A Review of Gamified Fitness Tracker Apps and Future Directions

Abstract

This review examines 103 existing gamified fitness tracker apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store that motivate users to walk more. We consider different types of game elements in these mobile app games and show how they cluster into different game genres. We found co-occurrences of various game elements including Competition, Challenges, and Social Influence. Social features played a central role in nearly every type of gamified fitness tracker app, where a sub-category of games with real-world incentives emerged. Content and network analysis are used to suggest new areas of the design space that are unexplored, but potentially fruitful, such as plot-based collaborative games.