two students playing math games on a computer

If you are the parent, teacher, or tutor of a student who is particularly resistant to practicing their math skills, you’re no doubt eager for strategies to engage them—enter, multiplayer math games!

Particularly in upper grade levels as the myth of “I suck at math” becomes more entrenched in students’ learning, finding ways to reinforce important mathematical concepts can become more difficult. Incorporating fun, multiplayer math games into students learning is a surefire way of keeping them engaged and interested. (It’s also one of a number of great strategies for overcoming math anxiety.)

Below we’ve gathered a collection of free two player math games that are sure to be a hit with your students. The best part? Most of these fun math games to play in the classroom are available at no cost to you!

The Benefits of Math Gamification

Gamification in education is still a relatively new technique; while there isn’t yet much published research, educators who have introduced gamification—particularly in math lessons—can attest to just how helpful this technique can be.

Introducing a math concept in a way that keeps your students interested (e.g. through a fun math game) is much more likely to help it stick in their minds than if you use a teaching method they have difficulty connecting to. Further, using math games to reinforce concepts is also effective in helping students connect a concept to everyday life. Simply put: gamification is the best way to pique the interest of most students. Let’s take a closer look at some of the other benefits of math gamification:

  • Games provide instant feedback. Using fun math games helps each student progress by developing the necessary knowledge to complete the game. As they play, both you and the student can see where they’re at in terms of learning a specific concept.
  • Gamification may provide incentives. In digital gamified content, students may earn badges or other incentives as they progress in a game. For physical games in the classroom, simply winning the game gives them a sense of satisfaction.
  • Gameplay makes learning math less stressful. Games are generally regarded as a fun activity to pass the time. When you pair that with a math concept, your students may not even realize they’re practicing these important concepts. For example, if you teach students fun math games with a deck of cards, they are likely to focus on the card-playing aspect even as they are internalizing the underlying math concepts.

Fun Multiplayer Math Games for Your Students

While single-player math games can help students’ math learning in all of these ways, multiplayer math games provide students the added bonus of learning with their peers. Whether a math game requires teamwork or has a competitive aspect, group learning motivates students to improve their math skills and helps them remember concepts even more.

Incorporating fun multiplayer math games in your classroom will not only help reinforce important math concepts, but it also gives students a chance to fine-tune their social skills and learn the best ways to interact with their peers. Another benefit of math games for small groups (as opposed to whole-class math games) is that every student can actively participate.

Fun Two Player Math Games 

Math Baseball

This first game brings sports into the realm of two player math games! Math Baseball is a game that tests a student’s mental math skills. Both players will play a game of “baseball” by answering various math equations  and scoring points as they go. There are four different difficulties to choose from, which makes this game perfect for a variety of grade levels. Every correct answer constitutes a base hit and every wrong answer counts as an out.

Since this game relies on students’ abilities to do math questions in their head, it’s the perfect follow-up to a lesson on mental math strategies!

Multiplayer Math Games with 99Math

Although we think 99Math is ideally suited for two player math games, its interface is also adaptable for whole class math games or solo practice. Students have the option of exploring a variety of math concepts, including Order of Operations and Equation Solving. As an added bonus, 99Math has an accompanying chat feature (through Discord) for students to connect with others across the country! The fun two player math games available on 99Math are suitable for students in grades 1–6.

Multiplayer Math Games for Small Groups

Multiplication Games

Mulitplication.com is filled with free multiplayer math games that cover math concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Students can choose from a four-in-a-row game or a variety of racing-style games that require you to answer math questions as quickly as possible.

In particular, the four-in-a-row games allow students to either play against a computer or another person. Take some time to explore the offerings and we think this will become a go-to resource for multiplication games, among others!

Math Playground for K-7

Whether your unit focuses on basic operations, fractions and decimals, or Pre-Algebra skills—Math Playground is a great resource for fun and effective math games. This website has math games grouped by concept and sortable by grade level, making it easy to find the right game for your students. Each game has a lobby where students can easily create and join games with their peers. So, whether you want them working in groups of three or large groups of eight, Math Playground has the games for them.

ABCya Games for Groups

Full of exciting and challenging games for Elementary and Middle schoolers, ABCya has been a holy grail of math games for nearly 20 years. This site groups math games by type so that students can pick what actually interests them—from racing games that quiz students on their operations to puzzle games resembling hit apps, ABCya has a great selection for math gamers of any type.

In addition to their large collection of colorful, immersive games, ABCya also has other resources that enhance student learning. For example, their interactive number chart is a great tool to help students learning their times table or working on other assignments.

Math Games for the Whole Class

Exponents Jeopardy

Why reinvent the wheel? Incorporate math concepts into a game that is already well-known and much-loved! This Jeopardy-style game focuses on drilling students in the crucial area of exponents! The game features questions in three different categories: Evaluating Exponents, Equations with Exponents, and Exponents with Fractional Bases. The content in this game follows several common core standards and tests students on their ability to solve exponential equations.

The flexible structure of this fun math game means that students can go head-to-head, practice on their own, or face off in teams!

Coordinate Plane Jeopardy

Much like Exponent Jeopardy, this game takes the popular TV show as inspiration for reinforcing students’ understanding of how to read (x,y) coordinate planes. Students can play by themselves or in small teams. After each student chooses their character, each team takes turns answering various questions about points on a coordinate plane. Once the game finishes, the winner is announced by fun sounds and virtual confetti. This game is geared towards late elementary- and early middle-school students

Math Gamification With Piqosity!

Gamifying math content is an excellent way of eradicating the negativity around math learning. While we’re thrilled to share some of the awesome multiplayer math games available on the internet, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Piqosity’s own gamification!

We’ve enhanced our complete Math (and English!) courses with engaging gamification features that use instant scoring, sounds and badges, and leaderboard points as an incentive! This gamification helps students stay invested even when it’s time to study more specific or higher level topics that typical math games don’t cover—together with our AI-driven virtual tutor and personalizable course content, our features allow students to adjust our course content to fit their needs.

In addition to 5th–12th grade English courses and SAT, ACT, and ISEE test prep, Piqosity offers math courses for the following levels:

Piqosity Math Courses:

The best part? You can try out all of Piqosity’s features with our free community account. When you’re ready to upgrade, Piqosity’s year-long accounts start at only $89. Plus, get a 10% off coupon just by signing up for our mailing list!

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