Sports Then and Now

Games have been in existence for a long time. Whether it’s a classic board game, games played in a school playground or more recently, online.

Despite some resistance towards playing games and a lot of negativity around spending too much time on games, especially where the online world is concerned, there are some great benefits to it.

Games are not only beneficial to your brain but for your body. There are a lot of different games out there that can be helpful for training and working both the mind and the physical body.

In this guide, you’ll learn ten ways in which games can benefit your brain and body in 2025. Hopefully, you’ll be able to incorporate more gameplay into your life.

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1. Increases brain activity

Brain activity is something that can benefit from playing more games in general. Playing games actually increases grey matter volume and connectivity between brain networks. It engages multiple functions within the brain that are essential to the brain’s performance in general.

This engagement can be great for stimulating those areas and keeping the brain nice and healthy. Many of us don’t think about the brain needing exercise, and a way to do this is by playing games on a daily basis.

From a game of Wordle every day to losing yourself in an open-world map game for an hour or two. There’s a dopamine release that you get from playing video games that helps bring you pleasure and motivation.

Your brain’s plasticity improves when playing games, meaning you’re more adaptable to change, and that improves long-term cognitive function too.

2. Improves cognitive skills

Talking of cognitive functionality, games are a great way to help challenge the mind, improve problem-solving, as well as a number of other cognitive skills. If you need an excuse to play games, then use the improvement of your cognitive skills as the excuse! Here are a few ways cognitive skills benefit from playing games:

Problem-solving

Being a good problem-solver is great for your life, both personally and professionally. From a professional viewpoint, you can gain a lot of success from being a problem solver, especially when you’re looking to manage or lead your peers in the workplace.

Personal problem-solving can be helpful to have too, so that you can navigate your day-to-day life with less friction and hassle.

Memory

Memory can fade over time, which is why it’s important to work on it so that you’re maintaining it for as long as possible. Age can really impact memory, and that’s why playing games that encourage you to remember sequences so you can progress to the next level is crucial for memory maintenance.

Having a good memory is enabled through activities like playing games, both classic board games and video games.

Reaction time and speed of processing

Your reaction time and speed of processing can greatly improve when you’re playing games regularly. When you’re playing a game, you’re much more aware of what’s going on, and therefore your focus is on point at all times.

The speed of processing can be helpful to adopt into your personal and professional life, so another great benefit when it comes to improving cognitive function.

3. Improved spatial reasoning

Games are a great way to help a person with spatial memory and reasoning. A game can be helpful to visualise and manipulate the space that it’s displaying, so for games with 3D, it can be really helpful for a person to play these games for real-life situations.

More spatial memory and reasoning offer numerous benefits impacting various areas, specifically for those growing up. Areas like STEM fields and mathematics benefit a lot from improved spatial reasoning, as well as daily life.

It can help to close those gaps for individuals who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and therefore need the extra help in education and getting their foot on a stable ladder in life. Being able to problem-solve is part of having good spatial reasoning.

4. Enhanced focus and attention

As part of the cognitive function of the brain, having more focus and attention is only going to benefit your health and well-being.

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Many games that are played in person or online require a certain amount of attention and concentration. Sometimes, that ability to concentrate may be the difference between successfully completing a level and failing it.

The more you can enhance your focus and attention, the more likely you’ll be to apply that to your real life and benefit from those improved skills.

Enhanced focus and attention can make you more productive in life, both in your home life and work life.

5. Helps with learning and educational opportunities

Games aren’t always designed to be entertaining. In fact, they often offer a lot more than that, whether it’s to encourage critical thought or to build upon useful skills that you can use in reality.

Some games have been designed to teach new skills or reinforce the ones you already have. Examples of such games include the memory tray game. This is often used for those who are younger and need to build their memory skills. 

By identifying everything on a tray, covering it up and then having to recall the objects is a fun but great way for your kids to develop cognitive function. Minecraft is useful to play when it comes to creating custom worlds, and even teachers can use it to help them teach in the classroom and make learning visually engaging for students who rely on this teaching style.

6. Provides mental stimulation and relief

Life can get pretty stressful at times, and it’s useful to have outlets that you can lean back on to provide you with some light relief.

Games provide mental stimulation, as well as relaxation and a break from the everyday pressures of life that can often get a person down. Everyone is different when it comes to their mental health, meaning some people might like to play certain genres of games, while others prefer a classic that they play over and over again.

The ultimate motivator for playing games is the relief that it can bring from the stressful situations faced in real life.

7. Social connection

The world of gaming has certainly evolved over the years, and while it was once only a solo experience, it’s now become much bigger than that. Many games facilitate social interaction and allow players to foster relationships online, even if they never meet those individuals in their real lives. Social connection is important for us all to have, and games help provide that.

Games are developing further and providing more opportunities for interactions both in-play and outside of games, like in the waiting rooms before going into battle.

8. Increased physical activity

While it might not be something that’s as prominent in gaming, it’s certainly heading towards a world where gaming becomes more interactive physically.

Console games that have motion controls are a great way to encourage physical movement and can be a great way to get people to exercise.

We’ve seen in the past with consoles like the Wii, but there are a lot of advancements happening within VR that might lead to more physically demanding games where you’re immersed in the game and moving around to create physical effort.

While it might not be for everyone, it’s a direction that games will likely go in for those who want a more immersive experience.

9. Stress reduction

Stress gets to all of us at some point. Whether it’s the stress of taking exams or a critical time in a project at work that’s sending you overboard.

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Games can be a fun and engaging way to help unwind and reduce stress levels. Tackling your stress is an important part of maintaining a healthy life in general. Stress, after all, can cause a lot of physical and mental strain, some of which can be permanently damaging to a person.

Therefore, it’s always a good idea to find opportunities where you can alleviate your stress, like gaming, for example.

10. Useful for improving dexterity

Games that require hand-eye coordination can help to improve dexterity and fine motor skills. Games that deliver precise hand and finger movements are useful to do as much of in order to improve your logical thinking and reaction times.

From playing musical instruments in Rock Band to navigating a trick level in Tomb Raider, the more dexterous your hands can become, the better you’ll be in life, particularly career-wise, if you plan on becoming a surgeon!

There are many examples of games available that help with dexterity. These include puzzle games, games that involve a lot of rhythm and precision action games.

The more games you can play for the benefit of your brain and body, the better you’ll be for it. Make 2025 the year that you invest your time in games, both online and offline. They offer a wonderful array of benefits that are hard to deny when it comes to the advantages it can provide you in life, both professionally and personally.