Playing League of Legends can improve your brain, study finds

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Research indicates that playing League of Legends may boost brain performance, and these benefits can last for up to ten weeks.

A team of researchers at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China spent 30 weeks studying League of Legends and Legends of the Three Kingdoms to see how the two games compare.

Both games boosted attention, memory, and cognitive skills, but League of Legends seemed to create more significant and enduring changes in the brain.

Study claims LoL can boost cognition

Researchers studied 68 young adults who didn’t play video games much before. Half of them played League of Legends for an hour a day, five days a week, and the other half played Legends of the Three Kingdoms on the same schedule.

Throughout the study, researchers assessed players’ skills in areas like focus, short-term memory, and problem-solving. They also monitored brain activity when the players were at rest to see if any differences emerged.

Both groups got better at various tasks, but the group playing League of Legends showed more improvement in their ability to focus on spaces around them and remember things temporarily. Researchers also noticed larger changes in their brain activity, suggesting their brains were becoming more efficient at processing information.

Surprisingly, the study showed these benefits lasted for at least 10 weeks after the gamers finished playing. It’s remarkable to think that dedicating time to games like Lee Sin or even playfully annoying others with Teemo could actually have positive effects in real life.

The researchers suggested that various game types boost brain function in different ways. While strategy games still offer some cognitive benefits, action games like League of Legends appear to have a more powerful and lasting impact.

It’s worth remembering that this study focused only on young, healthy college students. It didn’t take into account things like their personal motivation, how much schoolwork they had, or how much gaming they did on their own time.

These results don’t necessarily mean playing League of Legends makes people generally smarter, but it might improve things like focus, memory, and how the brain works. In other words, all those hours spent playing ranked games could have some positive effects beyond just being stressful!

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2026-04-28 17:50