Brain Training Mobile Apps Ranked in a Leading Journal
If you open up your phone and search your app store for “brain games” you will find a lot of brain games. Really, a lot of brain games. You can scroll and scroll and scroll, until you find the end of them. It may even seem that developers are adding brain games to the list faster than you can scroll and you might never get to the bottom.
That’s a lot of apps.
But are any of those brain apps actually good?
A group of scientists decided to answer this questions – and they just published their results in a premiere journal of medical internet research.
To answer this question – using the tools of science – the researchers searched for cognitive training apps designed for older adults looking to address cognitive impairment. Using multiple search terms at both the App Store (for Apple devices) and the Play Store (for Android devices), they identified 4,822 possible apps. That’s a lot of apps!
The researchers then narrowed the list by examining only apps in English, for individual use, designed as brain training apps, that were free to download (research budgets are tight!). They then eliminated apps that just didn’t work. That reduced the number to 24 apps, for a more thorough analysis.
The reviewers then judged each app using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) criteria for “mhealth” (mobile health) apps. Independent reviewers scored each app across four categories – engagement/useability, functionality/efficacy, aesthetics/appeal, and information/credibility – with scores ranging from 1 to 5 (5 was the best). Every app was reviewed across each category by at least two independent reviews, and those scores had to be similar or a third reviewer conducted one more review to resolve the disagreement. Finally, the researchers averaged the scores across all four categories for an overall score.
You might know the names of some of the apps in the review, which included BrainHQ, Lumosity, Peak, Elevate, Mindmate, and Neuronation. Some of these apps have been in nationwide TV and radio commercials, others have been selected as the “app of the year” in an app store roundup. But what did the scientific analysis find?
The scientists found that not all apps are created equal
They reported there is a very wide range of quality. The highest scoring app got an overall score of 4.13 and the lowest scoring app got a score of only 2.38.
Which was best?
The highest scoring app was the BrainHQ brain training app from Posit Science – and it was the only app to get a score of 4 or higher across all four categories. Only two apps (BrainHQ and Peak) got an overall “good” score (4 or above), another nineteen apps got an overall score of 3 or above and were deemed “acceptable,” and three apps got even lower overall scores, which were deemed just “insufficient.”
The reviewers concluded that current cognitive training apps for older adults “demonstrate moderate quality with considerable variability.” They also advise that future “development should prioritize enhancing user engagement, incorporating personalized features, and involving health care professionals and experts to align with evidence-based guidelines.”
“I confess I was surprised, and very pleased, by this news when a colleague forwarded a link to the article,” said Dr. Henry Mahncke CEO of Posit Science, which makes BrainHQ. “I already knew that BrainHQ was the best brain training program on the market, because of its scientifically-proven results and the incredible real-world benefits that BrainHQ users report. But it’s great to see a careful, objective, scientific review come to the same conclusion.”
The current review builds on an earlier review of brain training programs for older adults published in Neuropsychology Review in 2017. In that analysis, the scientists found most brain training programs had no evidence of efficacy at all, and only one — BrainHQ — was backed by multiple high-quality studies.
As of 2025, BrainHQ exercises have shown benefits in more than 300 studies, including gains in cognition (attention, speed, memory, decision-making), in quality of life (depressive symptoms, confidence and control, health-related quality of life) and in real-world activities (health outcomes, balance, driving, workplace activities).
So, what can you do to put this new science to work for your own brain?
- The next time you open your phone, think about doing something good for your brain. Visit the app store for your phone (the App Store for Apple phones and Goople Play for Android phones.
- You don’t have to scroll through thousands of apps – thank goodness these researchers did that work you. Instead, learn from what they learned.
- If you decide you want to give BrainHQ a try. You can download it for free from your phone’s app store and you can access one exercise for free daily to try it out.
- If you decide you want to do more, you can subscribe – and use the brain training app ranked the highest for overall quality by scientists.
