For higher education, the question of how in-class activities can be supported in large lectures is of great relevance. This paper suggests a gamified flipped classroom approach to address this challenge. In an experimental study, N = 205 educational science students performed either gamified in-class activities using a gamified quiz with points and a team leaderboard, or non-gamified in-class activities using exercise sheets. In line with the theory of gamified learning, the results show a positive indirect effect of gamification on application-oriented knowledge that is mediated by learning process performance. Furthermore, based on a self-determination theory framework, the results show positive effects of gamified in-class activities on intrinsic motivation and social relatedness, but no significant effect on competence need satisfaction. The study provides insights into a particular casual construct of game design elements (points and team leaderboards) triggering specific mechanisms (immediate task-level feedback and team competition) affecting a mediator (learning process performance) that in turn affects a learning outcome (application-oriented knowledge).