Objective To explore the effects of serious games in nursing education. Methods Databases including PubMed,Embase,CINAHL,The Cochrane Library,CBM,Wanfang Database,CNKI,VIP were searched systematically. Randomized controlled trials which explored the effects of serious games in nursing education were collected. The retrieval period was from the establishment of the database to May 5,2021. Two researchers independently screened studies,extracted data and evaluated the risk of bias of the included studies. Review Manager 5.4 and Stata 15.1 software were used for meta-analysis. Results Thirteen studies with a total of 1 896 subjects were included. The control group adopts traditional teaching methods,and the experimental group adopts serious game teaching methods. The results of meta-analysis showed that the theoretical score of the experimental group[SMD=2.62,95%CI(1.70,3.35),Z=5.55,P<0.05],satisfaction level[SMD=5.48,95%CI(1.63,9.33),Z=2.79,P<0.05] and self-efficacy[SMD=3.47,95%CI(0.16,6.78),Z=2.05,P<0.05] were higher than those of the control group. However,there was no statistical significance in the skill performance of students in experimental group and control group[SMD=1.03,95%CI(-1.02,3.07),Z=0.99,P>0.05]. Conclusion The use of serious game teaching method can improve the theoretical performance of nursing students,increase students’ satisfaction and self-efficacy,but such a method cannot improve students’ skills. Teachers can use the teaching method of serious games to improve the overall effects in the theoretical teaching. It is not recommended that serious games completely replace the traditional teaching in the practical training class.