How to learn Chinese from video games

Pick a game with a story, learn the few game words that come back everywhere, and stop to read instead of only playing.

By Mandarin The WildUpdated 19 October 20264 min read

We make Mandarin The Wild.

What the studies found

Gamers learn words. Among 80 Swedish teenagers, those who played games five hours a week or more scored highest on English vocabulary tests, ahead of those who played less and those who didn't play.¹ In a study of 1,069 Swedish 15- and 16-year-olds, the time spent playing went with higher vocabulary scores more than the kind of game did.² Both studies measured who knew more words, not what caused it.

Playing is not the same as reading. Japanese university students who watched a partner play a music game remembered more of its English words than the partners who played it, who found the game and its language harder.³ For Chinese, two sixth-grade immersion classes that played a learning game over eight lessons gained in vocabulary and reading.⁴

A text is easy to follow when you know about 98% of its words.⁵ Meanings beside the text help learners of Chinese learn new words, even ones they meet once.⁶

我周末喜欢和朋友玩游戏。

yóuxì: “I like playing games with friends on the weekend.”

游yóu戏xì

Noun

game; to play

Also written 遊戲

How much of a game's Chinese do HSK words cover?

We read the official Simplified Chinese text of four games in October 2026: Minecraft's language file⁷, and three open-source games whose Chinese translations are published with them, The Battle for Wesnoth⁸, Mindustry⁹ and Shattered Pixel Dungeon¹⁰. That is 420,000 words. Wesnoth has both a long story, 14 campaigns of dialogue and narration, and the menus, units and help of a strategy game, so we counted them apart. Each game's words are checked against the 2025 HSK list.¹¹

Game text	Words	HSK 1–4	HSK 1–6	All of HSK
Wesnoth, its 14 campaigns' story	220,000	70%	84%	91%
Shattered Pixel Dungeon, items and monsters	81,000	56%	78%	88%
Wesnoth, menus, units and help	78,000	54%	73%	82%
Mindustry, blocks and menus	17,000	46%	78%	89%
Minecraft, items and menus	26,000	44%	69%	81%

A game's story is about as hard as a novel: HSK 1–4 words are 70% of Wesnoth's campaigns (66–74% from one campaign to another), against 68% of a web novel's opening. Its menus, items and skill descriptions are about as hard as the news: 44–56% at HSK 1–4, against 52% of a news article. They are short, two or three words a line in Minecraft and Mindustry, and made of names for things, such as 橡木 (oak), 盔甲 (armour) and 卷轴 (scroll), that the HSK list leaves out.

The words games are built from

Game text says the same things again and again. The commonest 800 words make up 80% of Minecraft's text, 630 of Mindustry's and 910 of Shattered Pixel Dungeon's, against 1,210 for Wesnoth's story. A word you learn on the first screen is on the next one too.

The words that come back most are HSK 5 and 6 words few courses reach early: 敌人 (enemy), 伤害 (damage), 物品 (item), 力量 (strength), 设置 (settings) and 显示 (to show) at HSK 5; 攻击 (attack), 战斗 (battle), 武器 (weapon) and 死亡 (death) at HSK 6; 回合 (a turn) and 魔法 (magic) at HSK 7–9. Fantasy games add their own: 兽人 (orc), 法杖 (staff) and 法术 (spell) aren't on the list at all.

A plan that fits the evidence

Start with a game you already know. Switch it to Chinese: you know what each menu does, so its words have meanings before you read them.
Pick a game with a story. Dialogue is 70% HSK 1–4 words, menus about half; role-playing games and visual novels have the most of it.
Learn the game words first. 敌人, 攻击, 伤害, 物品 and 设置 come back hundreds of times in a game; save them to your Backpack and they come back in Review.
Stop and read. The study of a music game found players remembered fewer words than watchers: pause at the dialogue, replay a scene, or watch someone play.
Read with help. In a browser game or a game's wiki, point at any word with Mandarin The Wild for its pinyin and its meaning in that line; for a game on a console or a phone, take a photo of the screen and Pinyin X-Ray puts pinyin and meanings over its text.

How we counted

The text is each game's translated strings as its project publishes them, read in October 2026: Minecraft 1.21.4's language file (from a public mirror of its assets)⁷, and the Simplified Chinese translations of Wesnoth's 14 campaigns and its core, units, help and interface⁸, of Mindustry⁹ and of Shattered Pixel Dungeon¹⁰. Markup, placeholders and key names are left out. Words are cut by our engine and levelled on the 2025 HSK list the way the Library levels a story; "all of HSK" includes the advanced band 7–9, and names the dictionary only knows as names are left out. Shares are of all the words a game has, each counted every time it appears.

Questions

Can you learn Chinese from video games?

Yes, with a game that has a story and with help for the words. Studies of English learners find that people who play more know more words, though they show a link, not a cause. In the games we counted, a story is 70% HSK 1–4 words, about as hard as a novel, while menus and items are about half, about as hard as the news.

What Chinese words do you need for games?

HSK 5 and 6 words that come back hundreds of times: 敌人 (enemy), 攻击 (attack), 伤害 (damage), 物品 (item), 力量 (strength), 设置 (settings) and 显示 (to show). The commonest 800 words make up 80% of Minecraft’s Chinese text.

Which games are best for learning Chinese?

Games with a lot of dialogue, such as role-playing games and visual novels, and games you already know well, played in Chinese. Pause to read the dialogue rather than skipping it: in one study, players remembered fewer words than people who watched.

Sources

Checked on 19 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.