The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) showed survey results highlighting the benefits of games for U.S. veterans, with 77% of veterans saying they believe games have a positive impact on their lives.
The ESA said vast majority of respondents indicated that video game play provides a healthy outlet for stress and anxiety (86%), helps them cope with difficult times (81%), offers a valuable means of staying connected with others (77%) and that video game communities have a positive impact on their mental and emotional well-being (74%), said Stanley Pierre-Louis, CEO of the ESA, in an interview with GamesBeat. It’s a way for the ESA to support veterans during Military Appreciation Month, he said.
Similarly, when asked to reflect on their time in the service, they indicated that playing video games helped them relax and unwind and escape the stressors of military life (85%), boosted morale and strengthened camaraderie (78%) and provided an effective tool for fostering teamwork and cooperation (73%).
“We have long seen the benefits of video games beyond entertainment, and this new data offers an especially compelling example of the power of play,” said Pierre-Louis. “We take great pride in the positive impact of video game play in supporting mental health, fostering social connections and enhancing overall well-being, and it’s deeply rewarding to know these benefits are felt by those who have served our country.”
Stephen Machuga, a veteran and founder and executive director of Stack Up, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting veteran’s mental health through video gaming, added, “Every day, I see first-hand the positive impacts video games have on veterans and service members. Video games have proven to be a powerful tool for stress relief, a way to connect with friends and fellow service members and a positive outlet for relaxation and mental health.”
“There’s been a growing body of research confirming the positive mental, social and emotional benefits of playing video games,” Pierre-Louis said. “We wanted to understand how those research findings apply to the US veteran population, and we were really pleased with the results that came in. So our 2025 survey among US veterans shows that playing video games has a positive impact on their mental health and emotional well being that helps them stay connected with others.”
He added, “While veterans certainly play for entertainment, they also play to release stress and anxiety and to stay connected with each other and with friends, which really ties well together with a lot of good research we’ve done on all populations, you know, and we’ve also seen efforts from organizations like the nonprofit groups Stack Up And Warfighter Engaged — who highlight how video games and the video game industry positively impact veterans and active service members by supporting mental health, fostering connections and improving well being.”
In terms of some of the specific findings, on average, the ESA found that veterans who play video games were male. I think it’s about 63% male, 37 years old, college educated, employed full time, married with children in the household, and they were enlisted for an average of six years.
“The majority of veterans believe that video games provide a healthy outlet for stress relief and anxiety and contribute to social and emotional well being,” Pierre-Louis said. “You’ll see some stats we have in the study that 86% feel that playing video games provides a healthy ‘outlet.’”
Who are they and how/what are they playing?
In addition to the impact and role of video games in the lives of U.S. veterans, the survey explored who’s playing, how they play and what they’re playing. On average, veteran video gamers are male, 37 years old, college educated, employed full-time and married with children in the household. They were enlisted and served an average of six years.
The vast majority (79%) are playing with others on a weekly basis. They prefer playing on a console (74%) over personal computers (63%) and smartphones (62%) and enjoy playing a wide variety of games across genres. When asked what they play most often, their top preference is for action shooter games (55%), role-playing (RPG/MMORPG) and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games (39%), sports (31%) and action-adventure (28%).
“When it comes to making connections, we found that video games bring veterans together,” Pierre-Louis said.
Survey methodology
YouGov conducted an online survey among 22- to 50-year-old pc/console video gamers in the U.S. from January 14-27, 2025 to understand the impact and role of video games in the lives of U.S. veterans. Sample size = 1,096 veteran video gamers, 508 non-veteran video gamers.
Founded in 2015, Stack Up brings both veterans and civilians together through a shared love of gaming and geek culture. Through programs such as Supply Crates, boxes of games and gear sent around the world to veterans in need, their suicide prevention efforts through the Stack Up Overwatch Program (StOP) and their Los Angeles based community center, Phalanx House, Stack Up has helped more than 60,000 U.S. and Allied military service members get through deployments to combat zones and recover from traumatic physical and emotional injuries through the power of video gaming.
Veterans are having a tough moment, given federal layoffs at government institutions in the U.S. like the Veterans Administration. But the timing of the report is a coincidence, as the ESA’s intention was to celebrate veterans at the start of Military Appreciation Month, Pierre-Louis said.
“We’ve heard [positive results from game playing] from military veterans. We’ve heard it from members of Congress who serve on the relevant committees. We wanted to test how the general research on the effective games might apply to the U.S. veteran population,” Pierre-Louis said. “We heard so much about it, and so we really did it, thinking about how we could contribute to the great stories about our veterans during military history month.”
This is the first time that the ESA did a report on veterans and games. Machuga of Stack Up will be one of our speakers at our GamesBeat Summit 2025 event on May 19-20 in Los Angeles. The ESA is also doing a session on accessibility in video games at our event.
“We just found that games are an opportunity to bond and an opportunity to really provide relief from the anxiety and stress of what they were doing,” Pierre-Louis said. “When it comes to making connections, we found that video games bring veterans together. We focused on veterans, but they also talked about the effect that that was positive during their active service. So we saw that as a net plus that impacted them in a positive way during service, but also helped them maintain those core connections afterward.”
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