How playing video games in childhood can boost your income as an adult

Those long hours spent playing Mario Kart as a kid could be paying off in your career.

According to a recent survey of 1,000 Americans by educational game maker Prodigy Education, those who played video games growing up were 71% more likely to have received a promotion recently. They also earn $5,451 more on average annually than non-gamers.

Despite their past association with social isolation, violent behavior, and underachievement, most adults who played video games as children or teenagers say it helped develop their strategic thinking, problem-solving, hand-eye coordination, and boosted their creativity, while offering a source of relaxation and fun.

“A lot of times, they’re associated with negativity, like violence or social isolation, but this highlights the positive aspects,” says Merritt Ryan, the study’s author and a data journalist with Prodigy Education. “The teamwork and decision-making and strategy behind some games translate into valuable professional skills later in life.”

Today 95% of American parents let their kids play games, according to the survey, and 65% say they also played growing up. Most who let their kids play video games also believe it can help improve their child’s problem-solving skills.

Parents surveyed with kids who play video games said their children thrive in academic and social settings, with nearly half saying their kid earns A marks in school and another 38% reporting a B average, and only 14% struggling academically.

“From their parents’ perspective, 58% reported their kids have strong social lives, which goes against the stigma of video games being isolating or distracting,” Ryan adds.

A Cheat Code for the Game of Life

The survey builds on a growing body of academic research that not only refutes the stigmas once attached to gaming, but suggests the medium is a positive contributor to early-skills development. That’s not only true for explicitly educational-gaming content, but age-appropriate video games of all kinds.

One such study published in the National Institutes of Health explored the impacts of digital media on the brain development of 12,000 adolescents across the United States. Study participants were asked to engage with a variety of digital media while under an MRI scanner, and then given a series of tests to measure skills like memory recall, response inhibition, and reward processing.

“We found that video gamers have increased activity in an area of the brain called the precuneus, which is involved in everything related to vision, spatial memory, problem-solving, and attention,” says Bader Chaarani, a neuroscientist and research professor at the University of Vermont, and self-described “hard-core gamer.” “It basically means that these video gamers are more efficient in terms of working-memory processing.”

Those who played video games also performed better on cognitive tests, especially in areas related to memory and recall.

“I like to think of our brain as a muscle, so the more we train, the faster and more efficient it becomes,” Chaarani explains. “Because you’re engaging a lot of brain functions at the same time—especially when playing fast-paced games like racing games or first-person shooters—this must have a benefit, compared to someone who’s passively watching a movie or scrolling on their phone.”

Knowing When to Hit Pause

There is, however, a tipping point after which the benefits of video gaming on cognitive development gets overshadowed by negative consequences. Chaarani is currently working on a yet-to-be-published study that attempts to find what he calls a “sweet spot.”

“Children who play around one hour per day have increased IQ, less or no mental health problems, and they do better on all the cognitive tests compared to non-video gamers,” he says. “After three hours [per day], we start seeing mental health problems and lower IQs.”

Based on his latest research, Chaarani recommends parents limit their children to one hour or less per day, and always prioritize physical activity over any sort of screen time.

Screen Time Power Ups

Academic research efforts around the world have generally come to similar conclusions about the benefits of gaming. A 2022 study by the University of Geneva, for example, found that a couple hours of gameplay per week improves attention control and reading skills long-term, improving a child’s ability to “learn how to learn.”

Another study published this summer by the Rutgers Education and Employment Research Center suggests that gamers were more likely to pursue IT careers, and a 2019 study by the University of Madrid found that teenage girls who played video games were three times more likely to pursue a science, technology, engineering, and math—or STEM—degree.

“There’s a growing body of research that shows not all screen time is created equal,” says Aubrey Quinn, senior vice president of communications and public affairs for the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), “and that playing video games can be beneficial for cognitive development.”

An Open World of Play

Quinn suggests that many of the misconceptions around games are rooted in the social stigma that accompanies the rise of any new entertainment medium.

“There [are] moral panics around music, there [are] moral panics around pool halls and playing billiards,” she says. “There was even a time where books seemed bad, after the printing press was invented. There was a fear that people would stop working and society would fall apart if everyone had access to books.”

Quinn adds that while violent video games remain on the market, games have been labeled with age-appropriate ratings by the ESA since 1994, similar to explicit or violent music, TV, and film.

Unlike other entertainment mediums, however, there remains a misconception that video game players are a small subset of the population. According to the ESA, 61% of Americans ages 5 to 90 game for at least one hour per week. Additionally, the average age of gamers has risen from 29 in 2004 to 36 today, with a near equal split between men and women.

“We don’t grow out of games the same way we don’t grow out of watching TV or going to movies or watching sports,” Quinn says. “Fewer people are identifying as gamers, but more people than ever are playing video games, and there are so many benefits that come from playing games—whether you call yourself a gamer or not.”