JMIR Serious Games (JSG, ISSN 2291-9279; Journal Impact Factor™ 4.1, Journal Citation Reports™) is a multidisciplinary journal devoted to computer, web, virtual reality, mobile applications, and other emerging technologies that incorporate elements of gaming, gamification or novel hardware platforms such as virtual reality devices or wearables. The journal focuses on the use of this technology to solve serious problems such as health behavior change, physical exercise promotion (exergaming), medical rehabilitation, diagnosis and treatment of psychological/psychiatric disorders, medical education, health promotion, teaching and education (game-based learning), and social change. JSG also invites commentary and research in the fields of video game violence and video game addiction.

While JMIR Serious Games maintains a strong focus on health, the journal also aims to highlight research exploring serious games in health-adjacent and other interdisciplinary contexts, including but not limited to military, education, industry, and workplace applications.

In 2025, JMIR Serious Games received a Journal Impact Factor™ of 4.1 (ranked Q1 #26/185 journals in the category Health Care Sciences & Services) (Source: Journal Citation Reports™ from Clarivate, 2025) and a Scopus CiteScore™ of 8.6. This CiteScore™ places JMIR Serious Games in the 97th percentile (#4/165) as a Q1 journal in the field of Rehabilitation. The journal is also indexed in PubMed, PubMed Central, DOAJ, Scopus, SCIE (Clarivate), and PsycINFO.

This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Is the Pinball Machine a Blind Spot in Serious Games Research?

Is the Pinball Machine a Blind Spot in Serious Games Research?