Here is What One Study Found

Video games provide relaxation and entertainment for billions of people; however, these games can sometimes lead to obsession or addiction (Kuperczko et al., 2022).
Over the past two decades, there have been cases of people dying while playing video games for extended periods of time, and unfortunately, there have been cases of homicide or suicide where video games were a motivating factor (Kuperczko et al., 2022).

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Kuperczko and colleagues (2022) state that between 1995 and 2017 internet use has gone from less than one percent to forty-six percent. This growth has also spawned an internet gaming disorder. People with IGD may spend several hours a day gaming, and in extreme cases may spend days online with little food or drink intake or sleep, leading to adverse or fatal physiological conditions.

Kuperczko and colleagues (2022) have determined that there has not been a substantial review of these deaths in medical or health science literature, nor have they found any studies or case reports. Kuperczko and colleagues (2022) set out to investigate the real size of the problem of death linked to playing video games, if these subjects were addicted to gaming, the connection between gaming and death, and the possible reasons leading to death.

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Their Methods of Investigation 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

🟥The researchers compiled all of the instances where the act of playing video games was linked to the player's death.

Their first search was a Google search using the keywords death, die, and video game which led them to numerous cases in online newspapers, blogs, and video portals. This search yielded a small collection of cases
Their second scientific search via Pubmed did not yield any relevant publications (Kuperczko et al., 2022).

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦Their Results🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

They ended up with 24 cases up to the end of 2021 (Kuperczko et al., 2022):

Only one of the reported victims of gaming-related death was female, and little is known about her gaming habits.
Internet addiction among females typically involves social media rather than gaming, with IGD being seven times more common among male adolescents.
Deaths appear to be linked to action-rich games, which are less popular among females, and competitiveness in games may lead males to play for extended periods without pausing.
The victims were mostly adolescents or young adults, with ages ranging from 11 to 40 years.
The first victims were in their twenties, an age group that was among the first to become familiar with computer games and experience IGD as an emerging problem.
Over time, the age range of victims broadened as former teens and young adults aged into their thirties and the spread of computers, the internet, and games reached younger age groups.
More than half of the cases occurred in Southeast Asia, where internet cafes are popular and provide a cheap alternative to owning a personal computer and paying for internet access, electricity, and games.
Internet cafes also offer cheap food and drinks, as well as private rooms for sleeping or showering, allowing customers to remain inside for days without supervision.
In contrast, cases from Western regions typically occurred at home due to the lower popularity of internet cafes and the expansion of home-based internet access points.
The recent spread of smartphones has led to changes in internet access and gaming, with the first gaming deaths linked to smartphones also appearing.

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛Limitations of the Study⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

The authors acknowledge that the search for cases may not have been complete and that there may be other cases that were not reported.
They also note that the quality of source data was sometimes poor and that the exact cause of death was often unconfirmed or speculative.
Despite these limitations, the authors believe that their findings are important and that they raise awareness of the potential risks of excessive video game playing.
The search for cases was limited to English-language sources, like international electronic newspapers.

And while these numbers may appear small, it is definitely something worth monitoring. One death is too many deaths especially if they could have been prevented.

References

Kuperczko, D., Kenyeres, P., Darnai, G., Kovacs, N., & Janszky, J. (2022). Sudden gamer death: non-violent death cases linked to playing video games. BMC Psychiatry, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04373-5

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