U.S. veterans say games support their mental health and well being | ESA report

The Entertainment Programs Association (ESA) showed the results of the survey that highlights the benefits of games for old warriors, as 77 % of the old warriors say they believe that games have a positive impact on their lives.

The European Space Agency said that the vast majority of respondents indicated that the video game game provides a healthy outlet for stress and anxiety (86 %), and helps them overcome difficult times (81 %), and provides a valuable way to stay in touch with others (77 %) and that video game communities have a positive impact on Gamesbeat, in the interview. He said it was a way to support ESA to support old warriors during the month of military appreciation.

Likewise, when they were asked to think about their time in service, they indicated that playing video games helped them relax and escape from military life pressure (85 %), enhanced moral and enhancing intimate friendship (78 %) and provided an effective tool to enhance teamwork and cooperation (73 %).

“We have long saw the benefits of video games out of entertainment, and this new data provides a particularly convincing example of playing strength,” said Pierre Lewis. “We are very proud of the positive impact of playing video games in supporting mental health, enhancing social ties and enhancing public well -being, and it is extremely useful to know that these benefits are felt by those who served our country.”

“Every day, I see directly the positive effects of service members on old warriors and service members,” added Stephen Machuja, a founder, founder and executive director of the Stack Up company, a non -profit organization devoted to supporting the mental health of the veteran warrior through video games.

“There was an increasing group of research that confirms the positive mental, social and emotional benefits of playing video games,” said Pierre Lewis. “We wanted to understand how these research results apply to the veteran population in the United States, and we were really happy with the results that occurred. So our poll in 2025 shows among old warriors that playing video games has a positive impact on their mental health and emotional luxury that helps them stay in contact with others.”

He added: “While the veterans are definitely playing for entertainment, they are also playing for tension, anxiety and stay in contact with each other and with friends, who really is really well related to a lot of good research that we conducted on all the population, as you know, and we also saw efforts from vibrant effects and their equipment on its vibrant boxes, and operation in the field of action Blind, supported in the field of act, and preparing them in the field of vibrant actions.

Regarding some specific results, on average, the European Space Agency found that the veterans playing video games were male. I think about 63 % of males, 37 years old, have been educated, working full time, married and have children in the family, and they were recruited for six years on average.

“The majority of the veterans believe that video games provide a healthy outlet to relieve stress, anxiety and contribute to social and emotional welfare,” said Pierre Lewis. “You will see some statistics we have in the study that 86 % feel that playing video games provides” a healthy outlet. “

Who are they and how/what do they play?

In addition to the effect and role of video games on the lives of old warriors, explore the survey who plays, how they play and what they play. On average, the 37 -year -old veteran video players, learners in the college, were working full time and married and have children in the family. They were recruited and served on average six years.

The vast majority (79 %) plays with others on a weekly basis. They prefer to play on a control unit (74 %) on personal computers (63 %) and smartphones (62 %) and enjoy playing a wide range of games across species. When they were asked what they often play, their higher preferences are fire games (55 %), playing roles (RPG/mmorpg), multi -player battle games (MBA) (39 %), sports (31 %) and motion engineer (28 %).

“When it comes to making contacts, we found that video games brought together old warriors,” Pierre Lewis said.

Scanning

YouGov conducted an online poll between video players/console from 22 to 50 years in the United States from January 14 to 27, 2025 to understand the effect and role of video games in the lives of old warriors in the United States. The sample size = 1,096 veteran video players, 508 non -veteran video players.

Founded in 2015, Stack Up collects both old and civil warriors through a common love of games and a horror culture. Through programs such as supply boxes, game boxes and equipment that are sent all over the world to the needy veterans, their efforts helped prevent suicide through the Stack Up Overwatch (Stop) and their community center in Los Angeles, Planx House, and Stack Up, and it helped Stack Up get more than 60,000 members Military service in the United States.

The veterans have an inventor to spend a difficult moment, given the demobilization of federal workers in government institutions in the United States, such as the administration of old warriors. Pierre Lewis said that the timing of the report was a coincidence, as the intention of the European Space Agency was to celebrate the old warriors at the beginning of the month of military appreciation.

“We have heard [positive results from game playing] From the old military warriors. We have heard this from members of congress working in relevant committees. “We wanted to test how to apply general research in effective games to the veteran population in the United States. We have heard a lot about it, so we really did so, and think about how to contribute to great stories about the veterans during the month of military history,” Pierre Lewis said.

This is the first time that the European Space Agency has a report on the old warriors and games. Machuga of Stack Up will be a loudspeaker at the Gamesbeat Summit 2025 on May 19-20 in Los Angeles. The European Space Agency is also a session on access to video games in our event.

“We only found that the games are an opportunity to link and an opportunity to really rest the anxiety and pressure on what they were doing,” said Pierre Lewis. “When it comes to making contacts, we found that video games brought together old warriors together. We focused on the inventory of warriors, but they also talked about the effect that this was positive during their active service. So we saw that a plus network had affected them in a positive way during service, but we also helped them to maintain these basic links after that.”