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Do Typing Games Actually Make You Faster?

Games work, with real caveats. Here is what they train well, what they miss, and how to use both.

Speed3 min read
In this guide
  1. What games train well
  2. What games train badly
  3. Who should use which
  4. How to combine them
  5. An honest caveat
  6. Common questions

Short answer: yes, and mainly because you will actually do them. The best practice method is the one you keep doing, and most people abandon drills within two weeks.

But games and drills train different things, and knowing which is which stops you wasting months.

What games train well

Not looking at the keyboard. The strongest argument for games. Your attention is on the screen because that is where the threat is, so glancing down costs you the game — the incentive does the work that willpower usually has to.

Reading ahead. Games show you what is coming before you have to type it. That is exactly the skill that separates a 50 WPM typist from a 70 WPM one, and it is very hard to practise deliberately.

Reacting to unfamiliar words. You cannot memorise what is coming, so you are always typing cold. Repeating a fixed passage gives you a score that rises without your typing improving; a game cannot be gamed that way.

Volume without boredom. Twenty minutes of drills feels like twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of a game does not, and that difference compounds over months.

What games train badly

Accuracy. Most games reward speed and punish hesitation, which is the opposite of what a developing typist needs. If your accuracy is under 95%, games will entrench the problem — fix accuracy first.

Correct fingering. No game can see your hands. If you type B with the wrong finger, the game rewards you exactly the same. Beginners can build fast, permanent bad habits this way.

Rare characters. Numbers, symbols, capitals, punctuation. Most games use simple lowercase words, so the keys you are worst at are the ones you never meet.

Sustained rhythm. Games are bursty by design — waves, pauses, difficulty spikes. Real typing is a steady stream. See typing rhythm.

Who should use which

Your levelUse
Complete beginnerDrills first. Learn correct fingering before speed becomes a habit.
Knows the keys, still looks downGames, heavily. This is what they are best at.
40–60 WPM, accuracy under 95%Drills. Games will make accuracy worse.
40–60 WPM, accuracy above 97%Both. Drill weak keys, then play.
70+ WPMGames for maintenance, targeted drilling for gains.

How to combine them

A workable split for 15 minutes:

  1. 2 minutes — warm up
  2. 5 minutes — drill the specific words and transitions you fumble
  3. 8 minutes — play, with your accuracy target still in mind

The drills fix what is broken. The game builds the habits that only form when you are not thinking about them.

An honest caveat

There is no good evidence that games are faster than drills for someone who would do drills consistently. Their advantage is behavioural: adherence, not efficiency.

If you are the rare person who genuinely enjoys structured practice, drills are more precise, and you should mostly do those. For everyone else — which is nearly everyone — the game you keep playing beats the drill you quit.

Try the games, then take a real test once a week to check the fun is turning into progress. If your accuracy is dropping while your speed rises, go back to drills for a fortnight.

Common questions

Do typing games actually improve typing speed?
Yes, particularly for breaking the habit of looking at the keyboard and for learning to read ahead. Their main advantage is that people keep doing them, where structured drills are usually abandoned.
Are typing games better than typing drills?
Not inherently. Drills are more precise for fixing specific weaknesses and for accuracy; games are better for reading ahead and for consistency of practice. Most people benefit from both.
Should beginners use typing games?
Only after learning correct finger placement. A game cannot see your hands, so it will reward incorrect fingering just as much as correct fingering, and those habits are hard to remove later.

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