What did children play?

Classification of children’s digital play choices is complex because games and experiences can often be associated with multiple genres. Furthermore, children interacted with games in different ways and sometimes included elements of gameplay that deviated from the designed intentions and purposes of games. 

Children across the four countries  chose to play a wide variety of games and genres. Minecraft was the most popular game for children in this study and was played by girls and boys of all ages in each of the four countries. Children throughout the age range chose to play games within each genre, although game content and complexity varied to some extent according to children’s ages. Popular genres and games included:

Puzzle and strategy games, like Wordle, online chess games, AE Mysteries and Granny.

Action and adventure games, like Fortnite and Legend of Zelda.

Platform games, like Super Mario and Subway Surfer.

Fighter and shooter games, like Kick the Buddy and Street Fighter.

Sports games, like FIFA and Rocket League. 

Role-playing games, like Pokémon Scarlet and Dress the Barbie.

Simulation games, like The Sims, Horse Valley and Bloxburg.

Explicitly educational games, like Jolly Phonics and Reading Eggs.

Multimodal text engagement and creation games, like Garage Band and painting apps.

Sandbox games, like Minecraft. 

A number of factors had an impact upon children’s digital game choices and preferences. Children’s deep and sustained interests, values and enquiries, framed in this study as digital play drivers, were important for children’s choices. Children’s choices were dynamic and shifted in accordance with permanent and temporary changes in play ecologies. Differences in household location and economies meant that children's digital game preferences could not always be activated and resulted in children making compromises and/or making the best use of the digital affordances that were available to them. Family mediation practices also influenced children’s digital play choices in enabling and restrictive ways.

How did children play?

In line with contemporary play research and scholarship, children’s play practices frequently demonstrated characteristics of converged play. For example, children moved between physical and virtual spaces to pursue their passions and interests and to interact and socialise with family, friends and others. Engagement in converged play practices included many examples of children being enquirers and performers of knowledge and skills. For some children, digital play provided a meaningful substitute for physical play practices that were not currently available to them.

Digital play practices were profoundly relational and afforded multiple opportunities for children to communicate, collaborate and spend time with friends and family members. In line with the prevalence of converged play practices, these social connections were intertwined within and across physical and virtual spaces.

Household ecologies, family practices and the spatial and socio-economic characteristics of homes and localities contributed to children’s digital play practices. Children engaged in digital play in multiple places and spaces within their homes, their local areas, whilst in transit and further afield.

Children engaged in:

Virtual rough and tumble play, for example when 9-year-old Harriet (UKF19) bumped into her friends’ avatars when playing Murder Mystery 2 on Roblox.

Socio-dramatic play, enacting real-life scenarios in digital environments, for example when 10-year-old Jemima (UKF7) played online fidget trading games when a period of anxiety meant she was unable to trade and collect physical fidget toys with other children.

Social and relational play, for example when 11-year-old Luke (UKF3) played Rocket Royale with his younger sister, where they teamed up to digitally build and defend a rocket.

Creative play, for example when 10-year-old Henry (UKF9) designed and made rollercoasters in Rollercoaster Madness and Theme Park Tycoon 2. 

Communication play, like when 11-old Nkosinathi (SAF2) used the project iPhone to take photos and videos of the family as well as make music on the Garage Band app.

Dramatic play, such as 9-year-old Tinotenda (SAF4) making a video recording of himself acting. 

Virtual locomotor play, for example 7-year-old April (WAF6) jumping and sliding while playing Aqua Park.

Deep play, for example 8-year-old Kermit (SAF9) helping his sister not to die when they were playing together in Fortnite.

Exploratory play, like 10-year-old Hailey (UKF13) working out how to get her characters un-stuck while playing LEGO Builders Journey.

Fantasy play, like when 10-year old Liana (CYF3) spent a long time selecting avatars for engaging in fantasy play within Fortnite.

Imaginative play, like 10-year old Henry (UKF10) imagining what it might be like to control and race planes and cars while playing Plane Crazy, Driving Simulator and Rocket League. 

Mastery play, such as 9-year-old Pinar (UKF6) creating a Minecraft world, which she named ‘The Realm’.

Object play, such as 9-year-old Romeos (CYF9) playing Triple Find, a tile matching game, on his phone.

Role play, for example when 6-year-old Anna (SAF3) played a hotel role-play game where she offered individuals spa treatments, packed guests’ bags and made smoothies.

Transgressive play, such as 9-year-old Penny (UKF1) vandalising a friend’s garden in Bloxburg as an avenue to release her frustrations.

Children and their families engaged in operational, cultural and critical digital literacy practices in their digital play. Operational literacies are the skills and competences needed to read, write and make meaning in diverse media, including knowing how and where to find information, understanding and being able to use and operate different modes and digital technologies to communicate and participate in meaning-making practices. For example, 10-year-old Liana (CYF3) demonstrated detailed understanding of how to use and operate digital platforms and games. Cultural literacies involve the cultural understandings and practices derived from engaging in digital literacy practices in specific social and cultural contexts. An example of this was in South Africa, 7-year-old Olivia (SAF5) appropriated the project iPhone as a tool for documenting her family, animals and community. In this case, Olivia’s digital literacy practices were interwoven with the socio-material practices of her family and neighbours; the creative projects that Olivia created using TikTok were therefore situated within the particular context of her home and locality. Finally, critical literacies encompass the ability to engage critically with digital texts and artefacts, interrogating issues such as power and agency, representation and voice, authenticity and veracity. Younger children were often able to compare the games to their favourite games and to identify aspects that could be improved. Some older children provided more in-depth critical analyses. For example, in South Africa, 9-year-old Tinotenda (SAF4) demonstrated critical digital literacy when he emphasised how the 2D format of World of Goo meant that the game did not afford the direct 'first-person' experience of game play he'd noticed in other games. 

Research spotlight: Mount, his family and church congregation

The image that will soon be on this page will be representative of a particular family in our dataset. The illustration is being created for our project by Alexandra Francis, an independent illustrator, designer, and animator based in Manchester (UK). Find out more about her work at https://alexandrafrancis.com/.