Teachers are increasingly integrating information technology into their classrooms to improve students’ learning experiences. One of the ways this is being done is through the use of virtual lectures; however, it remains unclear how virtual lectures affect student performance. This study aims to examine how the online game-based learning tool Kahoot! impacts learning in a mass lecture environment. We evaluated two types of lecture environments, namely face-to-face and virtual mass lectures. The latter were conducted using the video conferencing platform Zoom. We explored the effectiveness of Kahoot! in terms of ease of use, students’ interest and motivation, and learning effects. A total of 224 undergraduate students participated in this study. Of these, 130 attended face-to-face lectures and 94 attended virtual lectures. Participants completed a questionnaire designed to evaluate their experience of using Kahoot!. The results revealed that students found Kahoot! easy to use and to be an excellent tool to motivate them to learn and help them reinforce their knowledge, especially in a virtual lecture environment. These findings suggest that Kahoot! creates more opportunities for students to interact with one other and their instructors; however, instructors must attend closely to aligning such gaming activities to their lecture content and learning outcomes.