Gaming

Participants in the BrainWaves Cohort study were asked “About how many hours a day do you usually play games on a computer, games console (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Wii, etc.), phone or tablet?”. Responses of 8 hours or more per day were combined.

The graphs show the distribution of responses to this question about their time spent on games, and split by sex, on the first occasion that they completed the BrainWaves Cohort Study questionnaire.

The combined responses show that 2.4% of respondents spend 8 hours or more playing games on an electronic device each day, with males spending longer on average than females playing games per day.

The BrainWaves Cohort Study has collected responses from over 24,000 people aged 16-18 in schools across the UK, over three time points in 2024 and 2025.