The best brain training games, and the honest answer first
The best brain training games are the ones that are well made, hard in a way you enjoy, and easy enough to start that you keep playing them. That is a less exciting answer than a ranked list with a score for each, but it is the one the evidence supports. Every serious test of brain training finds the same thing: you get better at the game you practise. Whether that carries over to memory in daily life, focus at work or protection against decline is the part that has not held up.
The strongest summary comes from a 2016 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest by Daniel Simons and colleagues. They evaluated the studies cited by leading brain-training companies and found, in their words, extensive evidence that interventions improve performance on the trained tasks, less on closely related tasks, and little evidence that training enhances performance on distantly related tasks or everyday cognitive performance. They also found many studies had major design or analysis shortcomings.
So this guide ranks games by what they actually deliver: a good puzzle, a sensible difficulty curve and a price that matches. Where a game is a brain-training product rather than just a good puzzle, we say what the research does and does not show about it, and we do not claim it makes you smarter.
What the research shows, and what it does not
Two studies do most of the work in this debate. In 2010 Adrian Owen and colleagues published a six-week online experiment in Nature with 11,430 participants who trained several times a week on tasks designed to improve reasoning, memory, planning, visuospatial skills and attention. The result: improvements on every task that was trained, and no evidence of transfer to untrained tasks, even when those tasks were cognitively closely related.
The best case for brain training comes from the ACTIVE trial, a randomised controlled trial of 2,832 independent older adults in six US cities, with a ten-year follow-up published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in 2014. Participants had ten training sessions in memory, reasoning or speed of processing. At ten years, the reasoning and speed-of-processing groups still showed benefits on those targeted abilities, and each trained group reported less difficulty with everyday activities. Memory training effects were no longer maintained.
Read those two together and the shape is clear. Specific, structured training in healthy older adults can leave lasting traces on the skill trained, and in that trial on self-reported daily function. A general-purpose game for adults of any age does not have that evidence behind it. We have written the longer version of this argument in our explainer on whether brain training games actually work (/brain/do-brain-training-games-work-what-the-research-says).
“Lumosity preyed on consumers' fears about age-related cognitive decline”
Why the Lumosity ruling still matters when you shop
Brain training has a marketing problem that the science has not caught up with. On January 5, 2016 the US Federal Trade Commission announced that Lumos Labs, maker of Lumosity, would pay $2 million in redress to settle charges of deceptive advertising. The FTC alleged the company made unfounded claims that its games would improve performance at work and school and in daily life, and could delay age-related mental decline and protect against conditions including dementia and Alzheimer's. A $50 million judgment was suspended.
Jessica Rich, then Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: "Lumosity preyed on consumers' fears about age-related cognitive decline". The settlement is not a ruling that the games are useless as puzzles. It is a ruling that the company could not support a specific set of health and performance promises, and it is the cleanest example of what to ignore in an advert.
The practical rule for shopping is therefore simple. Treat any product that promises to stop decline, raise intelligence or fix a medical condition as unproven, whatever the logo says. A game that promises a good puzzle is making a claim you can test yourself in a free trial.
Best brain training games on Nintendo Switch and consoles
If you want a console option built around the idea, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch is the obvious pick. Esports.net's ranking describes the Switch release as arriving in 2019 and reusing some earlier puzzles while adding new ones, based on what it calls the ongoing research of neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima. Pocket Tactics lists it for Switch as brain-training minigames with quick play, daily training and a brain age check. Treat "brain age" as a score on the game's own tasks, not a medical measurement.
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain is the family option on Switch. Pocket Tactics describes it as a series of skill and intellect games with local and online multiplayer, and quotes a reviewer calling it "a lovely learning experience that offers satisfying brain-teasing puzzles." The multiplayer angle is the real selling point: competing with a friend or a child is a reason to keep playing, which is the thing that decides whether any of this works.
Neither game is proven to change your cognition beyond the games themselves. Both are fine, low-pressure ways to do short daily puzzles, and that is how we would buy them.
Best puzzle games that make you think (and do not pretend to be medicine)
The most honest brain-training games are the ones that never call themselves that. Pocket Tactics' September 2026 update ranks Mini Motorways, a traffic-road puzzle about growing a small town; Chants of Sennaar, a puzzle game about deciphering ancient languages; Balatro, a roguelike poker deckbuilder; and Paper Trail, a top-down puzzle adventure. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 covers competitive puzzle play. These games ask you to plan, spot patterns and adjust under pressure, which are the skills people hope brain training will build.
