Kids are always asking for more screen time, and parents and teachers are always looking for ways to make that screen time more worthwhile. We asked real teachers for their favorite online educational games that teach language arts, math, science, art, and STEM. You’ll find their responses below, along with more of the top learning games for kids and teens.
Jump to:
- Online Quiz Games
- Math Online Learning Games
- Online Educational ELA and Word Games
- STEM and Social Studies Educational Games Online
- Comprehensive Online Learning Games Sites
- More Online Learning Games
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What are the benefits of online learning games?
Online educational games have come a long way since the days of Oregon Trail, which captured the imagination of a whole generation of learners. But the game that started it all has a lot in common with today’s best online educational games. The simple text-based game grabbed kids’ attention with real-life scenarios, putting them in control of their learning. It encouraged players to work together to make decisions based on logic, teaching through play. And kids begged to play it again and again, driving the learning home. (Feeling nostalgic? You can still play the game here for free!)
Today’s online learning games offer the same benefits and more, such as:
- Independence: Most games are designed so that even the youngest kids can play on their own, building confidence as they learn.
- Self-Paced Learning: In many cases, students can move through games at their own pace, allowing quick learners and slow learners alike the chance to gain knowledge in a way that’s comfortable and effective.
- Immediate Feedback: Quick feedback keeps learners motivated and on-track, correcting mistakes before they become bad habits and recognizing success.
- Rewards: All of us love to be rewarded for our work, even if it’s just by getting the highest score or earning a special profile sticker. These digital rewards keep students engaged and learning.
- Interest: We learn best when we’re engaged and paying attention. When students find a game fun, they’ll want to play it more often, and learning happens naturally in that type of environment.
With those benefits in mind, take a look at the best online educational games that today’s teachers and students turn to again and again.
Online Quiz Games
When we asked teachers for their favorite learning games online, quiz games topped the list! Teachers love the flexibility to customize the games, and students enjoy getting into the competition. These are the top online quiz games our teachers recommend; see even more quiz game options here.
Gimkit
Created by a high school student, this interactive review game is something kids can play on their own devices, earning points that help them move their player along through different types of interactive games.
How it works: Teachers create “Kits,” which are collections of questions on a topic. Students answer on their own devices at their own pace. They earn credit for each correct question, which they can then use to move their players (Gims) through the chosen gameboard. Students also earn GimBucks, which they can use to buy power-ups and other items in the shop. Currently, Gimkit offers 10+ unique game modes, which can be used with any question kit.
What teachers say: “My students are so competitive this year, so this is my favorite way to review with them. They are so engaged and have so much fun!” says Sara R. Teacher Jen G. agrees: ” It’s already fun and engaging, and they keep adding games every year to keep things fresh.”
Cost: Basic Gimkit is free, with 3 rotating game modes available at a time. GimKit Pro offers all games modes at all times, plus additional administrative features.
Kahoot!
This is the most popular online quiz game, getting shout-outs from multiple teachers in our survey. Gameplay is simple, but teachers have the ability to create a wide variety of question types, giving Kahoot! an edge over those that only offer multiple choice.
How it works: Teachers create a Kahoot! quiz on a topic with multiple choice, true/false, and even short answer questions. You’ll also find thousands of quizzes created by others you can use with no prep needed. Students play on their own devices, going head-to-head in a timed competition. At the end, winners are revealed on the scoreboard. Teachers can also assign Kahoot! quizzes to be played individually. Learn more about Kahoot! here.
What teachers say: Angie K. says, “I love Kahoot. It’s simple enough to use that I can pull quizzes at the last-minute if I have classes who are struggling with a concept, they engage students who are ultra-competitive or introverted, and has features that make life easier for me with my 5 different preps.” Cynthia R. adds, ““I like it because the kids like to be top person. Not one 7th grade complaint!”
Cost: It’s always free for students to play Kahoot! games. Creators and game hosts can create a basic free account, with more robust features available through multiple pricing tiers.
