Serious Games for Health

Serious Games for Health (SG4H) are video games designed primarily for clinical, rehabilitative, or health-education outcomes rather than entertainment, while still using game mechanics, narrative, and reward systems to motivate engagement. They are used in physical therapy, occupational therapy, mental health, and chronic disease management to make repetitive or difficult exercises tolerable and even enjoyable. Accessibility critiques of SG4H note that many titles enforce rigid scoring, single movement patterns, or automated assessment that excludes users whose bodies or behaviours fall outside the designers’ assumed norm — a particular issue for disabled and neurodivergent players.