None of them has a study behind it showing transfer to the rest of your life, and none of them claims one. That is the point. You are paying for a game that is good at being a game, and any cognitive upside is a bonus you should not count on.
For daily-habit players, Wordle, Sudoku and Solitaire sit in the same bracket: free or cheap, short sessions, and no promises. Esports.net also lists chess and says plainly that it is not 100 percent sure of the exact science behind it. We would give it the same treatment: a rich game worth learning for its own sake.
Brain training apps: Lumosity, Peak and what to pay
Apps are where the money and the marketing are. Pocket Tactics describes Lumosity: Brain Training as an app on iOS and Android that starts with a ten-minute fitness test and adjusts difficulty across logic, memory, maths and other categories. Esports.net lists Peak as a mobile-only app with exercises in Language, Problem Solving, Memory and Focus. Neither listing cites a study showing benefit outside the app, and the Simons review found that the published evidence cited by leading companies had major shortcomings.
We did not verify current subscription prices for these apps, so we are not quoting one. Check the store page before you subscribe, use any free trial to see whether you enjoy the exercises, and cancel if you do not open it after a few weeks. A subscription you resent is the opposite of the sustained habit these products rely on.
If a brain-training app is the thing you enjoy, there is no harm in using it. The problem is paying a premium for a promise the FTC has already said Lumosity could not support.
How to choose, and who should skip the category
A short framework covers almost every case. First, pick for enjoyment: if you dread the daily session you will stop, and consistency is the only variable under your control. Second, pick for challenge that adapts, because tasks that get easier as you improve stop teaching you anything. Third, spend the least you can: the best puzzle games on this list cost a one-off price, and the apps cost monthly.
Older adults who want a structured option should know that the best-supported evidence is for specific speed-of-processing and reasoning training, as in the ACTIVE trial, not for games in general. If memory is a worry, brain games are not a diagnosis or a treatment: speak to a doctor about it. We are a games publication, not a clinic.
Everyone else can treat this like any hobby. Pick a game, play it, enjoy the improvement on the thing you are practising, and keep your sleep, exercise and social life in order, because the evidence for those on brain health is far stronger than anything on this list.
Frequently asked
What are the best brain training games?
The best brain training games are the ones you enjoy enough to play regularly. For a console option, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training and Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain are the Switch picks. For puzzle depth, Mini Motorways, Chants of Sennaar and Balatro are well reviewed. Research shows gains on the trained task, not proven gains elsewhere, so choose for enjoyment and price.
Do brain training games actually work?
They make you better at the games you practise. A 2016 review found extensive evidence of gains on trained tasks, less on closely related tasks, and little on distantly related tasks or everyday performance. A 2010 Nature study of 11,430 people found no transfer to untrained tasks. One trial of older adults, ACTIVE, found lasting effects of specific speed and reasoning training.
Does Lumosity work, and what did the FTC say?
In January 2016 the FTC announced Lumos Labs would pay $2 million to settle charges that it made unfounded claims its games improved performance at work and school and delayed cognitive decline. The settlement is about advertising claims, not about whether the games are enjoyable puzzles. Treat any promise of preventing decline or dementia as unproven.
Are brain training games on Nintendo Switch worth buying?
They are worth buying as light daily puzzle games, not as proven brain boosters. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for Switch offers quick play, daily training and a brain age check, and Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain adds local and online multiplayer. Treat brain age as a score on the game's own tasks. Multiplayer helps you keep playing, which matters more than any claimed benefit.
Are puzzle games like Sudoku, chess and Wordle good brain training?
They are good games, and they ask you to plan and spot patterns, which is what people hope training builds. No study cited here shows they transfer to the rest of your life. Roundups that recommend chess admit they are not sure of the exact science. Play them because they are rewarding, and count any cognitive benefit as a bonus.
What did the ACTIVE trial find about brain training in older adults?
ACTIVE was a randomised trial of 2,832 independent older adults in six US cities. After ten years, reasoning and speed-of-processing training still showed effects on those targeted abilities, and each trained group reported less difficulty with everyday activities. Memory training effects were no longer maintained. It tested specific programmes in healthy older adults, so it does not prove other brain games work.
Should I pay for a brain training app subscription?
Only if you enjoy it and would pay for it as a puzzle app. Neither the Simons review nor the roundups we read cite proof that app training improves everyday cognition. Use any free trial, check the current price on the store page, and cancel if you stop opening it. One-off puzzle games are usually the cheaper way to get the same hours of thinking.