Quizizz
Students love quizzes, but finding time to create them can be a real problem. Quizizz uses AI to generate questions from curriculum materials, saving teachers time and energy.
How it works: Teachers create quizzes, either on their own or with help from an AI assistant. They can differentiate quizzes for individual students, too (again, with AI assistance if needed). With a big library of content available, Quizizz takes the stress out of creating online quiz games for students.
What teachers say: “Quizziz has gotten really easy to use and elementary kids love it. I like the data reports it generates too,” Tara R. shares. Tia G. says, “Quizizz is my go-to, and with the new built in AI features, it helps with differentiation as well.”
Cost: Free basic plan for teachers, with additional features available through premium paid plans
More Online Quiz Games Teachers Love
In addition to the top 3, teachers in our survey also recommended these options:
Blooket
“Create your own questions or use a shared pre-made set for students to answer in a competitive game format. Great for review but you can also use it for assessment.” -Sean T. (Free, paid options available)
Plickers
Several teachers suggested this game, noting kids don’t need devices to play it. Instead, they hold up printable QR code cards, which teachers scan with their phones for instant feedback. (Free, paid options available)
Quizlet
This online learning game site is known for its huge library of flashcards. Multiple teachers say they recommend students use the site for test review and prep. (Free, paid options available)
Math Online Learning Games
Reviewing math facts and developing problem-solving skills can be a lot more fun with online educational games that teach math. These are the games our teachers heartily recommend.
Matific
This site offers high quality math games for grades K-9, teaching critical thinking and problem solving while reducing math anxiety.
How it works: Students follow personalized learning pathways, playing progressive games that challenge them while reinforcing important skills. Teachers and parents can access progress reports showing what students have achieved and where they still need additional help. This allows teachers to assign specific content to students as needed.
What teachers say: “I love Matific for Math! It’s gamified but super easy to assign work for my students in specific content areas and track their progress, with the added bonus of my students being incredibly engaged every time they access the program!” -Natasha M.
Cost: Subscription plans available for individual students ($79/year or $19.99 per month); schools can contact Matific for group pricing
Prodigy Math
In Prodigy learning games, students in grades 1-8 play as wizards competing in epic math battles, answering questions to progress in the game.
How it works: Kids take a Prodigy placement test that generates games tailored to their strengths and challenges. Teachers receive student data on their dashboard, which they can use to understand and evaluate progress. Prodigy’s games are aligned to state math standards, teaching hundreds of vital math skills and concepts.
What teachers say: “The kids think they are playing a video game, but are actually learning math! I can set the questions to my curriculum, review topics or enrichment topics too! -Emily C.
Cost: Prodigy is free for teachers, including all tools. Students may always play for free. Parents can purchase optional membership upgrades to access premium features like worksheets and advanced reports.
ST Math
This game site leverages spatial-temporal (ST) reasoning skills to help kids truly understand math concepts. Games are available for grades pre-K to 8.
How it works: In the early learning years, games don’t require students to be able to read or even understand English. Instead, the intuitive gameplay encourages kids to try and fail, learning through experimentation. As students progress, games get more complex, aligning with grade-level standards and adapting for each student.
What teachers say: “I honestly really loved ST Math when I was at a school that used it. I thought it was an amazing resource, and would still be using it if I weren’t at a school that limits screen time for littles.” -Deryn S.
Cost: Schools and districts can contact ST math for pricing. ST Math Homeschool is currently free for families.
More Top Online Learning Games Sites for Math
There are so many more terrific math game sites for kids and teens! Check out these options for quality games that allow kids to learn while they play.
Adsumudi
Create a math equation that equals the center target number using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You can change the play level, so kids of all ages will enjoy this one. (Free)
Arcademics.com
“Kids learn their math facts and other skills by racing each other. They love it!” -Chris B. (Free)
Buzzmath
This educational game takes K-12 students on a time-traveling adventure to meet some of the most influential mathematicians in history.
