Highest IQ Video Games? Let’s see them. You see IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is a measure of your cognitive abilities, reflecting how well you can acquire and apply knowledge, solve problems, and achieve goals.
While many see video games as a mere pastime, they’ve evolved into powerful tools that can sharpen the mind, improve IQ, and enhance various cognitive functions. If you’re seeking the highest IQ video games that can challenge your brain and boost your mental agility, you’re in the right place.
Highest IQ Video Games – The Cognitive Benefits
Video games have long been under scrutiny for their potential negative effects, particularly on teenagers. However, not all games are created equal. Some are designed to challenge the brain, improve problem-solving skills, enhance memory, and even reduce anxiety. When played in moderation, these games can be a valuable tool in developing and maintaining a sharp mind.
Thanks to advancements in technology, we now have a variety of games that are not only entertaining but also educational. These games are crafted to stimulate different parts of the brain, improving various aspects of intelligence. From puzzles to strategy games, the following are some of the highest IQ video games that you can incorporate into your routine to give your brain a workout.
Types of Highest IQ Video Games
1. Puzzle Games
Puzzle games are an excellent way to stimulate your brain, improve motor skills, and boost your IQ. These games require you to think critically, solve problems, and often work against the clock, making them a fantastic exercise for the mind.
- Crossword Puzzles: Engaging in crossword puzzles can significantly enhance your verbal skills and vocabulary, key components of a high IQ.
- Sudoku: Sudoku puzzles are great for improving logical reasoning and number skills, which are crucial for mathematical intelligence.
Additional puzzle games that stand out include:
- Brain Workshop: This game is specifically designed to improve speed, short-term memory, and fluid intelligence. It challenges players to process information quickly and make decisions efficiently, even as they age.
- Lumosity: Lumosity is one of the most popular brain-training apps, offering sessions that target different cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, problem-solving, and processing speed. Each session is unique, ensuring that your brain is constantly challenged.
- CogniFit Brain Fitness: Developed by neuroscientists, this game offers sleek, fun, and addictive gameplay that focuses on improving cognitive abilities like concentration and memory. It also provides insights into your overall brain health, making it a comprehensive tool for cognitive enhancement.
- Personal Zen: This game reduces anxiety by training your brain to focus on the positive. Developed by researchers, it helps build resilience, which is a critical component of mental health and cognitive performance.
- Positive Activity Jackpot: Initially created for service members with PTSD, this app uses augmented reality to suggest nearby activities that can improve mood and mental health. It’s a perfect example of how gaming technology can be applied to real-world problems.
2. Strategy Games
Strategy games require a player to plan, strategize, and manage resources effectively. These games simulate complex scenarios where the brain must adapt quickly, making them some of the highest IQ video games available. Playing strategy games involves deep thinking, fast analysis, and decision-making, often with incomplete information, which mirrors real-life challenges.
- Starcraft: A real-time strategy game that requires players to manage resources and use different tactics to win. Playing Starcraft can enhance brain flexibility, the ability to adapt quickly to new situations—an essential aspect of intelligence.
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown: In this turn-based strategy game, players must control the fate of humanity by managing resources, planning combat missions, and making tactical decisions. It’s a game that encourages players to think several steps ahead, a valuable skill in both gaming and life.
- Civilization V: Recognized as one of the greatest strategy franchises, Civilization V challenges players to build and advance a civilization from the dawn of man to the space age. The game involves diplomacy, war, technological discovery, and resource management, making it a comprehensive mental exercise.
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: While primarily known as a first-person shooter, Call of Duty also requires strategic thinking, particularly in multiplayer modes. Players must quickly analyze situations, make decisions under pressure, and coordinate with teammates, all of which contribute to cognitive enhancement.
3. Action Role-Playing Games (RPGs)
Action RPGs place players in a fictional world where they take on the role of a character, often with a specific goal or mission. These games are slower-paced than shooters but involve deeper decision-making and problem-solving. They also test the player’s ability to think scientifically by hypothesis-testing, making them valuable for developing inductive reasoning skills.
- Super Mario 64: A classic platform game that focuses on exploration and problem-solving. Research has shown that playing Super Mario 64 can increase gray matter in the brain, which is responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation, and strategic planning.
