Scientific Research Confirms 'Post-Game Depression' Is Real, With RPGs Having the Most Powerful Impact

Have you ever experienced that bittersweet mix of satisfaction and sorrow when you finally complete an incredible game? According to a new scientific report, this feeling is not only genuine but has an official name: 'post-game depression.'

The study defines post-game depression (P-GD) as the 'sense of emptiness that emerges after finishing a profoundly immersive game,' leading to feelings of 'loss, emptiness, or sadness.' As highlighted by News Medical Life Sciences, while players frequently discuss this phenomenon on social media, there has been minimal scientific exploration in this area until now.

Published in the January issue of Current Psychology and shared with IGN, this research claims to be the first quantitative assessment of post-game depression. The team conducted two studies involving 373 participants, examining four key aspects of P-GD: Game-related Ruminations, Challenging End of Experience, Necessity of Repeating the Game, and Media Anhedonia—the inability to find pleasure in typically enjoyable activities.

'Despite widespread conversations about this on platforms like social media and YouTube, there's a notable lack of scientific investigation,' the paper states. The most detailed previous insights came from Piotr Klimczyk in 2023, who identified those four core elements of P-GD.

The paper elaborates: 'The uniqueness often stemmed from a game being a groundbreaking title within its genre or from its rich narrative and characters, creating a deeply emotional journey. Some players felt the ending arrived too abruptly, while others found it hard to accept that the game was truly over. This was followed by the realization that there would never be another first playthrough, along with the sense that the game could never again elicit the same intensity of tension, joy, or sadness. These emotions persisted for days or even weeks, resulting in media anhedonia—where no other video game or entertainment seemed able to fill the void.'

Klimczyk's 2023 findings, which measured P-GD alongside wellbeing, emotional mood, positive mental health, rumination, reflection, and game types, suggested that emotional investment in games becomes particularly harsh when players form 'deep attachments to characters who may die within the story.'

In this latest study, the authors concluded that they 'found the four-factor version of the P-GDS to be internally consistent and valid' and developed a new scale to help researchers measure it quantitatively.

'We observed positive correlations between the intensity of post-game depression and stronger depressive symptoms, a tendency to ruminate, disturbances in emotional processing, and lower well-being. Finally, role-playing games were shown to evoke stronger post-game depression than other genres.'

This means that among all the genres sampled by participants, RPGs triggered the most powerful reactions upon completion. (In my opinion, this makes The Last of Us Part 2 very much an RPG!)

The paper adds: 'As the first generation of video game players has grown from children into adults, their emotional needs have evolved. The development of more serious, mature video game content reflects this shift in the emotional and psychological demands of an aging player base. Consequently, video games are no longer designed solely for fun or pleasure.

'Some games provoke deep emotions like contemplation, sadness, or existential reflection. Others instill fear through survival horror mechanics and narratives. Additionally, the 'soulslike' genre introduces frustration and challenge, turning gameplay into a demanding experience that ultimately offers a sense of achievement and competence.'