Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature

•A systematic review is conducted to assess the empirical effectiveness of gamification in the health and wellbeing domain.•Twenty-one papers are identified that report empirical evidence on the effectiveness of gamification in health and wellbeing.•Overall the evidence suggests gamification can have a positive impact for health and wellbeing related interventions.•The evidence is strongest for the use of gamification to target behavioural outcomes, particularly physical activity.•Further research that isolates the impacts of gamification is needed.