10 Health App Gamification Examples

This post is part of a series on how gamification mechanics are used effectively in various types of consumer apps. You may find these gamification examples helpful if you are looking to incorporate gamification into your product strategy.

Health Apps and the Role of Gamification

Health apps are software applications designed to monitor, track, or improve health and wellness. They are interesting because they offer personalized health insights and convenient access to health management tools. To increase engagement and retention, these apps often use gamification mechanics like points, badges, challenges, and leaderboards. These elements add value by motivating users, fostering a sense of accomplishment, and making health management more enjoyable. Now, without further ado, here are 10 health apps that use gamification to create engaging user experiences.

10 Health App Gamification Examples

Fitbit

Fitbit tracks activity levels and offers badges and challenges to motivate users to reach fitness goals.

Fitbit uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Fitbit awards badges for various achievements, such as reaching step goals, climbing a certain number of floors, or maintaining activity streaks. These badges provide a sense of accomplishment and encourage users to continue engaging with the platform.

• Challenges: Fitbit uses challenges to motivate users to be more active. Challenges can be solo or group-based and often involve competing with friends or other Fitbit users to reach a certain step goal or activity level within a specific timeframe.

• Leaderboards: Fitbit allows users to form groups and compete on leaderboards based on daily step count or other metrics. This fosters a sense of competition and encourages users to increase their activity levels to climb the ranks.

• Streaks: Fitbit tracks streaks for consecutive days of meeting step goals or activity targets. Maintaining a streak provides a sense of accomplishment and motivates users to stay consistent with their fitness habits.

• Progress Bars: Fitbit uses progress bars to visually represent a user's progress towards their daily goals for steps, distance, active minutes, and sleep. These progress bars provide immediate feedback and encourage users to complete their goals.

You can learn more about Fitbit's gamification strategy in our case study: How Fitbit Uses Gamification to Improve Engagement and Retention.

Headspace

Headspace uses a progress system, badges and streaks to help users learn and practice meditation techniques to improve mindfulness.

Headspace uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Users earn badges for completing various milestones, such as meditating for a certain number of days, completing specific courses, or reaching overall meditation time goals. These badges are displayed in the user's profile as a visual representation of their progress and achievements.

• Streaks: Headspace uses streaks to encourage daily meditation. The app tracks how many consecutive days a user has meditated, and displays this as a streak. Users are motivated to maintain their streak by meditating each day to avoid breaking it.

• Progress Bars: Headspace visually represents the user's progress within a course or meditation pack using progress bars. This provides a clear indication of how much they have completed and motivates them to finish the entire series.

• Rewards: Headspace rewards users with access to new content and features as they progress through the app and achieve milestones. For example, completing a certain number of meditation sessions might unlock a new meditation pack or a new feature within the app.

You can learn more about Headspace's gamification strategy in our case study: Headspace Case Study: The Impact of Gamification on Retention and Engagement.

Lifesum

Lifesum combines nutrition tracking with gamified elements to help users achieve their health and weight loss goals.

Lifesum uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Users earn badges for reaching milestones, completing challenges, or consistently tracking their food and exercise. These badges are displayed on the user's profile, providing a sense of accomplishment and encouraging continued engagement.

• Progress Bars: Lifesum uses progress bars to visually represent the user's progress towards their daily goals, such as calorie intake, macronutrient balance, and water consumption. This allows users to quickly assess their performance and make adjustments as needed.

• Streaks: Lifesum incorporates streaks to motivate users to consistently track their food intake, exercise, and other healthy habits. The app tracks the number of consecutive days a user has achieved their goals, encouraging them to maintain their routines.

• Challenges: Lifesum offers challenges related to nutrition and fitness. Users can participate in these challenges to earn rewards, badges, or points. Challenges promote engagement and encourage users to try new habits.

You can learn more about Lifesum's gamification strategy in our case study: How Lifesum Leverages Gamification to Boost Retention.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal tracks calorie intake and exercise, offering personalized goals and rewards to help users achieve weight loss and fitness milestones.

MyFitnessPal uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Users earn badges for achieving various milestones, such as logging meals for a certain number of consecutive days, completing workout routines, or reaching specific weight loss goals. These badges provide a sense of accomplishment and encourage continued engagement.

• Progress Bars: MyFitnessPal uses progress bars to visually represent a user's progress towards their daily goals for calorie intake, macronutrient balance (protein, carbohydrates, and fat), and water consumption. This feature helps users quickly understand their current status and motivates them to stay on track.

• Streaks: The app tracks and displays a user's streak for logging their weight, food intake, and exercise. Maintaining a streak motivates users to consistently engage with the app and adhere to their health and fitness plans.

You can learn more about MyFitnessPal's gamification strategy in our case study: How MyFitnessPal Leverages Gamification to Boost Retention.

Nike Run Club

Nike Run Club tracks runs and provides challenges, badges, and leaderboards to encourage users to achieve their fitness goals and compete with friends.

Nike Run Club uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Users earn badges for completing specific running milestones or challenges, like running a certain distance, achieving personal bests, or participating in special events. Badges are displayed on a user's profile, providing a visual representation of their accomplishments and encouraging further engagement.

• Challenges: Nike Run Club offers various running challenges, both individual and community-based. These challenges motivate users to reach specific goals, such as running a certain number of miles in a month or completing a particular race distance. Users can track their progress and compete with friends or the broader NRC community.

• Streaks: The app tracks running streaks, rewarding users for running consistently week after week. Streaks are prominently displayed, encouraging users to maintain their running routine and avoid breaking their streak.

