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BingWow Publishes Two Peer-Reviewed Research Papers on SSRN: Blooket Overtakes Kahoot in Educator Interest

Press release: Free EdTech Platform Publishes Peer-Reviewed Research Showing Blooket Has Overtaken Kahoot in Educator Interest (openPR, May 7, 2026).

BingWow has published two peer-reviewed research papers on SSRN (Elsevier) documenting structural shifts in classroom and corporate engagement tooling. The reports analyze seven years of Google Trends data across 20 educational technology tools, complemented by feature audits and ecosystem metrics. Both reports are open access, downloadable as CSV, and licensed CC BY 4.0.

Headline Finding: Blooket Overtakes Kahoot

The EdTech Engagement Report (SSRN Abstract 6566559) documents a milestone for the classroom game tool market: in January 2026, Blooket surpassed Kahoot in Google search interest for the first time since either platform launched. The crossover is the culmination of a 6,300% rise in Blooket search interest from 2019 to 2026 — the steepest documented in the category.

Other findings in the report:

  • Gimkit shows the highest year-over-year growth rate among classroom quiz tools, suggesting a fragmenting EdTech engagement market rather than winner-take-all consolidation.
  • Virtual team building search interest remains 340% above pre-COVID baseline levels — a sustained shift, not a pandemic spike that reverted.
  • "Bingo card" reached an all-time Google Trends high in January 2025, driven in part by TikTok's adoption of bingo as a cultural template for predictions and shared experiences.

Companion HR Report: Office Engagement Goes Gamified

The companion HR Team Building Report (SSRN Abstract 6632200) examines bingo-based team building in the corporate workplace. Highlights:

  • A Hedges' g effect size of 0.822 for gamified interventions on employee engagement metrics — large by social-science standards (Cohen's convention treats g ≥ 0.8 as large).
  • Bingo-related search interest is up 127% since 2020, driven by remote-workforce demand for low-friction synchronous activities.
  • "Office bingo" hit its all-time Google Trends high in February 2026, and "gamification employee engagement" reached its highest-ever volume in March 2026.

Why the Peer-Reviewed Format Matters

SSRN is a leading repository for working papers and peer-reviewed scholarship in the social sciences, owned by Elsevier. Publishing on SSRN means each paper carries a permanent abstract URL that will resolve in academic databases for years; methodology and underlying data are documented in a reproducible format; and researchers, journalists, and educators can cite the work using a stable bibliographic record.

The findings carry weight in a $340 billion global EdTech market in part because the methodology can be inspected and reproduced. All visualizations are licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). The full datasets covering the 20 EdTech tools and 12 team-building platforms are downloadable as CSV files for independent verification by researchers, journalists, and educators.

Read the Full Reports

Both reports are on bingwow.com with interactive charts, downloadable PNGs, and methodology footnotes:

Plain-English companion pieces:

About BingWow

BingWow is a free AI-powered bingo card platform for classrooms, corporate teams, event planners, and senior activity directors. The platform generates custom bingo cards from any topic in 10 seconds using AI, supports real-time multiplayer for up to 20 players per room, includes a complete digital bingo caller with voice announcement and visual flashboard, and produces printable 75-ball number cards with unique validation codes. BingWow is listed in the ISTE EdTech Index and cited in three Wikipedia articles (Kahoot!, Gamification of learning, Draft:Blooket). The platform is completely free with no advertising, no signup required, and no premium tiers.

Founded in 2024 by Brown University graduate Forrest Miller, BingWow operates on a free-forever model. Media contact: hello@bingwow.com.

Cite this announcement: Miller, F. (2026). BingWow Publishes Two Peer-Reviewed Research Papers on SSRN. BingWow Research.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are the peer-reviewed reports hosted?
Both reports are on SSRN (Social Science Research Network), a scholarly repository owned by Elsevier. The EdTech Engagement Report is at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6566559 and the HR Team Building Report is at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6632200. Both have permanent abstract IDs that will resolve in academic databases for decades.
Can I cite this research in my own article, paper, or presentation?
Yes. All data, charts, and reports are licensed CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Cite as: Miller, F. (2026). Shifting Landscapes in Classroom Gamification: A Google Trends Analysis of EdTech Engagement Tools, 2019-2026. BingWow Research. SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6566559. The full datasets are downloadable as CSV for independent verification.
What is the source of the data?
All trend data was collected via the Google Trends API covering January 2019 through April 2026. Feature audits were conducted by visiting each platform's website and testing functionality directly. Company metrics are sourced from official press releases, SEC filings, and verified third-party sources including SimilarWeb.
What does the Hedges' g of 0.822 mean?
Hedges' g is a standardized measure of effect size used in meta-analyses. A value of 0.822 is considered a large effect by Cohen's conventions (g ≥ 0.8). In context, it means gamified interventions produce substantially better employee engagement outcomes than standard team meetings or training. The figure is drawn from Li, He, and Yuan's (2023) meta-analysis of 41 studies and 5,071 participants, published in Frontiers in Psychology (DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1253549).
Where can I read the original press release?
The press release is hosted on openPR at https://www.openpr.com/news/4504029/free-edtech-platform-publishes-peer-reviewed-research-showing. It was published on May 7, 2026.

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