Need a distraction from work? LinkedIn might add games with company leaderboard rankings

LinkedIn may be a professional social media network, but it might soon get a little more fun. If you use LinkedIn to search for jobs or network with people in your industry, you might notice a nice little diversion the next time you visit: games.

After an independent app researcher made the discovery, LinkedIn confirmed to TechCrunch the company is working on adding games to its app. The games appear to be short, simple puzzle games; four have been revealed so far: Queens, Inference, Crossclimb, and Blueprint.

Also: Open to work? Three new LinkedIn features make job searching easier than ever

“We’re playing with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations,” a LinkedIn representative said in a statement.

If the feature launches as leaked, playing games on LinkedIn would give you a score after every round. To entice you to keep coming back, LinkedIn is experimenting with ranking companies based on employee scores. You’ll also be able to see how many of your connections are playing that game and how many days in a row you have played.

The games might not be much more than a fun way to compete with colleagues and others in your work sphere, but LinkedIn’s goal is of course to get you to spend more time on its website. And if the success of super popular games like Wordle is any indication, LinkedIn might be on to something. Even Netflix has jumped on the gaming trend, recently adding playable titles on top of regular content.

Microsoft, which has plenty of gaming expertise, acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016. Microsoft also acquired Activision Blizzard, which owns the King game franchises, for $69 billion in 2023. LinkedIn, however, seems intent on making its own games rather than using some of the titles that its parent company owns, at least for now.

There’s no release date for LinkedIn’s games yet, and we’re also not clear on whether your gaming scores will be included in your performance reviews.

LinkedIn may be a professional social media network, but it might soon get a little more fun. If you use LinkedIn to search for jobs or network with people in your industry, you might notice a nice little diversion the next time you visit: games.

After an independent app researcher made the discovery, LinkedIn confirmed to TechCrunch the company is working on adding games to its app. The games appear to be short, simple puzzle games; four have been revealed so far: Queens, Inference, Crossclimb, and Blueprint.

Also: Open to work? Three new LinkedIn features make job searching easier than ever

“We’re playing with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations,” a LinkedIn representative said in a statement.

If the feature launches as leaked, playing games on LinkedIn would give you a score after every round. To entice you to keep coming back, LinkedIn is experimenting with ranking companies based on employee scores. You’ll also be able to see how many of your connections are playing that game and how many days in a row you have played.

The games might not be much more than a fun way to compete with colleagues and others in your work sphere, but LinkedIn’s goal is of course to get you to spend more time on its website. And if the success of super popular games like Wordle is any indication, LinkedIn might be on to something. Even Netflix has jumped on the gaming trend, recently adding playable titles on top of regular content.

Microsoft, which has plenty of gaming expertise, acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016. Microsoft also acquired Activision Blizzard, which owns the King game franchises, for $69 billion in 2023. LinkedIn, however, seems intent on making its own games rather than using some of the titles that its parent company owns, at least for now.

There’s no release date for LinkedIn’s games yet, and we’re also not clear on whether your gaming scores will be included in your performance reviews.