New study examining video game addiction rates

Using data from top video game streaming services, Puneet Manchanda, Isadore and Leon Winkelman Professor of Marketing, Ph.D. Student Bruno Castelo Branco challenged preconceived notions of high addiction rates in the video gaming community.

Research results will be published in a magazine quantitative marketing and economics.

The study builds on Manchanda's previous research on addiction, which used data on actual gaming behavior in the real world to investigate video game addiction. Previous research on video game addiction rates has focused on individuals' expressions of addiction through surveys and questionnaires. Rather than looking at playing time alone as a key indicator of addiction, Manchanda and Blanco looked at consumption rates to see if playing video games led to more playing.

In studying data from the computer game streaming platform Steam, Manchanda and Blanco were able to objectively look at consumption and addictive behaviors.

“When we think about people who are addicted, our definition is that playing video games makes them want to play more video games,” Blanco said. “Our methodological approach allows us to test each individual's behavior individually and determine the prevalence of addiction within the gamer population.”

Using this definition, we found that, depending on the type of video game, only 14.6-18.3% of a sample of 13,400 video gamers on Steam showed signs of addictive consumption. As Manchanda and Branco pointed out, this can be a surprising statistic depending on an individual's relationship with the video game industry.

“When I share this with some parents, they're like, 'That's too low, right?'” But when I share this with gamers, they're like, “Oh, that's the wrong definition of addiction. 'It must be,''' Manchanda said. “When I started researching gambling, I found a similar situation. [advocates] You must agree to the number. The problem then is the valence of that number. Is it positive or negative? And it depends on your worldview, your experience, who you are, and whether you are a video game player or not. ”

One particularly influential finding was that there was little difference in addiction rates between types of video games. New style “battle royale” games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Valorant have many detractors. Casual observers believe that the game is intentionally designed to be addictive due to its bright animations and increased free access.

Manchanda and Blanco found that despite claims that some video games are intentionally designed to be addictive, game characteristics are not strong predictors of addictive status. I shared that I understood.

“We looked at the nuances of all the different types of games and tried to correlate them with addiction parameters, and we found that there wasn't much of a correlation,” Manchanda said. “From our discussions with game designers, they're all designing compelling games, so perhaps one explanation is that all of these games on Steam are aimed at bringing users back. Therefore, there is no difference that one game is better than another.

A more accurate predictor of addiction is the individual's propensity for addictive consumption. In other words, video games aren't inherently addictive because of any particular design element or genre. Rather, individuals' specific needs are addictively met by video games.

“Playing survival, RPG, single-player, and shooter-related video games is highly correlated with addiction, but game type rarely explains addictive behavior,” Blanco said. “This suggests that addiction is primarily determined by a person's unique characteristics.”

Additionally, this study found that addictive subgroups within the gaming population have several unique characteristics that differentiate them from the overall population of gamers. For example, people classified as video game addicts, on average, own more games, have more friends on the platform, play longer sessions, and are more likely to purchase new games. will be higher.

The problems that Manchanda and Blanco identified in their research regarding video game addiction persist. In future research, Manchanda and Blanco hope to explore the effects of video games on rational and irrational behavior, the ethics of video game marketing and advertising, and specific video game design features. There is.