The relationship between lockdowns and video game playtime: multilevel time-series analysis using massive-scale data telemetry
File(s)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background:
COVID-19 led governments worldwide to enact a variety of containment and closure policies. Substantial attention has been directed toward the idea that these public health measures may have unanticipated negative side effects. One proposed effect relates to video games. There is a nascent evidence base suggesting that individuals played video games for longer and in a more disordered manner during lockdowns and school closures specifically. These increases are commonly framed as a potential health concern in relation to disordered gaming. However, the evidence base regarding changes in gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic is based on self-report and, thus, is susceptible to bias. Therefore, it is unclear what the true consequences of lockdowns were for gaming behavior worldwide.
Objective:
The primary objective of this study was to estimate whether any specific lockdown policy led to meaningful increases in the amount of time individuals spent playing video games.
Methods:
Rather than relying on self-report, we used >251 billion hours of raw gameplay telemetry data from 184 separate countries to assess the behavioral correlates of COVID-19–related policy decisions. A multilevel model estimated the impact of varying enforcement levels of 8 containment and closure policies on the amount of time that individual users spent in-game. Similar models estimated the impact of policy on overall playtime and the number of users within a country.
Results:
No lockdown policy can explain substantial variance in playtime per gamer. School closures were uniquely associated with meaningful increases in total playtime within a country (r2=0.048). However, this was associated with increases in the number of unique individuals playing games (r2=0.057) rather than increases in playtime per gamer (r2<0.001).
Conclusions:
Previous work using self-report data has suggested that important increases in heavy gaming may occur during pandemics because of containment and closure (“lockdown”) procedures. This study contrasts with the previous evidence base and finds no evidence of such a relationship. It suggests that significant further work is needed before increases in disordered or heavy gaming are considered when planning public health policies for pandemic preparedness.
COVID-19 led governments worldwide to enact a variety of containment and closure policies. Substantial attention has been directed toward the idea that these public health measures may have unanticipated negative side effects. One proposed effect relates to video games. There is a nascent evidence base suggesting that individuals played video games for longer and in a more disordered manner during lockdowns and school closures specifically. These increases are commonly framed as a potential health concern in relation to disordered gaming. However, the evidence base regarding changes in gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic is based on self-report and, thus, is susceptible to bias. Therefore, it is unclear what the true consequences of lockdowns were for gaming behavior worldwide.
Objective:
The primary objective of this study was to estimate whether any specific lockdown policy led to meaningful increases in the amount of time individuals spent playing video games.
Methods:
Rather than relying on self-report, we used >251 billion hours of raw gameplay telemetry data from 184 separate countries to assess the behavioral correlates of COVID-19–related policy decisions. A multilevel model estimated the impact of varying enforcement levels of 8 containment and closure policies on the amount of time that individual users spent in-game. Similar models estimated the impact of policy on overall playtime and the number of users within a country.
Results:
No lockdown policy can explain substantial variance in playtime per gamer. School closures were uniquely associated with meaningful increases in total playtime within a country (r2=0.048). However, this was associated with increases in the number of unique individuals playing games (r2=0.057) rather than increases in playtime per gamer (r2<0.001).
Conclusions:
Previous work using self-report data has suggested that important increases in heavy gaming may occur during pandemics because of containment and closure (“lockdown”) procedures. This study contrasts with the previous evidence base and finds no evidence of such a relationship. It suggests that significant further work is needed before increases in disordered or heavy gaming are considered when planning public health policies for pandemic preparedness.
Date Issued
2023-11-08
Date Acceptance
2023-06-09
Citation
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2023, 25
ISSN
1439-4456
Publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Volume
25
Copyright Statement
©David Zendle, Catherine Flick, Darel Halgarth, Nick Ballou, Joe Cutting, Anders Drachen. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 08.11.2023. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37938889
PII: v25i1e40190
Subjects
COVID-19
big data
disordered
disordered gaming
gaming
lockdown
lockdown policy
pandemic
playing
playtime
policy
public health
side effects
time
video games
Humans
Pandemics
Video Games
Behavior, Addictive
COVID-19
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Canada
Article Number
e40190
Date Publish Online
2023-11-08