Pokémon Go may help with depression, according to a study

Pokémon GoThis could help with mild depression symptoms. A new study by the London School of Economics and Political Science titled “Location-Based Mobile Gaming and Local Depression Trends: A Study of Pokémon Go” argues that Pokémon Go “may alleviate non-clinical forms of mild depression for users playing the game,” because it encourages physical activity outside and face-to-face socialization. Gamer first reported on the study.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, measures depression regionally by using a “well-established mechanism from the medical and public health literature, internet search of depression-related terms.” The research team uses Google Trends search data from the Google Misery Index (yes, that’s a real thing) to measure how much people search terms like “depression,” “stress,” “anxiety,” and “fatigue” in a given region.

These data cover 166 distinct regions. The English-speaking 15 countries comprise the majority of them. They span a 50 week period between January 1, 2016 and December 12, 2016, with a total of 50 weeks. The dates are inclusive of a period covering before and afterwards Pokémon Go’s release.)

Pokémon Go is a mobile augmented-reality game from Niantic in which you can battle and catch Pokémon based on your location. While the developers altered the game because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it largely requires you to actually get out and take a walk to collect Pokémon and battle with them at virtual gyms. Community Days where some Pokemon are more common encourage players to go outside and meet new players. These factors may help to reduce depression symptoms, according to the study.

If you’re looking to play and connect with some other trainers, you can check out Polygon’s full list of Pokémon GoFor 2022, Community Days