Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major source of stress for a majority of people that might have negative long-term effects on mental health and well-being. In recent years, video games and their potential positive effects on stress relief have been researched and "relaxation" has been an important keyword in marketing a certain kind of video game. In a quasi-experimental design, this study investigated the increase of average daily player peak (ADPPs) for the COVID period compared to the pre-COVID period and if this increase was significantly larger for relaxing games in contrast to non-relaxing games. Results showed a medium-sized increase of ADPPs over all types of games but no difference between relaxing games and non-relaxing games. These results are discussed in regards to their potential of presenting gaps between the current theoretical models of the influence of video games on mental health and actual observed player behaviour.
Highlights
With an infection rate of over 60 million cases to date [1], the COVID-19 pandemic has reached the dimensions of a global health crisis, affecting almost every nation in the world
average daily player peak (ADPP) were calculated for the time period March to November 2019, and for March to November 2020 (COVID-19 period)
To examine the increase of demand for video games associated with relaxation during the COVID-19 pandemic, relaxing games and matched non-relaxing games have been compared in regards to their average daily player peaks for the periods of March to October in 2019 and 2020 respectively
Summary
With an infection rate of over 60 million cases to date [1], the COVID-19 pandemic has reached the dimensions of a global health crisis, affecting almost every nation in the world. Besides the direct physical health consequences, which most commonly involve fever, coughs, and breathlessness, the pandemic negatively impacts mental health and psychological wellbeing to a not negligible extent. This does not necessarily include a direct infection with the virus but may rather be due to overall social and personal difficulties arising from the crisis, such as financial losses, uncertainty about the future, and public health measures like social distancing and contact restrictions. Common mental health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress [2,3,4], with the latter being amongst the most frequently reported adverse consequences in the global population.
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