<p>The use of video games in formal education has grown across all sectors over the past twenty years. However, much literature focuses on measuring learning and motivation, foregrounding game technologies without critical exploration of contexts and politics of use. This neoliberal approach of valuing what we chose to measure limits our understanding of the wider benefits of digital play in formal education. Here, we present the ‘magic circle of learning’ as an alternative theorisation that considers play as philosophical principles that enable critical reframing of pedagogy, transcending a preoccupation with game design and technological implementation. We first identify five characteristics that align with the metaphor of the ‘magic circle’ from game studies: meaningful experience, intrinsic motivation, failure mindset, lusory community, and imaginative freedom. We then present a framework for analysing how the magic circle is manifest during learning and explore a large qualitative data set generated by teachers learning to use new technologies during the Covid-19 pandemic. We highlight three examples of how teachers learned to teach in new digital spaces, moving outside and into the magic circle, and discuss the barriers to adoption of play. Finally, we highlight the potential of this analysis approach to reimagine formal education.</p>