Survey Says TTRPGs Bring Mental Health, Romance, and Friendship

In a survey of 1,000 TTRPG players in the US, StartPlaying, a tabletop gaming matchup service for professional GMs, found that mental health, romance, and friendships featured highly in the social roles that such games help to facilitate.

With 76% of players saying that TTRPGs have helped them process trauma, 28% indicating that they developed attractions with other players outside the game itself, and 75% crediting games with maintaining their real-life friendships, it seems that roleplaying games have functions beyond those of mere entertainment.

34% of gamers said they had played in a campaign organised for mental health, and the majority find gaming stress-relieving. Indeed, 44% said they played games to relieve stress, 41% said that they did so for mental health support, and 31% to process trauma or for emotional growth (there was, presumably, large overlap between those categories, which is why they add up to more than 100%).

Interestingly, the number of people who met close friends through TTRPGs has been increasing over the decades, with those categorised by the study as 'Boomers' answering that 65% of them made close friends via their hobby, while 78% of 'Gen Z' respondents said the same. Only 5% of people said that RPGs did not help maintain friendships at all.

And when it comes to romance, 44% of respondents dated or are dating (one assumes that includes marriages) somebody they met through gaming.

Of course, this is only a study of TTRPGs, and doesn't necessarily indicate anything special about gaming. We don't know if rock climbers, dog walkers, book clubs, or musicians make more or fewer friends than gamers, or date each other more or less than gamers. It could be that any shared activity has the same effects. Similarly, we don't know if yoga or swimming are more or less helpful when processing trauma than TTRPGs are. Absent that sort of information it's hard to put this study into any kind of context. However, it does present food for thought.

You can check out the full survey results here.

 

[dbm]

In my gaming group I have one friend of about 43 years, and two of 39 years. So I would definitely say TTRPGs help support friendships. I think this is particularly relevant for men as we seem to focus our friendships around doing things together.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Every single one of my Tuesday Nighters would answer that they play for their mental health and friendships. And we all started 17 years ago as strangers at my FLGS.

 

[Cergorach]

While interesting, I wouldn't put too much stock in these results, it's a survey amongst a certain group of pnp RPG fans. And don't discard the influence of (American) culture either. That these results are so positive is imho unsurprising, as very few people that are so extremely concerned with 'mental health' would be quite unwilling to admit that their hobbies are adding additional unhealthy stress and pressure.

Funnily enough, I was talking with a friend yesterday with whom I've been playing D&D for 35+ years. DMing for me creates stress, quite a lot actually, so much so that I tend not to sleep well the night before or after a session. Playing as player still creates stress and a bit of sleeplessness, but not as much as DMing. I compared it to preparing for a presentation at work, running a meeting, etc. It's still fun with friends, and a 'release' of some kind, but I wonder how much it actually helps in 'mental health' when you look at it clinically. We also wondered amongst ourselves how much of this stress is caused by us being introverts vs extroverts. All of us DM in rotation, and two of us stopped DMing before they expected due to it taking too much of them (both in time and mental bandwidth). I would like to add that I do like DMing and certainly some stress was added to my sessions due to me experimenting heavily with our normal D&D 'style' and not being certain if everyone would like it. It took some mental shifts from the players, but currently 2 out of 3 players is confirmed 'very excited', so that takes some of the stress off my plate.

It reminds me a bit about folks and sports. But sporting is healthy! Forgetting all the injuries they've suffered from that. And especially the competitive folks that quickly go beyond what's healthy for them. It's not just the dangerous sports like boxing, MMA, or football, it's everything! The amount of torn ligaments, broken limbs, etc. is staggering. But no one wants to stop playing their favorite sport unless they're forced to (due to massive injuries)... Or asking a cocaine addict if their 'sniff' is bad for them...

Personally I leave 'mental health' to the professionals that are actual experts in the field.

 

[Corinnguard]

Before I started role-playing 5e 4 years ago, I was already friends with the DM and one of the other players (at the time I joined, 17 years and 20 years). I met the rest of my role-playing group back in 2021.

 

[MGibster]

Something always bothered me about the stereotypical gamer as someone who was socially awkward. Those gamers exist of course, but given the very social nature of role playing games, I've found them to be few and far between. I've always thought TTRPGs were beneficial in other ways such as including the expansion of my vocabulary. I didn't learn obfuscate in casual conversation.

I would expect a study of many other hobbies would yield similar results. If you like to bowl, and you go with other people, you're going to form friendships with them. You'll likely look at bowling as an activity where you get to reset or unwind a little after working hard all week. And in the course of knocking down pins you might run into that special someone who bowls over your heart.
It's always nice to see something positive as it relates to gaming as a hobby. I know I have many fond memories of my positive experiences with various demons I supposed back in the late 80s and early 90s. Those were some good times.

 

[Umbran]

Okay gang, let’s begin the romance…

Begin?

Tomorrow, I celebrate being married for 21 years to a woman who I met when she showed up to generate characters for a D&D game I was starting up in grad school.

 

[Morrus]

I would expect a study of many other hobbies would yield similar results. If you like to bowl, and you go with other people, you're going to form friendships with them. You'll likely look at bowling as an activity where you get to reset or unwind a little after working hard all week. And in the course of knocking down pins you might run into that special someone who bowls over your heart.

Yeah. Basically, shared hobbies are likely socially beneficial, whatever they are. It’s not the hobby itself, it’s the social experience. So I bet we’d see similar results for a survey of pretty much any group hobby.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

This is all well and good, but when are we going to see the numbers for traumas experienced, enemies made, and relationships ended as a result of playing? I'm sure anyone who's been playing since 'the Dark Times' (aka the 80s) can probably check at least one of these boxes. Represent!

 

[Umbran]

This is all well and good, but when are we going to see the numbers for traumas experienced, enemies made, and relationships ended as a result of playing?

I'm not sure it is the same thing.

As others have noted - it isn't the game that makes friendships, so much as the social interaction around the game.

It then follows that it isn't the game that ends the relationship - it is the fact that the person turned out to be a horrible human being that ends it.

I suppose you could get a count of how often a pre-existing friendship, that developed before/without the game, was ended over the game in some way.

 

[dbm]

I hear what people are saying about any hobby being potentially beneficial. I think TTRPGs have a more unusual benefit of being a cooperative game where you support your fellow players and all work together towards a common goal. I feel that would give it an edge over purely competitive hobbies like cards, pool, or similar.

And the long term continuity that a campaign can provide must also help it deliver slightly more benefits. In other pastimes you might not feel especially ‘on it’ one night, decide to skip and then fall into being a non-participant. The shared commitment that a campaign implies probably gives a percentage of people the little nudge needed to keep turning up, session on session.

Small percentages, but we all know those stats add up when you roll many dice.