Environmental scan and pedagogical evaluation of commercially available digital serious games for anatomy education

In medical and anatomy education, serious games (SGs) are increasingly recognized as promising pedagogical tools. Educators seeking to adopt SG may choose whether to build games or buy commercially available serious games (CASGs). However, exploration of the commercial market remains scarce as existing reviews focus on bibliographic databases. This study aimed to explore the commercial market for SG aimed at medical education and analyze the pedagogical underpinnings of SG for anatomy education. An environmental scan was conducted across five search areas targeting digital interactive games intended for healthcare professionals. Out of 4330 potential games identified, 1585 CASG for medical education were included after screening and eligibility assessment. Subsequently, 879 CASG for anatomy education were systematically evaluated against 15 pedagogical principles adapted from instructional and game design frameworks. Data extraction, scoring, and statistical analysis explored the presence of pedagogical principles and influencing factors. Findings show that the commercial market offers a range of CASG for medical education, primarily targeting knowledge acquisition in human anatomy for undergraduates. Most SG were quiz-based, designed for single player, and lacked affiliation with academic institutions. Systematic analysis of CASG for anatomy education shows few incorporations of pedagogical principles with in-game feedback and game rules being most common, while principles supporting engagement, adaptivity, and collaboration were scarce. In conclusion, while the commercial market offers SG for anatomy education, their educational potential remains constrained by limited pedagogical depth, which may limit their potential as pedagogical tools. These findings suggest opportunities to develop pedagogically robust games in anatomy education.