Objective: In an era when entrepreneurship has become the driving force behind economic growth, innovation, and job creation, the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities remains the most demanding and decisive step in this journey one that requires recognizing emerging needs, uncovering market gaps, and transforming creative ideas into tangible value. Evidence suggests that young people, particularly Generation Z, despite possessing foundational knowledge and basic entrepreneurial skills, face significant limitations in analyzing and identifying emerging opportunities, as this capacity demands experiential learning and advanced cognitive capabilities that conventional theoretical instruction rarely cultivates. In this context, gamification as an interdisciplinary approach grounded in game design, motivational psychology, and interactive technologies provides an experiential and simulated learning environment through elements such as competition, immediate feedback, challenge, and reward, which can strengthen exploratory thinking and opportunity-recognition abilities in young people. Despite the proliferation of quantitative studies in this field, which have largely focused on measurable outcomes such as learning motivation and entrepreneurial attitudes, the lived experience, perceptions, and meaning-making of young people regarding gamification and its precise role in shaping entrepreneurial opportunities have remained in the shadow of scholarly neglect — a gap that quantitative data alone cannot adequately address. Accordingly, the present study employs a phenomenological approach to explore the experiences, perceptions, and subjective interpretations of Generation Z youth regarding the role of gamification in the process of identifying and understanding entrepreneurial opportunities.

Method: This qualitative study was conducted using Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological approach. The target population comprised young people aged 15 to 29 in Kermanshah who had experience with gaming and participation in gamification activities. Sampling was carried out using the snowball method until theoretical saturation was reached, resulting in 17 semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. To enhance the credibility of the findings, the coding process was conducted with the participation of an independent coder, and the extracted themes were re-validated through participant review (member checking).

Results: Data analysis led to the identification of 97 initial codes, 25 sub-themes, and 4 organizing themes, all categorized under one overarching theme: “Development of Entrepreneurial Capabilities in Generation Z.” The four organizing themes were: development of cognitive capabilities, development of an entrepreneurial spirit, development of managerial skills, and development of decision-making and problem-solving skills. The findings indicate that through repeated exposure to challenges, competition, teamwork, and immediate feedback, gamification provides a platform in which individuals cultivate the essential skills and attitudes required for entrepreneurial activity.

Conclusion: The results indicate that gamification plays a significant role in strengthening the process of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition in Generation Z a role that, beyond increasing motivation, can be explained through the development of entrepreneurial capabilities in this generation. The findings suggest that gamified environments function as a form of experiential and simulated learning space in which individuals practice the skills necessary to navigate entrepreneurial uncertainty without incurring the real costs of failure.