Gaming and Mental Health Statistics (2018–2026)

Gaming’s relationship with mental health is one of the most contested data stories in entertainment, and by 2026 it touches a genuinely enormous audience. The global games market now spans billions of players, and a growing body of peer-reviewed research shows the picture is far more nuanced than the “games rot your brain” headlines of the 2010s — with benefits for some players and clinically recognised harms for a minority. This page compiles the most credible, current figures for journalists covering the topic. Free to use with a link back to ShaneTheGamer as the source.

Key Takeaways for Journalists

• ~3.6 billion people played games in 2025, so even small percentage effects on wellbeing scale to hundreds of millions of people, per Newzoo.
• 77% of players globally say gaming reduces stress, according to the 2025 Global Power of Play survey, with 70% reporting lower anxiety.
• Gaming disorder affects roughly 2–3% of the general population under stricter ICD-11 measures, though estimates vary widely by method and sample.
• 6.1% pooled prevalence of Internet Gaming Disorder among adults aged 18–35, a 2025 meta-analysis of 149,601 participants found.
• Playtime hours barely predict wellbeing in casual adults, per a landmark 2025 Oxford study tracking 140,000+ hours of real gameplay.
• Prescription video games are now FDA-authorised — EndeavorRx has treated ADHD in children aged 8–17 since 2020.
• 72% of PowerWash Simulator players showed a mood uplift during play, in Oxford research on nearly 8,700 players across 39 countries.

How Big Is the Population at Stake?

Any mental-health story must start with scale. According to Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report 2025, the industry reached an estimated 3.6 billion players worldwide and total revenues projected at $188.8 billion, a 3.4% year-on-year increase. Newzoo notes that of those 3.6 billion players, only about 44% (roughly 1.6 billion) are classified as “payers” who have spent money on games in the prior six months.

Regionally, the Asia-Pacific region remains the largest contributor to global revenue, accounting for 46% or $87.6 billion in 2025 per Newzoo, while China ($49.8 billion) and the USA ($49.6 billion) together make up half of all consumer spending. The mobile segment alone is projected to reach $103.0 billion in 2025. This matters for mental-health coverage because mobile is where much of the research on problematic overuse is concentrated, and where the youngest and most vulnerable cohorts (including Gen Alpha) are increasingly represented.

The Benefits Case: Stress, Mood and Connection

The most striking recent data comes from the 2025 Global Power of Play survey, published to coincide with World Mental Health Day. It reported that 77% of players globally say games reduce stress, 70% report lower anxiety, and 64% credit games with easing loneliness. In Europe specifically, 72% said gaming helps them feel less stressed and 56% said it reduces loneliness. The survey also found players associate gaming with gains in creativity (77%), problem-solving (76%) and teamwork (74%).

Social connection is a recurring theme. The 2025 findings show that nearly two-thirds of players globally (62%) say video games help them connect positively with others. Among younger players aged 16 to 35, 73% report that gaming helps them feel less isolated, and 67% say they have met a close friend, partner or spouse through gaming.

Academic work backs the mood-lift claim with harder data. A 2024 Oxford Internet Institute study analysed 67,328 gaming sessions from 8,695 players of PowerWash Simulator across 39 countries; across 162,325 in-game mood reports, the average player reported a more positive mood during play than at the session’s start, and researchers estimated 72% of players experience this uplift. Crucially, though, a separate 2025 Oxford study published in Royal Society Open Science — which tracked over 140,000 hours of actual gameplay across 150 Nintendo Switch games among 703 US adults — found that hours played did not significantly predict mental wellbeing, life satisfaction or depressive symptoms. Lead author Dr Nick Ballou argued that context matters more than raw playtime.

The Harms Case: Gaming Disorder and Problematic Use

Gaming disorder was formally classified in the WHO’s ICD-11, and Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) is listed as a condition for further study in the DSM-5-TR. The ICD-11 defines three core features — impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities, and continuation despite negative consequences — present for at least 12 months.

Prevalence estimates vary dramatically depending on methodology. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of 93 studies (149,601 participants aged 18–35) found a pooled IGD prevalence of 6.1%, rising to 8.1% in gamer-only samples versus 5.47% in mixed samples. A 2024 meta-analysis put pooled IGD prevalence at 6.7%. However, a 2025 letter in the British Journal of Psychiatry cautioned that under stricter, more diagnostically consistent ICD-11 measures, the global prevalence of gaming disorder is closer to 2–3%. Estimates for children and adolescents range from 1% to 9%, with a commonly cited adolescent figure of 4.6%.