- Grand Theft Auto: While controversial, this game improves decision-making skills by placing players in complex, high-stress situations where they must think on their feet.
- Diablo III: In this action RPG, players must explore, acquire and trade items, and battle enemies. The game requires players to manage resources, make quick decisions, and adapt to ever-changing scenarios.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: An open-world RPG that offers players the freedom to explore vast landscapes, complete quests, and develop their character. The game challenges players to think critically about their choices, as every decision impacts the game world.
- Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor: This game blends action and strategy, offering players a chance to develop their character’s abilities while navigating a dynamic and responsive world.
- Mass Effect: Known for its deep storyline and character development, Mass Effect allows players to make decisions that affect the outcome of the game. The branching narrative and moral choices test the player’s ability to think critically and plan strategically.
- SimCity: A game that simulates urban planning and resource management. Players must think critically about how to balance different aspects of city development, making it a great tool for improving strategic thinking.
Recommended: Get Paid to Watch Netflix: Unveiling 15 Ways
4. Sports Games
Sports games combine fast-paced action with strategic thinking, requiring excellent hand-eye coordination and quick decision-making. These games, while not physically demanding like actual sports, still offer cognitive benefits by simulating real-life scenarios that require quick thinking and strategic planning.
- NBA 2K15: This basketball simulation game offers a highly realistic experience, where players must think strategically about every move, from rebounding to steals and blocks. The game’s realism makes it a valuable tool for improving decision-making and strategic thinking.
- FIFA: FIFA is designed to replicate the experience of playing soccer, complete with player emotions and personalities. This game encourages players to think quickly, plan tactics, and adapt to changing situations on the field.
- PES: Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) teaches players about formation, tactics, and strategy, all of which are crucial for success both in the game and in real-life problem-solving.
- Madden NFL 25: This football game offers a comprehensive experience, complete with a skills trainer that teaches gameplay skills, strategy, and football concepts. It’s a perfect example of how sports games can enhance cognitive abilities by simulating real-world scenarios.
Recommended: 27 Driving Apps to Make Money From
Concluding Thought
While these highest IQ video games offer numerous cognitive benefits, it’s essential to play them in moderation. Excessive gaming can lead to addiction, especially among teenagers. It’s important to balance gaming with other activities that improve the mind, such as reading, physical exercise, and social interaction.
Have you played any of these games? Which ones do you believe are the most effective in boosting your IQ? Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments below! Your insights could help others discover new ways to enhance their cognitive abilities through gaming.
That’s great information and useful to our society. I would like to make sure I have the name of the app, so I can start implementing into my schedule somehow or way, which is hard to do, but maybe I will get some improvement towards my mains goals using the technology for good use
I played some of these games, like Mass Effect, Elder scrolls, and I found them very entertaining and mind opening too.
Middle-earth was good too.
I also played other great games that have amazing puzzles, like Tomb Raider, Batman series, Prince Of Persia. These games were very mind opening and increasing mind skills and fast thinking.
Thanks a lot for this
Great post. I heard about real studies made about the effect of gaming. Like first person and shooting games, they improve more than IQ. They even improve the eye contrast and are like some eyes exercises.
I personally don’t like FPS and Strategy games. But I played some games of which you mentioned like Mass Effect and Fifa.
Thanks for the share.
Hi! I think it is important to kee the brain trained. I was looking for somethin similar to this as I have a colleague who is ill with multiple sclerose. So this site is deffinitely something I want to show her.
Do you also have games where I can bring my left brain together with my right brain half?
well there are tricks to do so.. Learning a new skill, activity or language. Doing so optimises left brain functions.
games like football games and language games does this.
Word association, doodling and memory games help unlock your right brain’s
hope it helps
I like the apps and games that you offered. I also love the games that you have mentioned, especially starcraft because it requires a lot of strategy and builds up thinking time to have faster reaction time. Have you mentioned rhythm games such as Pump it Up, DDR or even osu to increase coordination? How does feet-eye coordination games help with IQ? Are there other ways to increase reaction time in video games?
It Develops One’s sense of balance and eye–foot coordination…Sense of Balance helps you not to be tensioned while thinking or reasoning
The different games you have listed on this page have benefited myself as well as my family members. I have played Super Mario 64 as well as several first person strategy games and they have improved my focus.
