Reward Types in Popular Recreational and Educational Mobile Games

The increase in the number of smart mobile devices has led the explosion of a variety of educational and recreational game applications. This study’s purpose is to find common themes in the reward types of the cumulatively most-installed educational and recreational mobile games. The video games were observed by researchers from previously recorded footage available online. The most frequently occurring reward types in the most installed game applications in descending order are sensory feedback, glory, access, sustenance, facility and praise. Educational and recreational games appear to have differences in reward types present, recreational games having significantly higher median of total reward types. In the most installed game applications data set, the occurrence of every individual reward system, except praise and sensory, are significantly different between educational and recreational games. In-game rewards which seem to fit into multiple reward types are highlighted. In conclusion reward types differ in occurrence in addition to popular educational games appearing to have less reward types present than games made purely for entertainment purposes.