Gaming Balance Console
Screen for Internet Gaming Disorder, balance a week of gaming against sleep, school and activity, weigh the benefits against the harms, and build a prevention plan — grounded in Crucianu et al. (2024).
About this companion
IGDVideo gaming attracts more than two billion users worldwide, most of them teenagers. It is a popular leisure activity with real cognitive and social benefits — yet for a minority it becomes compulsive. The World Health Organization estimates gaming disorder affects 1–3% of the population; a 2021 meta-analysis put global prevalence at 3.05%.
This console turns the review into four interactive tools. Your inputs stay in this browser only.
Prevalence at a glance
Rates vary with the diagnostic criteria used and with cultural and regional factors. Direct mortality is low, but sedentary gaming raises indirect risks (obesity, cardiovascular disease).
Explore the console
DSM-5 Internet Gaming Disorder
9 criteriaTick each criterion present over the past 12 months. DSM-5 lists Internet Gaming Disorder as a condition for further study: five or more criteria, with clinically significant impairment, indicates a provisional disorder.
Screening result
Note: This is an educational screen, not a diagnosis. A qualified clinician confirms Internet Gaming Disorder. If gaming is harming daily life, seek professional support.
A day in hours
24 hEstimate a typical day. Excessive gaming crowds out the sleep, study and physical activity the review links to healthy development.
How your day divides
Weigh your experience
BalanceThe review is clear that gaming is neither all good nor all bad. Tick the effects you actually experience; the scale tips toward benefit or harm.
What are you concerned about?
PersonalizeSelect any concerns. The console assembles a prevention and treatment plan from the review's recommended approaches.
Your plan
Select at least one concern to build a personalized plan.