My brother has ADD and he played a Donald Duck game that helped his focus and motor skills tremendously.
The game was a side view game that had obstacles that appeared as the character progressed on the screen so it involved quick thinking strategy to get over and under the obstacles. I mostly play Zelda which involves problem solving and quest completions.
My husband plays Lumosity and its helped his brain function since he suffered Epilepsy. I have also played Sim City. I had to play that game for a college Sociology class and always had trouble keeping a town from going bankrupt. Sad really. I did not know there was so much brain games out there. My family will have to try these others.
That’s Lovely
I always had a feeling that video games can increase IQ. There’s so much problem solving involved and also a lot of hand-eye coordination. Plus I’ve noticed that a lot of hardcore gamers seem to be highly intelligent. Okay, that could be coincidence but I’m starting to doubt it more and more these days.
Hey, Yudee
This is great information right here. I really liked your approach and I totally agree. I am a video game player myself and having played most of the games I can say the same thing.
Relevant researches have been made and proved the same thing. Keep up the amazing work!
I have played:
– Sim CIty
– Civilization
– PES
I have to agree that those games were helping me to see problems as a big picture. They also taught me how I should be decisive and yet full of considerations.
You can’t be decisive and reckless, can you?
On my leisure time, I like the challenge of Sudoku. Using pencil and paper while solving it, really makes me calm and think better.
I hate Clash Royale, though. The game is too fast paced and the taunting can really gets you. But somehow, I still play it. Do you play Clash Royale (mobile game)?
yea on andriod
I used to play a lot of video games when I was a kid. I would therefore hear that video games were a waste of time, but I always thought differently.
I used to love playing puzzle games, and mostly Tetris. And I would sometime soon think about those blocks while I tried to get to sleep, lol.
It touch teach you things these video games. Such as Tetirs for example. This game can teach you skills of putting things together and fitting all your toys into a box for example.
Great work and useful information.Call of Duty is one of my favorites games.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Fascinating, a friend of mine years ago was explaining to me that some games can improve IQ, and ive noticed myself that as a result of playing so many strategy games and various shooter games, i can definitely say that my mind is always planning and looking at the best strategy to approach all areas of my life, and from all the shooting games, ive noticed that my eye speed movement is much better like when im driving or training and stuff.
Great post here anyway, thanks for sharing it.
This is quite information actually. To be honest, I have limited my number of hours played already. I used to play for almost a whole day every weekends after school days. I think it had some pros and cons though. But overall, I’d like to really recommend playing strategy and FPS games because they actually help you think critically and keep your reflexes sharp.
Oh wowww. Your my dude! Lol. And alot of other people ‘s dude as well. Because you have giving us an excuse to play video games instead of mowing the lawn. Lol. This was a very interesting and helpful piece. Staying sharp and getting sharper is very important to me.
Off all the things in the world. One of the most important is our brains. Yet we do not exercise it enough. Or challenge it enough.
Finally I got to come across an article that agrees with me! Nicely done by the way! My parents never believed that video games help with hand-eye coordination and peoples’ IQ. I’ve played the Call of Duty and Battlefield series and I can definitely say that it did improve my speed of thinking and strategizing.
Another game I want to point out is League of Legends, as I find that this game also requires players to think on the fly especially since a small lead can change the whole game.
Anyways, nice article, I really enjoyed it!
Hey Great post! I never really thought that most of these games were good for one’s IQ. It’s interesting to think that an NFL game could be good. But it’s true because it builds specific skills.
The first category of games you listed is very good! They’re not only good for the IQ and brain functioning of kids and teens but also adults. Especially seniors. My mom has Alzheimers and I think part of the reason why is has been stable for so many years is because she does crosswords and such. Good brain exercise.
Have you ever tried the Wii brain game Big Brain Academy? It’s fun and really great for memory and other skills. Try it if you haven’t already.
Thanks for mentioning that game.. You are welcome
Hey Yudee:
Thanks for the informative post.
I am technologically challenged so am not really “into” the games and apps, but I did wonder about the effects these things have on the mind.
It does make sense that they can help to train your mind to view the world in different ways as well as help you develop your set of skills.
You are what you think, it’s said. These apps can provide an array of different perspectives that could prove useful, I am supposing….
