New analysis from researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute, published on 12 March 2025 in the Royal Society Open Science, finds that the number of hours spent playing Nintendo games did not significantly affect adults’ mental well-being, life satisfaction, emotional state, or depressive symptoms.
Contrary to the prevailing research focus on playtime as a determinant of gamer well-being, there are negligible correlations between the amount of time spent playing and reported well-being in casual adult gamers.
“Incorporating the wider context of adult gamer wellbeing beyond merely playtime is crucial to developing our understanding of how gaming actually impacts players,” said lead author Dr. Nick Ballou, a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.
The study tracked over 140,000 hours of gameplay across 150 different games and 703 players, marking the first time a major gaming company has granted researchers access to such comprehensive player data.
“This kind of collaboration between industry and independent scientists is unprecedented in games research,” said senior author Professor Andrew Przybylski, Professor of Human Behaviour and Technology, Oxford Internet Institute “It allows us to move beyond relying on players’ memories of their gaming time and instead see exactly how they interact with a wide range of games in the real world.”
This research challenges the assumption that more time playing video games is related to poorer mental well-being. According to the paper, the most useful theories and models are likely to focus on the quality of play instead: the reasons why people play, the social contexts they play in, their in-game behaviour and experiences and so on.
The sample consisted primarily of casual players, with over half logging no playtime in the two weeks prior to the survey, and the top 10% averaging only 60 minutes per day. Many studies focus on highly-engaged players (so-called “hardcore” gamers), but the study points out that those who play infrequently may be more susceptible to certain effects on the rarer occasions they do play games, compared with those who regularly play games for multiple hours a day.
“What we found was that players who perceived gaming as beneficial to their lives reported higher overall mental well-being, regardless of how many hours they played,” said Dr Nick Ballou, postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Thomas Hakman, an author and DPhil working on the project agrees: “The concept we call ‘gaming life fit’—how well gaming aligns with an individual’s personal values—strongly predicts mental well-being, not hours of play.”
The authors noted that transparent collaborations like this are still rare. They reached out to several large games platforms and only a couple are up for independent science. To address this gap, they suggest adopting frameworks like the UK’s Video Game Research Framework, designed to help gaming firms safely share data with qualified researchers.
“The gaming industry has the chance to set new standards for responsible science,” said Professor Przybylski. “When companies collaborate transparently with independent researchers, it paves the way for more accurate understandings and better public discussions about gaming and health.”
Download the full paper, “Perceived value of video games, but not hours played, predicts mental well-being in casual adult Nintendo players,” Nick Ballou, Matti Vuorre, Thomas Hakman, Kristoffer Magnusson, and Andrew K. Przybylski, published in Royal Society Open Science on Wednesday 12 March 2025.
Notes for Editors
This study focused on adult gamers’ well-being. For more information and briefings, please contact: Sara Spinks / Veena McCoole, Media and Communications Manager.
T: 01865 280527 E: press@oii.ox.ac.uk
About the research
The study used anonymized data from 703 casual adult Nintendo Switch players across 150 games, totalling over 140,000 hours of play, coupled with self-reported well-being measures, ensuring robust and reliable findings.
Funding information
This research was supported by Huo Family Foundation and the UK Economic and Social Research Council.
About the Oxford Internet Institute (OII)
The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multidisciplinary research and teaching department of the University of Oxford, dedicated to the social science of the Internet. Drawing from many different disciplines, the OII works to understand how individual and collective behaviour online shapes our social, economic and political world. Since its founding in 2001, research from the OII has had a significant impact on policy debate, formulation and implementation around the globe, as well as a secondary impact on people’s wellbeing, safety and understanding. Drawing on many different disciplines, the OII takes a combined approach to tackling society’s big questions, with the aim of positively shaping the development of the digital world for the public good.
About the University of Oxford
Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the ninth year running, and number 3 in the QS World Rankings 2024. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer. Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions. Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 300 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past five years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.
