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A recent study of 39,000 participants by the University of Oxford on video games and well-being concluded that gaming has no measurable effect on well-being or overall life satisfaction.

To study this, the researchers collected data from some of the largest game publishers, including Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony and Ubisoft. Each of the publishers sent survey invitations to active players of one of their most popular games, such as: Apex Legends and Eve online. The publishers sent three surveys to those who agreed to participate, each two weeks apart. They also remotely collected data on how much each participant played during these time intervals.

These surveys contain questions about the well-being and satisfaction of the participants, such as:

Imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you, and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which rung of the ladder would you say you personally feel you have been standing for the past two weeks?”

It also included questions about motivation to play. This measures the extent to which each person felt they chose to play video games (intrinsic motivation) or felt they should (extrinsic motivation). This separates those who enjoy gaming as a hobby from those who see it as a chore or an addiction.

In other words, each participant had to:

  1. Answer questions about their well-being in the past two weeks
  2. Wait two weeks
  3. Answer questions about their well-being in the past two weeks
  4. Wait two weeks
  5. Answer questions about their well-being in the past two weeks

This allowed the researchers to analyze data on how well-being and life satisfaction changed over time and how that related to the amount of time each person spent playing video games between surveys.

The researchers reasoned that if video games made people’s lives worse, they would be able to see it within six weeks. If video games had a negative effect on well-being, those who spent a lot of time playing video games would report that their lives were worse six weeks later. Those who spent very little time playing were likely to report less difference over the same time period.

When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that there was almost no difference between people who played a lot of video games and those who played very little. For example, on the “ladder” question of life satisfaction, people who played the most video games only reported that their lives were on average 0.013 sports lower than those who spent the least time gaming.

However, those who reported feeling that they had to play differed from those who reported playing because they wanted until. That is, those who played because they like games reported higher life satisfaction than those who played because they felt obligated to do so.

Seeing this data, researchers concluded that as long as gaming is a hobby, video games are unlikely to have an impact on people’s mental health. However, they acknowledged that the study had a number of shortcomings. For example:

  1. The percentage of players who accepted invitations to participate in the study was extremely small. In front of The crew 2For example, 1,013,000 invitations were sent to gamers, but only 457 of them accepted. This is called a selection bias – it seems likely that the few hundred people who agreed to participate in a study would behave differently than the million who did not.
  2. Each of the games the researchers chose has a significant multiplayer component, so their conclusion doesn’t necessarily apply to games that people play alone.
  3. Many participants did not participate in all three surveys. There was no way the study could account for someone dropping out of the study because their life was getting significantly worse. Also, those who quit tended to be younger, had lower life satisfaction, and played less than those who stayed for all three surveys. All of these differences may have affected the data.
  4. The study lasted only six weeks, which is not long enough to see more gradual effects on well-being. This is especially important as many play video games all their lives. If video games affect mental health very slowly, this study wouldn’t cover it.
  5. The study was correlative, so “confusing variables” could have influenced the results if they showed a difference between groups. For example, if a participant became unemployed, their life satisfaction would have decreased and the time they spent playing video games could have increased. The data would imply that it was the video games’ fault that the participant’s life was worse, when in reality it was a third variable affecting both.

In my opinion, these flaws are not bad for the researchers – almost all psychological studies have similar problems. (It’s hard to study humans.) The research seems to provide compelling evidence that video games don’t have a major negative impact on those who view them as a hobby over the course of a few weeks.

This is in line with a number of other studies confirming that gaming is generally a harmless pastime and other studies showing that it can become harmful to a small number of people who have lost control.

This is good news for gamers and for concerned parents who fear that playing games will harm their child. This study suggests that as long as gaming remains a hobby and not an obsession, it will have no measurable effect on an individual.