Playing video games is good for you actually, if you stick to this time window

Video games often get a bad rap, but the latest study suggests playing games can have a significant benefit for mental wellness , as long as play times are kept in check.

A behavioural study with almost 100,000 participants may have found the golden window for playing games each day.

“We found that game console ownership, along with increased game play, improved mental well-being,” reads the study’s abstract, published by Nature .

The study’s results suggest, among other observations, that while video game play can have positive benefits for stress and mental well, it’s best if play sessions are kept reasonably short.

It added: “The benefits of video gaming diminish as the duration of gaming increases. Playing video games for three hours or more is less advantageous than playing for a shorter duration.”

Also reassuring, the study did not find that after three hours of play, gaming came with any major psychological drawbacks either. It’s just the benefits dropped off.

There are some limitations to the research, though.

The study did not specifically look into the effects on those who play for inordinately long times, having only just started the hobby.

“These findings do not allow us to assert the effects of someone who did not play video games at all but began to game extremely long, such as for ten hours,” the report added.

The results may be different if they were collated today too, and where the study took place should not be ignored either.

This was research undertaken in Japan between 2020 and 2022, during the worst of the covid pandemic, when in-person alternatives to gaming were off the cards for many of us. Console stock shortages were also still a factor, making console ownership more exciting than it may seem today.

At that point, people in Japan had to enter a lottery just for the chance to buy a console.

Only Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 owner data was used, not least because Microsoft ’s Xbox line is not particularly popular in Japan. The Xbox Series X and S consoles have reportedly sold around 600,000 units in the country, compared to more than five million PlayStation 5 consoles and more than 30 million Nintendo Switch units.

The study’s data was also based on self-reported information, meaning claimed play times may not be accurate. And the amount of data recorded per participant was not equal.

Part of the study’s data was based on marketing firm surveys, in “five rounds” from December 2020 to March 2022. Only 1.25 per cent of respondents took part in all five rounds, and only 35.90 per cent took part in more than one.

Don’t necessarily change your gaming habits, or the family gaming rules, based exclusively on this research, then. But hearing gaming can have a positive impact on mental wellness is a rare enough treat for fans of the hobby.