Frax Fractions
“This game is learning fractions through adaptive play (not just practice).” -Patricia S. (Subscription required)
Get the Math
Students see how professionals use math in music, fashion, video games, restaurants, basketball, and special effects. (Free)
Math Nook
With simple but fun math games for grades K-12, there’s something here for every grade level. (Free)
Math Playground
This site offers online math games for grades K-6, along with logic and number puzzles and more. (Free)
Moose Math
These games engage kids in a mathematical adventure and teaches counting, addition, subtraction, sorting, geometry, and more math skills. (Free)
Multiplication.com
Fun games and memory-building strategies help students tackle their multiplication facts. (Free, paid options available)
Online Educational ELA and Word Games
Wordwall
Use this simple site to create games and resources from your teaching materials. Share them with students online to play together in the classroom.
How it works: Use the free templates to create online vocabulary games for your class. You can customize your own word lists, or use those in the content library. Create crossword puzzles, word jumbles, flashcards, and more to play online. Print your games to play offline too.
What teachers say: Adriana C. says, “The kids have learned so much vocabulary because they love practicing on Wordwall with games based on my word lists. You can also print most of the games like crossword puzzles, quizzes, and flashcards. I use it to teach idioms too.”
Cost: Free basic account lets you create 3 activities; paid plans with unlimited activities start at $7.20 a month.
We Will Write
Most games focus on facts or knowledge, but this site actually turns better composition skills into an engaging competition. The short writing challenges really pay off over time.
How it works: Kids are randomly teamed up to write short compositions in response to prompts. Each one takes only a few minutes, after which the paragraphs are shared anonymously with the whole class. The teacher leads a discussion about the quality of each team’s compositions. Then, all the students vote on the best piece of writing. Kids love seeing their works top the leaderboard!
What teachers say: “My class is loving We Will Write. They get weirdly quiet when we play it! They don’t realize we are honing their writing skills,” shares Karen B, while Erin F. says, “I just learned about We Will Write; it makes their writing based on prompts into a game!! My grade 7s loved it!”
Cost: The basic plan is free and provides most of the program’s features. Upgrade for premium benefits like AI-assisted evaluation and the ability to create your own writing prompts.
Free Rice
This incredibly simple game has been around for years, helping people improve their vocabulary while helping the United Nations World Food Programme provide food to those around the world who need it.
How it works: Choose a category and difficulty level, then pick the correct answer to each vocabulary and general knowledge question. Free Rice is terrific as a bell ringer activity for kids to play on their own, or a whole-class cooperative game. There are no complicated rules: just answer questions and win rice for those in need.
What teachers say: “Every correct question you answer donates rice to the WFP to nourish people around the world,” Ray A. explains. Hannah L. loves it too: “My students enhance their vocabulary or other skill set and hungry kids get fed.”
Cost: Free
Duck Duck Moose Reading
Based on Common Core State Standards, this app teaches phonics including the letter sounds for all consonants, short and long vowels, and CVC words. (Free)
Roy: Tale of a Singing Zebra
Kids pre-K to grade 2 will enjoy the punctuation, reading, and spelling games on this cute, simple site. You’ll also find online guided-reading stories and lesson plans for teachers. (Free)
Vocabulary A-Z
Dive into engaging learning activities and games for kids in first through sixth grades, designed to promote vocabulary, spelling, phonics, and language arts. (Free basic access; Premium membership unlocks complete library)
Wordle and Octordle
These word games took off a few years back, and they’re still going strong. Players use code-breaking logic to deduce the daily word(s), building their vocabulary along the way.
STEM and Social Studies Educational Games Online
Globle
Think of this one like Wordle for the globe! Quick and simple but fun, and ideal for a class to work on together each day.
How it works: Each day, players must identify a new mystery country. Enter any country to start. The game will tell you how close you are in distance by using a color ranking system. Keep narrowing things down until you identify the correct country. Kids are bound to discover places they’ve never even heard of!
