Despite their pivotal role in promoting transparency, open data portals often struggle to engage citizens, functioning instead as static ‘data graveyards’. While external activities, such as hackathons, can raise awareness, they do not directly cultivate sustained engagement within the portals. One promising approach to leverage citizens’ engagement motivation is the integration of game elements to transform passive data access into interactive gamified experiences. However, despite its potential, there is limited research on gamified citizens’ motivation to engage with open data portals. This paper examines how static and dynamic game elements are implemented across 31 open data portals. Lastly, we use the Self-Concordance Model to discuss the alignment between motivation, personal values, and game elements. Our findings reveal that most portals incorporate ‘discovery’ elements into their dataset-searching features, subtly gamifying exploration. Additionally, portals emphasising external activities, such as hackathons and events, often lack integrated social features, suggesting a trade-off between external engagement and sustained in-portal interaction. These findings challenge the assumption that open data engagement relies primarily on external initiatives, emphasising in-portal gamification instead. This study provides recommendations for policymakers to engage with users within open data portals.