Growth of game-based learning research in Latin American SciELO journals concentrated in gamification rather than in digital or immersive technology

Introduction: The composition of game-based learning articles published in Latin American journals indexed in SciELO, and the change in their emphasis on digital and augmented technologies, had not been described. Methods: Cross-sectional bibliometric study with trend analysis of SciELO ArticleMeta records of 2012 to 2024. Candidates located in OpenAlex by journal ISSN were linked to ArticleMeta records, a core corpus was defined by dictionary rules and audited, articles were tagged by level, area and technology, topics were extracted with non-negative matrix factorization, and tag trends were estimated with logistic regression. Results: The core corpus had 478 articles in 187 journals (53.3% Spanish, 26.2% Portuguese, 20.5% English). Annual output climbed from 12 articles in 2012 to 90 in 2024. Higher education (24.5%) and health (21.1%) led. Gamification rose from 2.2% to 44.3% of the articles (odds ratio per year 1.32, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.44), digital technology stayed near 49% (odds ratio 0.98), and augmented or virtual reality appeared in 2.3% of the articles (odds ratio 1.36, 95% CI 0.98 to 1.89). The audit judged 87% of core records relevant. Conclusions: The growth of the regional literature came through gamification and not through digital or immersive technology, and the corpus rests on linked records with limits that the authors must verify.