What teachers say: “My year 6 class do them every day and never get bored,” raves Kitty A. “My knowledge of countries has improved dramatically too—geography is not my strong suit.”
Cost: Free
Geniventure
In this middle and high school-level game from the Concord Consortium, students learn about genetics and heredity through a unique source—dragons!
How it works: Geniventure lets students explore genetics and heredity by breeding virtual dragons. Through six challenge levels, they run simulated experiments and gather meaningful genetic data. An intelligent tutoring system (ITS) supports learning and alerts teachers when students struggle.
What teachers say: “My biology students played an older version of this game about breeding dragons. It reviews genes, DNA, tree-of-life things! It was an awesome game and kids got a good amount from it.” -Norma B.
Cost: Free
iCivics
Don’t just memorize facts about U.S. laws and government—put them into practice with this big library of meaningful and engaging civics games.
How it works: iCivics online learning games games are truly interactive, collaborative experiences. Students spend 30 minutes or more working through real-life scenarios using information about U.S. government and laws. Each game includes expansion activities and teacher lesson plans too.
What teachers say: So many teachers named this site as one of their favorites for helping kids learn the foundations of civics and government. It offers multiple games and activities, but the teachers we surveyed especially love Do I Have a Right?
Cost: Free
Gamestar Mechanic
Do you have gamers in your class? This site helps kids ages 7 through 14 learn how to design their very own video games through game-based quests and courses. (Free)
GeoGuessr
This guessing game uses maps and photos from around the world to educate kids on world locations as well as historical landmarks and famous cities. User-made quizzes add to the guessing fun! (Free)
Kids Environment Kids Health
Through a wide assortment of puzzles, riddles, brainteasers, and more, kids can learn about their own health and the health of the environment on this website from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (Free)
KUBO Play – Coding for Kids
KUBO Play is an interactive online platform that teaches coding and computational thinking to early learners. Its three activity modes (Free Play, Practice, and Story) include more than 100 coding tasks combined. You can even customize your students’ learning pathways. (Contact for pricing)
Learning Games for Kids: Health Games
Kids in grades K-5 can learn about a range of health topics, from body parts to staying fit, with these interactive online games. They’re perfect for science learning enrichment. (Free)
Minecraft: Education Edition
Kids love the regular Minecraft video game, but this education-focused version takes learning to the next level. With lessons, STEM curriculum, and project-based challenges, this immersive digital environment promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. (Priced per user, per year)
National Geographic Kids
Head out on the trail with Captain John Smith, explore Ancient Greece with Zeus the Mighty, or just take a quiz about sharks on this robust site filled with great educational games for students. (Free)
PBS Kids Games
You’ll find everything from social studies to teamwork and feelings in this incredible collection of games that vary in degree of difficulty. The website is truly filled with some of the very best educational games centering on science, social studies, history, and art. (Free)
Physicsgames.net
This website offers dozens of different simple games to choose from that help educate kids on the mechanics of physics. Whether they are shooting pigs, knocking down walls, or trying to balance a building, they’ll learn and have fun at the same time. (Free)
Science Vocabulary Hangman
Use the clues to guess the scientific term before the cellular hangman disappears. Choose from literally hundreds of subject sets that include grade-specific vocab, state-level standardized tests, and more. (Free)
Seterra
Find 400+ map games to help your students learn geography. “My high schoolers like trying to beat each other’s time and percentage,” Matt M. says. (Free)
smokeSCREEN
As part of their #BeTheFirst Initiative, smokeSCREEN was developed by the play2PREVENT Lab, 1stPlayable, and Schell Games and funded by the NIH/FDA and the CVS Health Foundation. The game addresses the range of challenges that young teens face, with a dedicated focus on youth decision-making around smoking and vaping and strategies for both smoking prevention and cessation. Educators can request free access to the web-based game here. (Free)
That’s Your Right
In this game from Annenberg Classroom, students learn and review the Bill of Rights. “This game has fun age-appropriate examples of how the bill of rights would apply,” Mckenzie W. shares. “I make a unit around it for my enrichment period.”
