A new study has found that there is no correlation between the amount of time people spend gaming and their wellbeing levels.
A study conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute analyzed 39,000 gamers and found that there was “little to no evidence” that the time one spends gaming affects their wellbeing.
Wellbeing was defined by a person’s life satisfaction and levels of emotions and was measured by asking participants how they felt about these aspects. The games used for the study covered a wide range of genres and covered the following titles: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Apex Legends, Eve Online, Forza Horizon 4, Gran Turismo Sport and The Crew 2.
Six weeks’ worth of data was provided by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, with the players consent.
According to the study, the reasons for a user playing games were much more likely to have an impact wellbeing, and the average gamer would need to play for a period of 10 or more hours a day to notice a difference in wellbeing.
The new study contradicts one previously conducted by the same institute with a smaller group of players in 2020, which said that those who spend a longer time playing, were generally happier.
As said by Prof Andrew Przybylski, who worked on both studies “Common sense says if you have more free time to play video games, you’re probably a happier person.”
“But contrary to what we might think about games being good or bad for us, we found pretty conclusive evidence that how much you play doesn’t really have any bearing whatsoever on changes in well-being.”
The time spent gaming has seen an increase following the global pandemic, according to another study by the NDP Group. 2019 saw US gamers spend 12.7 hours playing on average, a number which increased to 14.8 in 2020 and jumped once again to 16.5 in 2021.
The demographic of people playing games has also shifted, with US gamers aged 45 to 64 playing a surprising amount.
“In 2019, 65% of consumers in this age group played games for approximately 9 hours per week. This jumped considerably in 2020 to 69% playing for approximately 12 hours per week, and 75% this year playing for approximately 16 hours per week,” said the NDP Group.
According to many players, having time to play games is beneficial to mental health, something that contradicts the assumptions of many, who believe that gaming is detrimental to mental health.
“I’m not sure it’s something that’s measurable with a single ‘well-being’ state,” said creator of Grand Theft Auto Mike Dailly.
“As is everything in life, it’s a balance. Spend 24 hours a day playing, that’s not good – but spend 24 hours a day eating or working out, that is also not good.”
