comes from learning, health and work, which is why case results and your own tests matter.
Where do the popular gamification statistics come from?
Often nowhere we could find. Before you quote a number, look for the original study. If you only find it on blogs that quote each other, leave it out.
Make your own numbers
The most convincing statistic in your next meeting is one from your own campaign. Read about the benefits of gamification in marketing, see how Scratcher helps you collect sign-ups, then start a free 14-day trial or book a meeting with our team.