The relationship with mental illness appears bidirectional. A 2024 study in Scientific Reports found that gaming time alone explained just 3.3% of the variance in gaming-disorder risk, but adding depression and anxiety as moderators improved the model’s explanatory power to 13.9% — suggesting mental-health conditions can amplify risk rather than gaming simply causing harm. Journalists should treat single alarming prevalence numbers with caution: the field’s own researchers stress that measurement instruments heavily influence reported rates.

Games as Treatment: The Digital Therapeutics Frontier

One of the clearest signs of gaming’s evolving mental-health role is regulatory. In June 2020 the FDA authorised EndeavorRx, developed by Akili Interactive, as the first prescription video game — a treatment for children aged 8–12 with ADHD, cleared on the basis of five clinical studies involving more than 600 children. In December 2023 the FDA expanded the label to include adolescents aged 13–17, based on a study of 162 adolescents who showed significant improvements in attentional control. The current listed cost is $99 for a 30-day prescription.

Beyond prescriptions, controlled trials continue to test commercial and bespoke games for anxiety and depression. A 2025 JMIR Serious Games study of 2,818 Chinese college students during COVID-19 lockdowns found that moderate, socially-oriented play buffered against anxiety and depressive symptoms, while excessive play correlated with worse outcomes among those already highly distressed — reinforcing that dosage and context, not gaming per se, drive the outcome.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people play video games worldwide?

According to Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report 2025, an estimated 3.6 billion people played games in 2025, with total industry revenues projected at $188.8 billion.

Is gaming good or bad for mental health?

Both, depending on context and dosage. The 2025 Global Power of Play survey found 77% of players say gaming reduces stress and 70% report lower anxiety, while a 2025 meta-analysis found Internet Gaming Disorder affects around 6.1% of adults aged 18–35.

How common is gaming disorder?

Estimates vary by method: a 2025 meta-analysis reported 6.1% pooled IGD prevalence among adults 18–35, while stricter ICD-11 measures suggest a general-population figure closer to 2–3%.

Does playing more hours harm your wellbeing?

Not clearly. A 2025 Oxford Internet Institute study tracking over 140,000 hours of actual gameplay across 703 adults found hours played did not significantly predict wellbeing, life satisfaction or depressive symptoms.

Are video games ever used as medical treatment?

Yes. The FDA authorised EndeavorRx, a prescription video game for ADHD, in 2020 for children aged 8–12, expanding to ages 13–17 in 2023; it currently costs $99 for a 30-day prescription.

Methodology & Sourcing

This page compiles figures from authoritative industry analysts (Newzoo), peer-reviewed academic research (Oxford Internet Institute, JMIR Serious Games, Scientific Reports, IJERPH, the British Journal of Psychiatry and Addictive Behaviors meta-analyses), industry survey work (the 2025 Global Power of Play report), and regulatory records (US FDA authorisations of EndeavorRx). Figures are the most recent available as of 2026 and are labelled as projected or estimated where relevant. Readers should note important caveats: gaming-disorder prevalence rates vary widely depending on the diagnostic criteria (DSM-5 vs ICD-11) and the assessment scale used, self-reported survey benefits are perceptions rather than clinical outcomes, and much causal research remains correlational. Where sources conflict — for example between a 6.1% and a 2–3% prevalence figure — we present the range rather than a single number.

Sources

• Newzoo — Global Games Market Report (2025)
• Global Power of Play survey / ESA & partners (2025)
• Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford — Royal Society Open Science (2025) and PowerWash Simulator mood study (2024)
• Addictive Behaviors — IGD prevalence meta-analysis, young adults (2025)
• International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) — IGD meta-analysis (2024)
• British Journal of Psychiatry — systematic error in gaming disorder measures (2025)
• Scientific Reports — gaming disorder dosage and mental health (2024)
• JMIR Serious Games — video-game play and college student anxiety/depression (2025)
• US Food and Drug Administration / Akili Interactive — EndeavorRx authorisations (2020, 2023)
• MedicalXpress — Internet Gaming Disorder in young adults reporting (2026)
• WHO ICD-11 — gaming disorder classification

Spotted a newer figure or an error? Contact the ShaneTheGamer desk and we will update this page.