The psychology behind video games during COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Abstract

With the emerging outbreak of a novel coronavirus, millions of people have been followed social distancing rules to self-quarantine at home. Given the continuation of this pandemic trend, people who have suffered from the anxiety of coronavirus and experienced social isolation their psychological well-being started to be concerned. During this time, one popular video game called “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” successfully get everyone's attention and led us to explore the psychology behind video games. On the one hand, New Horizons provides a dreamland for the players to temporally escape from the cruel reality with a risk of losing in escapism. On the other hand, the New Horizons world becomes a perfect social platform to keep social interaction with others to get rid of the loneliness.