MELBOURNE, Aug. 9 -- Teenagers who play video games are more likely to get better grades at school, a study has found.

The study, released by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), found that students who play online games daily perform especially well in maths, science and reading.

"Students who play online games almost every day score 15 points above the average in maths and 17 points above the average in science," study co-author Albert Posso from RMIT told News Limited on Tuesday.

"When you play online games you're solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills in maths, reading and science that you've been taught during the day," he said.

"Teachers should consider incorporating popular video games into teaching so long as they are not violent ones," said Posso.

Posso used data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to analyze the online habits of Australian 15-year-olds which he then compared to academic results.

Posso said the data revealed that online gaming could help young people develop problem-solving skills.

"Sometimes (players) have to understand some of the principles of chemistry even so they really have to understand science," Posso told the ABC.

"Some psychologists have argued that massive online player games can be beneficial to cognitive development."

The research also found that students who used social media every day were receiving grades 20 points below the average in maths than those who did not.

Posso said the link between excessive social media use and poor academic results could be attributed to "opportunity cost" in terms of study time.

"You're not really going to solve problems using (social media)," Posso said.

The research was published in the International Journal of Communication on Tuesday.