Born to Run, Programmed to Play: Mapping the Extended Reality Exergames Landscape

TL;DR

A scoping review of the current state of XR exergame research is conducted to provide a structured overview, highlight trends, and uncover knowledge gaps, and provide a taxonomy of XR exergames to help future design and methodological investigation and reporting.

Abstract

Many people struggle to exercise regularly, raising the risk of serious health-related issues. Extended reality (XR) exergames address these hurdles by combining physical exercises with enjoyable, immersive gameplay. While a growing body of research explores XR exergames, no previous review has structured this rapidly expanding research landscape. We conducted a scoping review of the current state of XR exergame research to (i) provide a structured overview, (ii) highlight trends, and (iii) uncover knowledge gaps. After identifying 1318 papers in human-computer interaction and medical databases, we ultimately included 186 papers in our analysis. We provide a quantitative and qualitative summary of XR exergame research, showing current trends and potential future considerations. Finally, we provide a taxonomy of XR exergames to help future design and methodological investigation and reporting.

Figures (11)

• Figure 1: We illustrate our scoping review process in a PRISMA flow diagram to detail our steps prisma2020flowchart.
• Figure 2: The distribution of our corpus ($N$=186) papers by year. We see a steep increase in published XR exergame papers.
• Figure 3: The average age distribution of our corpus' studies ($n$=83) by age range group. We see that most studies included participants with an average age range of 20-30 ($n$=48).
• Figure 4: Our derived taxonomy's Goals dimension – with a total of seven characteristics.
• Figure 5: (left) Our derived taxonomy's People subdimension: Target Age Range – with a total of six characteristics. (right) Our derived taxonomy's People subdimension: Condition – with a total of three characteristics.