If you're reading this, chances are pretty high that you love video games. We all have our own reasons for wanting to escape into these digital worlds of course, but for most of us, escape is very much the operative word. We game because we want to unwind, get away, and basically decompress from the ups and downs of reality.
But at the same time, a lot of us can't help but be pushed forward by challenges, by the promise of being the very best at something. A game like Dark Souls is hardly as relaxing as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, for example, but some might get a more rewarding feeling from besting a game that's pushed them harder. That feeling can often be the escape we're after.
What makes a video game stressful or relaxing though? I'd argue that's entirely subjective and based solely on what you, as a player, enjoy from your games. Still, that hasn't stopped a new study from attempting to track down the most and least-stressful video games of all time.
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This new survey, conducted by retailer Comfysacks, spoke to over 1,000 gamers based in the US to find out which games they like to unwind with... as well as which games stress them out.
"To collect the data shown above, we conducted a survey of 1,007 respondents," Comfysacks explained. "To qualify for this survey, respondents were required to play video games occasionally, almost every day, or every day. Of the respondents, 293 reported playing occasionally, 356 reported playing almost every day, and 358 reported playing every day. The respondent pool was 58.4% female, 41.3% male, and less than 1% nonbinary. A preliminary survey of 150 respondents was conducted to gather the top 50 most played video games."
According to the study, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (the 2019 version) is considered to be the most stressful game. A whopping 47.4% of respondents voted for the Infinity Ward shooter, which was closely followed by Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 (42.3%) and Fortnite (41.7%). Clearly, not enough of these people have ever played a FromSoftware game in their lives.
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Amazingly, not one single FromSoftware title made it into the top ten, implying that this study really gives us more of a look at what a mainstream audience consider to be stressful. Fascinating all the same though. Resident Evil 2, World of Warcraft, and Mortal Kombat all made the top ten.
As for the most relaxing games? The Sims was considered to be the biggest stress-reliever with 38.5%. The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (our favourite game of the last decade) wasn't far behind with 33.3%. This was followed up by Minecraft, with 32.6%. Skyrim, Tetris, Pokémon Gold/Silver, Red/Blue and Sword/Shield also made it into the top ten.
You can see the full results of the study right here. Alternatively, if you'd like to see our own rundown of the most relaxing games to play during these troubling times - head this way.
Featured Image Credit: Activision/FromSoftwareTopics: Call of Duty