Yea, too much of everything is not good.. Getting too much of this makes one addictive.. Everything we do, we do with moderation.. I think that is what matters
Haha this is excellent, whenever someone tells me gaming kills my brain I’ll just link them this article and be done with them lol! I remember playing SIM city a lot when I was younger, it was a fun and addicting game. who knew it was teaching me things that i could apply in real life! also thanks for introducing me to personal zen, I will definitely check this app out as it will help me a lot with handling stress.
Wonderful article!
You are welcome
Hmm, agree… I think IQ related to how we solved the problem. The more game we solved, the faster we solved the problem. At reality, we faced a various problem that can upgrade our experience to solve it… sure a lot of game that can help us to solve many problems, even we do not yet face the problem of reality.
Somehow EQ related to how we pushed our self to accomplish the game, include how we pushed our self to try a new game or not. The more we reject the new experience, then we will have more times got stuck and more easily tempted our self to give up.
Hi there, these are all very interesting games. I do believe that some work on the computer is important and relevant for us and especially teenagers. The danger however, comes when like you said they become addicted to it and they become less and less interested in the other things around them. Having the balance is whats important.
Yeah, that is true
It’s an interesting list that you provided…considering that I have a husband who grew up in an environment where video games were very prevalent, not to mention that I have an 8 yr. old son who is a fan of Infinity 3.0, Lego Marvel Superheroes, Minecraft, etc. I kind of see in them what you mentioned in your post, that somehow, certain video games help sharpen minds in terms of quick-thinking, strategizing, memory formation and the likes. What is most interesting to me, however, is Personal Zen, that could perhaps hone resilience and positivity. I hope you could expound on this as well as similar apps.
Personal Zen is a scientifically-validated app for reducing stress and anxiety. Based on 20 years of brain training and anxiety-reduction research, it effectively boosts stress resilience and decreases anxiety when used only a few minutes a day, a few days a week. Alternatives are Zentomino and Shape Shift.
Hi, I am a gamer myself and I must say that I am quite surprised that playing games would actually increase your IQ. I have heard that IQ is already fixed when a person is born so it cannot really be increase by quite a bit. What are your views on this?
Rather, I think video games could actually help people with dementia as it can help their brains to work more!
Best wishes
Jacob
Every person born has an IQ, just as skills needs to be developed so do IQ.. Thanks for your comment
Hi there Yudee,
Great site and great article thanks for sharing it with us, really appreciated.
There are many games available, thankfully for enhancing ones IQ, which is great for the old just as much as it for the young. The younger ones can use it to enhance intelligence, while retirees can use it fight of cognitive brain degenerative disorders such as dementia, alzheimers disease.
I find that X-Com Enemy Unknown and even X-Com 2 , really gets my brain going.
The game itself is like playing a fancy dolled up version of chess with about fifty new layers tacked on to it.
Racing games and First Person Shooters, for instance, I can totally agree they improve reaction time, spatial awareness, perception etc.
How impactful do you feel VR will have on our brains ? will it dull our senses or improve and or unlock areas of our minds?
Virtual Reality (VR) which is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. Improves and as well as unlock areas of our minds because VR places you inside an experience and with that you improve on how well you respond to situations which helps the brain too…
Video games may increase our problem solving ability and help us in learning how to achieve our goal. Puzzles are good for memory and helping us solve problems. They help in improving our attention. The Personal Zen game by Dennis and researchers from Hunter College and others has made a game that reduces anxiety by training the brain to see the positive side more than the negative side. I personally like the StarCraft game which is science fiction where aliens fight. This game allows the brain to bend and adapt to change. This is what intelligence is all about.
I agree that children should read more and not so many video games or at least limit them.
Video games may increase our problem solving ability and help us in learning how to achieve our goal. Puzzles are good for memory and helping us solve problems. They help in improving our attention. The Personal Zen game by Dennis and researchers from Hunter College and others has made a game that reduces anxiety by training the brain to see the positive side more than the negative side. I personally like the StarCraft game which is science fiction where aliens fight. This game allows the brain to bend and adapt to change. This is what intelligence is all about.
I agree that children should read more and not so many video games or at least limit them.
Leave a Reply
Yes I agree too and that is why this should be done at leisure. thanks for your comment