• Progress Bars: Nike Run Club provides progress bars to visually represent a runner's advancement toward their goals, such as weekly mileage targets or challenge completion. This visual feedback helps users stay motivated and informed about their progress.

• Levels: The app offers different levels that runners can achieve based on the total number of kilometers they've run. As users log more runs, they accumulate mileage and progress to higher levels, earning recognition for their dedication and progress.

You can learn more about Nike Run Club's gamification strategy in our case study: How Nike Run Club Leverages Gamification to Boost Retention.

Sleep Cycle

Sleep Cycle tracks your sleep patterns and wakes you up during your lightest sleep phase. The app presents sleep data in an easy-to-understand format.

Sleep Cycle uses the following gamification features:

• Streaks: The app tracks how many days in a row you've used the app. The streak is displayed prominently, encouraging continued use to maintain the streak.

• Achievements: The app offers achievements for various sleep-related milestones, such as the total number of sleep sessions recorded, or achieving a certain sleep quality score. Unlocking an achievement provides a sense of accomplishment.

• Progress Bars: The app visually represents your sleep data and consistency over time, clearly showing how much data is collected, and how consistent you are with your sleeping schedule.

You can learn more about Sleep Cycle's gamification strategy in our case study: Sleep Cycle's Gamification Strategy: A Case Study.

StepsApp

StepsApp is a pedometer that tracks your daily steps and active calories burned. By achieving milestones, you earn badges to motivate users to walk more.

StepsApp uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: StepsApp awards badges for reaching certain milestones, such as taking a certain number of steps in a day, walking a certain distance, or maintaining a streak of daily activity.

• Streaks: StepsApp uses streaks to motivate users to maintain consistent activity. The app tracks how many consecutive days a user has met their step goal, and displays this as a streak. This encourages users to keep walking to avoid breaking their streak.

• Progress Bars: StepsApp uses a progress bar to show how close users are to their daily step goals. The progress bar fills up as users take more steps, providing a visual representation of their progress and motivating them to reach their target.

You can learn more about StepsApp's gamification strategy in our case study: How StepsApp Leverages Gamification to Boost Retention.

SuperBetter

SuperBetter increases your resilience, strengthens relationships, finds meaning, and achieves ambitious goals. Unlock your heroic potential and overcome real-life challenges.

SuperBetter uses the following gamification features:

• Points: Users earn points for completing quests, activating power-ups, and overcoming challenges. Points contribute to leveling up and tracking progress.

• Streaks: SuperBetter allows users to create and track daily, weekly, or custom streaks for positive habits and activities. Maintaining streaks provides a sense of accomplishment and reinforces positive behaviors.

• Challenges: Users set personal challenges related to their goals, such as overcoming anxiety or improving relationships. Completing these challenges earns rewards and contributes to overall progress.

• Achievements: Users unlock achievements for reaching milestones, completing quests, or demonstrating consistent effort. Achievements provide recognition and a sense of accomplishment.

• Levels: As users accumulate points and complete challenges, they level up, signifying their progress and growth within the app.

You can learn more about SuperBetter's gamification strategy in our case study: SuperBetter's Gamification Strategy: A Case Study.

Virgin Pulse

Virgin Pulse is a corporate wellness program that uses gamification to encourage employees to adopt healthier habits. Users can participate in challenges, earn rewards, and track their progress towards wellness goals.

Virgin Pulse uses the following gamification features:

• Points: Users earn points for completing healthy activities, such as exercising, getting enough sleep, and eating nutritious meals. These points contribute to their overall progress and can unlock rewards.

• Progress Bars: Virgin Pulse uses progress bars to visually represent how close users are to completing daily or weekly goals, such as steps taken or active minutes. This provides a quick and easy way to track progress and stay motivated.

• Badges: Users can earn badges for reaching certain milestones or completing specific challenges within the app. These badges serve as visual recognition of their achievements and can be shared with other users.

• Challenges: Virgin Pulse offers individual and group challenges that encourage users to compete with each other or work together towards a common goal. These challenges add a social and competitive element to the platform.

• Rewards: Users can earn rewards for accumulating points or reaching certain milestones. These rewards can include gift cards, discounts, or other incentives that encourage continued engagement with the platform.

• Streaks: The app tracks consecutive days of healthy activities, such as meeting step goals or logging meals. Maintaining a streak can earn users bonus points or other rewards.

BetterMe

BetterMe is a personalized fitness and nutrition app that uses gamified challenges and progress tracking to help users achieve their weight loss and fitness goals. It provides customized workout and meal plans.

BetterMe uses the following gamification features:

• Achievements: Users earn achievements for reaching milestones in their fitness journey, such as completing a certain number of workouts or reaching a weight loss goal. These achievements are displayed in the user's profile.

• Progress Bars: BetterMe uses progress bars to visually represent the user's progress towards their daily and long-term goals, such as completing a workout or tracking their water intake.

• Streaks: Users are encouraged to consistently engage with the app through streaks, which track the number of consecutive days they complete workouts or adhere to their meal plan. Longer streaks often unlock rewards or recognition.

• Levels: The app provides a leveling system, allowing users to advance through levels as they accumulate experience points. Leveling up can unlock new content, features, or personalized recommendations.

• Points: BetterMe awards points for completing various activities within the app, such as finishing workouts, logging meals, and engaging with educational content. These points contribute to the user's overall progress and may unlock rewards.

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of how gamification can be used effectively in health apps. We hope you found these examples inspiring and that they help you think about how you can incorporate gamification into your own product strategy.

If you're looking to build gamification into your app or platform, we encourage you to check out Trophy, a set of APIs and tools for building gamified product experiences in hours, not months.