Some fun games that you can play online are:
- Sudoku
- Peak
- Rummy online
- Chess
- Among Us
- UNO Online
These games will help you challenge your mind, improve your focus, and also help you relax. In fact, you can also form new friendships and develop your strategic thinking skills.>
Online games are no longer just about shooting at your fellow players or opponents. They have become arenas for giving your brain opportunities to work out. Apart from that, some online games have also evolved to help you improve your strategic skills and team-playing abilities.
For example, when you’re playing online Rummy, you have to utilize your strategic thinking abilities to meld the right cards together. On the other hand, when you’re playing Among Us, you can bond with other players while strategically figuring out the impostor.
So, whether you’re improving your deductive abilities or honing your instincts, the right kind of game can both relax and challenge you. Let’s take a look at them below.
Table of Contents
What Are the Best Types of Online Games by Category?
We understand that there are many kinds of online games out there in the market. That’s why we’ve curated some of those for you in the table below:
| Game Type | Game Examples | What It Improves | Best For |
| Cognitive | Sudoku, Elevate | Memory, Logic, Attention | Short solo sessions |
| Strategic | Online Rummy, Chess.com | Planning, probability, decision-making | Competitive solo play |
| Social | Among Us, UNO Online | Collaboration, deduction, intuition | Group sessions |
Let’s now take a deeper look at these games below
Which Games/Apps Can Train Your Brain While You Play?
You can play these standalone or in-app games to improve your brain capacity even as you play them.
Sudoku
It’s a number-centric game involving a 9×9 grid. You have to fill each of the boxes, columns and rows with numbers from one to nine. However, you must ensure that each number appears only once in these areas.
While it sounds simple enough, it really isn’t. That’s why you should first create a mock grid with a notebook and fill it with a pencil. This will ensure that you do not use up all the free hints to fill up squares when you’re playing the online game.
Elevate
It is an application that allows players to enjoy more than 40 brain-training games. These games will help you:
- Upgrade your vocabulary
- Improve your memory
- Enhance your focus
- Optimize your brain’s processing abilities
You can choose what kind of puzzles or games you want to solve daily in the application, since it offers personalization features. Apart from that, you can track your performance with the help of its weekly reports.
Another feature about the various games in this app is that their difficulty level gradually increases, allowing you to grow your cognitive abilities. This app also celebrates your achievements, which can help you stay motivated during the learning process.
Which Games/Apps Can Build Strategy And Mental Agility?
If you want to improve your mental quickness and strategic thinking capabilities, you can consider playing the following standalone/in-app games:
Online Rummy
It is a card-based game that combines logic, strategy, and memory-centric abilities. In fact, more than 35% of players enjoy the skill-based and competitive aspects of the game.
Throughout the game, you have to keep:
- Identifying card discard/drawing patterns
- Calculating odds
- Adjusting your strategy as per the situation
While there are many different kinds of Rummy games, some rules remain common.
In other words, you can play Rummy with:
- Two to six players or eight players
- One or two full card decks and two Joker cards
After the cards are dealt, you have to draw or discard cards from the pile to form valid melds (card combinations). But that’s not all. You have to study your opponent’s discarded cards and deduce what kind of melds they might be forming.
Then you’ll have to draw/discard your own cards accordingly to beat your opponents’ melds and become a winner. That way, you can improve your abilities to think quickly, and also improve your strategic thinking capabilities.
Chess.com
This game probably needs no introduction, since it’s played by more than 8 million people globally.
However, for those of you unfamiliar with the game, chess is a game played on a wood/marble or virtual board with sixty-four squares. It involves thirty-two pieces, divided equally into black and white.
These pieces can be divided into the following for both the black and white divisions:
- Eight pawns
- One king
- One queen
- Two rooks/castles
- Two knights
- Two bishops
The basic objective of this game is to defeat your opponent by decimating their king. You will have to use a combination of battle strategy, predictive thinking, and proactive visualization to win this game.
While it might sound simple, it is not. You have to move the pieces by following their predefined rules, so you cannot play in an ad-hoc manner. Sometimes, online chess games allow people to use hints and suggest moves.
So you can use those hints if you’re unsure how to proceed.
Which Games/Apps Are Great For Social Interaction?
If you want to improve your cognitive capabilities while playing with your friends, you can play these games:
Among Us
This is a very popular game, since it’s played by more than 10 million players. Players have to complete their given assignments and find the ‘impostor’. The impostor is basically a character who has the ability to eliminate players from the game.
So the other players have to gang up to figure out who it could be. This game helps you improve your strategic thinking by analyzing the actions of the impostor, comparing their words with others’ in the in-game chat.
Basically, when a player gets eliminated, one of the players sounds an alarm. Then, all the players get into a discussion to find out the impostor.
Since this character will be lying throughout, you have to catch the lie by matching the player’s words against those of the other players. This will help you develop your abilities to catch lies quickly as well.
UNO Online
It is yet another popular card game, like online Rummy, which involves four sets of twenty-five cards each. These four sets are available in the following colours:
- Red
- Green
- Blue
- Yellow
The basic objective of this game is to remove all the cards in your hand. Throughout the game, you can attempt this by discarding your own cards, and adding to your opponents’ cards. You can use the Skip, Reverse, Wild, and Draw Two cards to achieve this objective.
These cards function in the following ways:
- The Skip card makes the other player miss a turn
- The Reverse card changes the direction of the game
- The Draw Two card makes the other player draw/pick 2 cards
- The Wild card changes the colour of the discard pile’s top card and forces the player to use a different card to match that
You have to use these cards cleverly to discard your own cards, and increase your opponents’ cards.
Wrapping Up: Mix Fun and Focus with The Right Games
Playing online games can therefore help you boost your memory, relax your mind, and connect with others. After all, whether you’re matching cards, forming melds in online Rummy, or filling in numbers on a grid, you’re playing and thinking.
This rotation between cognitive, strategic, and casual thinking helps to balance your brain.
How To Pick The Right Online Game?
Take a look at our checklist to choose the right online game for yourself:
- What’s your current mood?
- Do you want to play alone, or with your friends?
- Are you looking to improve a specific skill (like memory or attention)?
- Do you prefer short sessions (≤15 mins) or longer ones?
- Is the game free or freemium with fair pricing?
You can make up your mind after considering all these factors.
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