Impact of playing Pokémon Go on wellness

Abstract

The positive and negative effects of playing video games have been actively discussed for as long as the games have existed. Until recently, game playing has been accused of having mostly negative effects on one’s wellbeing, especially on health. However, the tone of the discussion has recently started to change. For example, healthcare professionals have praised Pokémon Go game for its positive impact on physical activity. The research, though, has largely focused on small subsets of wellness dimensions. The aim of this study is to find out if playing Pokémon Go can positively affect the player’s wellness. We propose a conceptual model to assess the link between playing Pokémon Go and the theorized dimensions of wellness utilizing a dataset containing 370 active players. Contrary to the widely held expectations, our analysis does not indicate significant relationship between playing Pokémon Go and some of the wellness dimensions, such as social or physical wellness. However, we find that playing Pokémon Go positively influences the player’s overall wellness through the dimension of emotional wellness.