What Are Games of Skill?
Games of skill are promotional contests where outcomes are determined by a participant’s abilities rather than random chance. Judging is based on measurable criteria such as creativity, accuracy, originality, or effort, making these contests fundamentally different from sweepstakes or lotteries.
Common examples of games of skill include essay contests, photo or caption submissions, recipe contests, design challenges, quizzes, and custom video entries. Because winners are selected through judging, these contests are often associated with fun games to play that encourage participation, originality, and engagement rather than luck.
Games of skill are frequently used by brands that want to generate user-generated content, highlight talent within their community, or legally allow purchases or paid entries as part of participation. In many regions, this structure provides more flexibility than chance-based promotions, as long as the judging criteria and rules are clearly defined.
How to structure a game of skill:
Always publish transparent judging criteria, explain how entries will be evaluated, and ensure scoring is consistent. This protects your promotion legally and builds trust with participants who expect a fair outcome.
Skill-based contests also perform well online because they appeal to audiences searching for skill games online or interactive experiences that reward effort. When positioned correctly, they feel more like engaging challenges than traditional promotions.
Gleam makes it easy to run games of skill by handling entry collection, submission validation, and judging workflows in one place. For example, a recipe contest allows participants to submit original entries that can be reviewed, scored, and showcased as part of your campaign.
How to maximize impact:
Promote your game of skill across email and social channels, highlight top entries during the campaign, and clearly communicate deadlines. Featuring submissions publicly increases engagement and reinforces that the contest rewards creativity and effort, not chance.
Explore Gleam's Games of Skill Competition Templates