Tynker
The games and challenges on Tynker give kids ages 5 and up a fun and easy way to build coding skills. This is one of the top online educational games for young coders—see more of our favorites here. (Subscription required)
Comprehensive Online Learning Games Sites
This sites offer games across the curriculum, with many focusing on elementary math and ELA skills. Use them in learning centers at school, or for enrichment or extra practice at home.
ABCMouse
Offering a full curriculum for children ages 2 to 8, this site includes fun and interactive games, songs, and puzzles for reading, math, science, and art. (Subscription required)
ABCya
With lots of learning games for grades pre-K to 6 and beyond, ABCya is a great place to find quick and fun activities for the elementary school crowd. (Free, premium features available)
Adventure Academy
From the same company as ABCMouse, Adventure Academy takes kids ages 8 to 13 on a knowledge quest through language arts, math, science, and social studies. (First month free, then monthly subscription fee)
Funbrain
Dive into a coral reef or be a star climber on this great site that features a wide assortment of free online games for kids. These educational games focus mainly on reading and math, but you’ll find lots of fun activities here with options for pre-K through grade 8. (Free)
RoomRecess.com
Access over 140 online educational games for kids in grades K-6 on this site, which was developed by an elementary school teacher with a focus on reinforcing fundamental learning concepts in math, reading, spelling, language arts, typing, and problem-solving. (Free)
Starfall
Starfall activities are research-based and align with individual and Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics. There are engaging and interactive games for students in grades K-3. (Some free content with subscriptions available)
Sumdog
Teachers love this great site that offers personalized math and spelling practice for kids ages 5 through 13 through adaptive learning and multi-player games. (Monthly subscription fee)
Teach Your Monster
It started with the beloved Teach Your Monster to Read, but this early learning site has expanded to include content across the curriculum, including number skills and healthy eating. (Free)
Toy Theater
How would your students like to learn multiplication while shooting hoops? They can do that and more at Toy Theater, which teaches concepts from every subject through game-based learning. (Free)
Turtle Diary
Introduce kids to new, exciting ways of learning with the help of fun online games, videos, experiments, puzzles, coloring sheets, and more! Turtle Diary activities pair with the appropriate grade level to enhance retention of material and increase success in the classroom. (Free)
More Online Learning Games
Sometimes you just want to have fun! These games aren’t strictly educational in nature, but as with any game, kids will polish up logic and problem-solving skills while they play.
Conceptis Puzzles
Find sudoku, pic-a-pix, and other logic puzzles on this site, which adds new challenges every week.
Conexo
This simple logic game is great for helping kids categorize and make connections between words. You start with sixteen seemingly random words, which need to be sorted into four groups of four related words. Solve a new puzzle each day, or play older games in the archives. (Free)
Contexto
Each day, there’s a new mystery word to guess. You start by guessing a word—any word. The game will tell you how close you are to the actual word with a ranking number (the lower the better). Using logic to determine what each of your more successful guesses has in common, you’ll eventually narrow it down to the right one! (Free)
Digipuzzle
Play word searches, tangrams, dot-to-dot, and more types of puzzles, including seasonal options that are perfect for elementary classrooms. (Free)
GoNoodle Games
Whether they’re jetpacking through the stars in Zapp Von Doubler’s Space Race or clearing weeds in the garden in Om Petalhead’s Flower Power, kids will enjoy this collection of fun educational games that get them up and moving! (Free)
Little Alchemy 2
This deceptively simple game is actually a lot of fun. Kids (and teachers!) can experiment with combining different elements, such as fire or dirt, to create something entirely new. It encourages creative thinking as well as knowledge of the world around us. (Free)
Tate Kids
How good are your airbrush skills? Which famous artist should design your bedroom? Are you a master of street art? Kids can explore these questions and more with the cool quizzes and games on this art-focused site from the Tate Gallery. (Free)
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