From Engagement to Innovation through Gamified Learning Review: A Bibliometric Analysis of Trends, Themes, and Trajectories on Advancing Quality Education

Abstract

The use of gamification to improve engagement, motivation and learning in education is a growing phenomenon. With gamified strategies increasingly being applied to educational reform in countries around the world, it is critical to map the changing research landscape. This research undertook a bibliometric study of gamification in learning to map research trends, leading authors and institutions, and emerging themes – with a specific focus on their relevance to Quality Education (SDG 4). This study extracted information from the SCOPUS database and used VOSviewer to map and visualize 2,324 peer-reviewed publications from 2000 to 2025 (Hwang et al., 2020) The U.S. is the world's leading contributor (434 documents) and Acosta et al. (2025) (16 documents) are the most productive authors. The VOSviewer analysis identified four distinct clusters: Cluster 1 focuses on student engagement, active learning, and instructional design, highlighting gamification's impact on student motivation and performance; Cluster 2 relates to gamification in medical and nursing education, using simulation and clinical training; Cluster 3 investigates immersive technologies, including augmented reality and virtual reality; and Cluster 4 relates to gamification in corporate and professional workforce development – a new research trajectory that is seeing a rapid increase in research. This study affirms the close alignment between emerging research themes on gamification and the principles of Quality Education (SDG 4). This bibliometric study offers educators, policymakers, and researchers’ evidence-based insights to guide the development of efficient, responsive, and inclusive gamification approaches for various learning contexts.