Playing video games all summer won’t make you feel worse

Animal Crossing: New Horizons won't hurt or help your mental health

Video games aren't hurting people's mental health, and they're not helping it. In fact, they don't do much to move the needle at all, according to a new study of tens of thousands of gamers.

For years, policymakers and public health bodies have expressed concern about the potential for video games to be addictive or harm mental health. This study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, offers one of the more comprehensive looks at the relationship between video games and well-being. It builds on previous research from the same team that also didn't find bad effects on mental health.

The research team worked with video game publishers to recruit nearly 39,000 people who played one of seven games: Animal Crossing: New...

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