Gaming duration has no link to levels of well-being, study finds.
A study of 39,000 gamers found “little to no evidence” time spent playing impacts on their emotional welfare.
According to the study, the average play would need to play for more than 10 hours extra than they typically would to see any difference. It also discovered that the motivation for playing had more effect on their well-being.
The Oxford Internet Institute - those who conducted the survey - sought to understand well-being by inquiring about people’s emotions, like happiness, sadness, anger and frustration.
This finds an alternative view to a 2020 study by the same institution, which suggested that those who played for longer were happier.
Professor Andrew Przybylski told BBC News: "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 [in this latest study] pretty conclusive evidence that how much you play doesn't really have any bearing whatsoever on changes in well-being.
"If players were playing because they wanted to, rather than because they felt compelled to, they had to, they tended to feel better."
Data for the study was compiled with help from major video game companies such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo who supplied six weeks’ worth from players who had provided their consent. They sought information from players of ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’, ‘Apex Legends’, ‘Eve Online’, ‘Forza Horizon 4’, ‘Gran Turismo Sport’ and ‘The Crew 2’.
The previous study - based on a total 3,274 gamers of both ‘Animal Crossing’ and ‘Plants vs Zombies’ - found that playing video games was “good for wellbeing”.
At the time, Andrew said: "If you play Animal Crossing for four hours a day, every single day, you're likely to say you feel significantly happier than someone who doesn't.”
"That doesn't mean Animal Crossing by itself makes you happy."
He also implied that the “social aspect” of the two games, labelling “like a digital water cooler”.
He said: "I don't think people plough a bunch of time into games with a social aspect unless they're happy about it, adding: "It's like a digital water-cooler,” as it gives people means to bond offline.
