Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Exercise gamification motivation

Exercise gamification motivation:
How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?

Overview

Case study: A little more motivation

Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping.

Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others?

Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward.

Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation.

Focus questions

What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation?
What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation?
How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence?
When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation?
How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour?

Understanding Exercise Gamification

Gamification involves incorporating game-design elements into non-game contexts, such as fitness apps and physical-activity programs, rather than turning exercise itself into a complete game (Krath et al., 2021).
Common exercise gamification features include points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards, which can provide users with goals and information about their progress (Shameli et al., 2017).
Gamification is increasingly used in digital physical-activity interventions, although research indicates that the effectiveness of different game elements can vary across interventions and populations (Wang et al., 2025).
Gamification can be understood as a potential behaviour-change strategy, making it important to examine the psychological mechanisms through which game elements may influence motivation and exercise behaviour (Mazeas et al., 2022).

Psychological Mechanisms of Gamification

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Different forms of motivation range from autonomous/intrinsic motivation to controlled/extrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2020).
Gamification features such as progress feedback, achievable challenges and goals may support feelings of competence by helping users recognise improvement and successful performance.
Social features such as leaderboards, competition and shared challenges may influence relatedness and social comparison, although their effects may depend on the individual and how the feature is designed (Karabiber & Gürol, 2026).
External rewards and points may encourage behaviour, but gamification should not be assumed to automatically produce autonomous motivation; the psychological quality of the motivation matters.
Research applying SDT to physical activity generally finds positive relationships between more self-determined forms of motivation and physical activity, while controlled motivation and amotivation show weaker or negative relationships (Teixeira et al., 2012).

Gamification and Exercise Behaviour

Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour, so research needs to distinguish between motivation, engagement and actual physical activity.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials involving 2,407 participants found that gamified interventions had a small-to-medium positive effect on physical activity, although the effect was weaker at longer-term follow-up (Mazeas et al., 2021).
Research on gamified smartphone applications similarly indicates small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity but the large variation between studies suggests that the effectiveness of gamification depends partly on how interventions are designed (Yang et al., 2021).
Long-term exercise adherence should therefore be considered separately from short-term increases in engagement, especially because gamification effects may become smaller over time.

Designing Effective and Sustainable Exercise Gamification

Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges.
Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021).
Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented.
Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement.
Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022).

Learning features

A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory.

A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation

Conclusion

Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging.
Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness.
Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence.
Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition.

References

Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963

Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172

Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151

Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2021). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860

Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908

Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78

Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2021). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005

Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794

External links

[Use bullet points]

24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing)

Physical activity (World Health Organization)

	Users lose points whenever they miss a workout.
	Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress.
	Users are publicly ranked against other users.