The best brain training games to play online

Brain training games have increased in popularity over the years and now there aren’t just puzzles, there are games and apps out there that can help you to improve your mental function.

As we get older our mobility can decrease meaning we need to use mobility aids like a walk in shower or scooter, but another common complaint associated with ageing is forgetfulness and many people notice that as they get older it can take longer for them to learn new things.

Brain training games don’t just help prevent your brain from ageing and improve your memory, they are inclusive, with children being able to play them as well as older adults. They are also great fun to play.

This guide rounds up some of the best brain training games you can play online and looks at how they can improve your mental focus.

What are the best brain training games you can play online?

• CogniFit
• Lumosity
• Peak – Brain Training
• Brain Gymmer
• The Jigsaw Puzzles
• Wordle
• BrainHQ

CogniFit

CogniFit boasts a number of brain training games that challenge your brain and will test your memory, perception, reasoning, coordination, and attention.

Many of the CogniFit brain game challenge and test specific elements of your brain. Some of their popular games specialise in testing your visual and auditory perception, short-term memory, processing speed and planning, hand-eye coordination and response time, and your divided attention.

Curtis Ashford, the Chief Marketing Officer at CogniFit, spoke about who can play their brain training games: “CogniFit would recommend children, adults, and older adults to participate in brain training sooner rather than later. Taking these tests over time might have great benefits as you can get your baseline scores, begin collecting your points, and better understand your brain health and how it progresses over time. Explore our personalized brain health coaching programs and have fun with our exciting brain games!”

Lumosity

Lumosity is an established brain training and mental fitness program, and you can sign-up for a free account and can play a fresh set of games every day. You can opt to subscribe to Lumosity to access more offerings and games.

The brain training and mental fitness games and activities on Lumosity have been tested and approved by scientists, so you know they will be improving the function of your brain.

Some of the different types of brain games you can play on Lumosity are:

• Speed games: you can play games like Highway Hazards and River Ranger
• Memory Games: you can play games like Tidal Treasures and Memory Matrix
• Problem-Solving Games: you can play games like Pirate Passage and Pet Detective

You can play the different brain games on their website, or you can download free apps for iOS and Android.

ALSO READ: What are the best mobile phone apps to download?

Peak – Brain Training

Regarded by many as the number one app to challenge your brain, Peak provides a variety of brain games to help you work on your memory, focus, mental agility, problem-solving, and other cognitive functions.

The app even lets you see how you did in one of their games compared to other users so you can try to beat them. The games are designed to push you hard with short, intense workouts designed around your life.

The app has a coach feature which challenges you with new workouts, tracks your progress and shows you where and how you can improve.

The app is free to use, but there is a subscription fee to unlock certain features.

BrainGymmer

Developed together with neuroscientists, BrainGymmer is an online brain training program that offers brain games, tests and teasers to help train your brain.

The games stimulate your brain to gain strength and stay stronger, and the level of difficulty of their brain games adapts to your game performance to keep on challenging you.

BrainGymmer explains what you train with their games: “By transforming science-based exercises into games, we make brain training both fun and challenging. Due to the fun gameplay, you won't even realize that you are training. Only ten minutes of brain training a day already improves the cognitive skills that you use every day. Like your concentration, memory, focus, thinking speed, language skills and math skills.”

Thousands of people worldwide use BrainGymmer every day to train their brains and the online resource has more than 30 brain games and over 25 brain tests that you can try.

The Jigsaw Puzzles

Playing puzzles is another great activity you can try that will keep your brain active and one of the best online resources available is The Jigsaw Puzzles website.

Their site is home to a huge collection of free online jigsaw puzzles and every day the site posts a Puzzle of the Day that you can attempt.

There are a variety of categories that you can browse through, and these range from themed puzzles such as Halloween and Christmas, to more generic puzzles such as castles, bridges, animals, and pieces of art.

ALSO READ: The best free online games to play

Wordle

Most people will have either played or heard of Wordle as its popularity exploded at the beginning of 2022. Now the web-based puzzle game from The New York Times still has millions of users worldwide.

The game is simple to play as users get six tries to guess a five-letter word. If you put a correct letter in the correct play that letter turns green, if the letter is not in the word, it turns red, and if you get a correct letter in the word in the wrong place, it is highlighted yellow.

Wordle is a popular game to play and with its combination of problem-solving challenges and easy-to-use interface, it is a great mental workout.

BrainHQ

BrainHQ is an online resource where you can exercise your memory, attention, brain speed, people skills, intelligence and navigation instead of your abs, delts, and quads.

The program created by BrainHQ is the culmination of 30 years of research in neurological science and related medicine which was designed by an international team of neuroscientists.

The different levels in BrainHQ’s games take less than five minutes to do, so you can play a game for just a short period or for longer depending on your schedule. BrainHQ can be played on a computer, tablet or mobile device, so you can play it whilst you are on the go.

You are also able to set up personal training goals on BrainHQ and you can then receive training reminders and notifications when you want them.

ALSO READ: The best video games for older people

From improved memory to increasing productivity, brain training games have lots of benefits and this article has looked at some of the best games that you can play. So, if you want to have a go at a brain training game, then you can try one of the aforementioned games.

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