Cozy comfort

New research backs up what gamers have thought for years: video games can be an antidote to stress and anxiety.

Pixel art style of a little village with an anthropomorphic radish standing in the middle

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The holiday season has wrapped up, but winter stretches on. It’s time to get cozy. Tuck under the covers, brew a warm cup of tea, and settle in with your gaming console. Don’t feel guilty, it might even be good for you.

At least that’s what cozy game-makers would tell you, and some recent studies suggest they may have a point.

The gaming industry is larger than the film and music industries combined globally. A growing sector is the subgenre dubbed “cozy games.” They are marked by their relaxing nature, meant to help players unwind with challenges that are typically more constructive than destructive. Recent research explores whether this style of game, along with video games more generally, can improve mental health and quality of life.

These play-at-your-own-pace games attract both longtime gamers and newcomers.

The genre got its start with games like the farming sim Harvest Moon in 1996.

With the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in 2020, there’s been a rise in the number of cozy games and a significant increase in popularity.

There’s no hard definition for a “cozy game.” If the game gives the player a cozy, warm feeling then it fits.

An illustration in the style of pixel art of two radishes around a painting of a giant strawberry and two other radishes stacked on top of each other next to a snowman.

A cozy community

Cozy games are all about community — inside the game and out. “One of the core fantasies of a cozy game is getting to live in a community where, maybe there is friction sometimes, but ultimately everybody kind of pulls together and holds together,” said Joshua Labelle, a creative director for the life simulation Disney Dreamlight Valley.

Throughout the game, players are tasked with quests that require them to talk to quirky townsfolk, get to know their background and build relationships.

Welcome to Rootersville Like any good virtual village, it’s sprinkled with colorful characters. Go meet the townsfolk, they’ll welcome you in true cozy fashion — with presents.

An illustration in the style of pixel art of a fictional village. The village contains the house from which the radish just exited, as well as several small islands with one vendor and their house each. There is a footpath along which the radish walks as they interact with the various vendors. There is also a small lake with radishes playing around it, a fountain, a playground, and some trees.

Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched on March 20, 2020, just days after much of the world had gone into lockdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Animal Crossing is a social simulation game that lets players decorate and farm on their own island, visit friends' islands and hang out with anthropomorphic animal villagers. The game sold more than 13 million units in the first six weeks in Japan, the US, and Europe, making it the best start ever for a Nintendo Switch title.

These games can provide a space for people to connect in ways they may not in the real world. Suzanne Roman, who describes herself as an autistic advocate, said gaming communities can be lifelines for neurodivergent people, including her own autistic daughter who celebrated her 18th birthday in lockdown. “I think it's just made them more confident people, who feel like they fit in socially. There's even been relationships, of course, that have formed in the real world out of this.”

“When she turned 21, she basically only had her online relationships. [...] They're all over the world. Some are in Estonia. Some are on the other side of Australia. They all pulled together. They chipped in some money to buy her a really amazing 21st birthday present.”

An illustration in the style of pixel art of a sleeping brown bear and a radish holding a flag in a celebratory pose on top of the bear.

E for Everyone

In Cozy games, it’s virtually impossible to lose. Fights are easy to win (if there are fights at all).

Help tidy up A perfectly manicured world isn’t all that cozy. Many of these games ask you to lend a helping hand. So, get in there with your ax and clean up the driftwood. It might just come in handy later.

Illustration in the style of pixel art of a wood with some green trees partially covered in snow. Snow is also covering the ground and small footsteps can be seen along a winding path through the wood. A small purple bunny sits on top of a tree trunk and 3 radishes sit around a campfire. At the end of the wood there is a bear which is asking for you to sing it a song to put it to sleep.

A bear blocks your way! Press and hold to sing him to sleep.

Because the games focus on offering a feeling of comfort, they don’t require extreme skill.

Dorian Signargout, also known as Doot, is a game developer and one half of the couple duo who created Minami Lane. He says he is dedicated to making games a platform for promoting inclusivity.

“Every game is a view on how the world should be or should not be, and ours is too,” Signargout said. “So, for example, we knew from the start that if we made humanoid people, we wanted to give them colors of a wide range, and so that's what we did. We knew that we wanted to give them names, genders, and stuff that could be a bit of a mix between nonbinary, male, female, and that's in the game too.”

An illustration in the style of pixel art of a turquoise cat with a speech bubble saying ‘meow’, and a radish on top of it. The radish is watering a giant sunflower next to the cat.

Games as self-care

Time to garden You’ve suitably impressed the townsfolk and they’re ready to give you some land of your own. Go talk to the farmer to get yourself some seeds.

Click and hold on any plot to plant and miraculously grow a flower.

Illustration in the style of pixel art of a garden that has a sign saying ‘Rad Garden’ at its entrance. The garden includes a greenhouse, trees, and small plots of plants. A small bridge connects the main garden to another plot with 6 spots where the radish can plant the seeds collected from the farmer radish who waits at the bridge.

Illustration of a radish who is a farmer

Video games aren't always considered something with the potential for good. In 2019, Gaming Disorder was listed in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases. It is “characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities.”

Such views sparked researchers like Hiroyuki Egami, assistant professor at Nihon University, to look more closely at the correlation and potential causation between video gaming and negative effects such as aggression. Some studies at the time suggested a link but Egami found that many of these were inconclusive about causation. Last year, Egami published a study addressing the causal effect of video gaming on mental well-being in Japan 2020–2022.

During the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and increased demand limited the availability of two major gaming consoles: the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 5. Japanese retailers implemented lotteries to assign the consoles to consumers, inadvertently creating a seemingly random distribution of opportunities for people to purchase them.

Egami's study found that owning a game console and increased gameplay reduced psychological distress and improved life satisfaction among participants. The study found that spending just one extra hour each day playing video games was associated with an increase in mental health and life satisfaction.

Other studies also point to a shift in perceptions of gaming. “As more research has emerged related to video games, we're beginning to recognize that they can actually offer a lot of benefits,” said Michael Wong, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at McMaster University and former professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Wong surveyed 80 undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to uncover whether mindfulness meditation or “casual” gaming was better at reducing stress. The study published in 2021 measured the effectiveness of playing a casual game like Flower, developed by Thatgamecompany, against a 20-minute mindfulness meditation session in reducing stress.

“To our surprise, there really wasn't a difference between the two forms of interventions. For blood pressure and heart rate, there was no statistically significant difference between playing a video game and engaging in meditation,” Wong said.

Games are also used by therapists.

According to research from 2022 by Aarón Sújar, an assistant professor at Rey Juan Carlos University, video games are being investigated as an innovative method to manage Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

An illustration in the style of pixel art of a radish lying in bed and playing games on a console.

More than a game

With their pretty packaging, these games can tackle serious topics while maintaining a sense of childlike wonder.

Spiritfarer, for example, is a game in which you play as Stella, ferry master to the deceased. She’s modeled after a palliative care nurse. But the game lets you explore death and grief as you garden, meet colorful characters, and enjoy a world with vibrant art, much like the work of Japanese animator and manga artist Hayao Miyazaki, whose work inspired the game.

Nicolas Guérin, creative director for the game, recalled a response that particularly moved him. A woman wrote in regarding her experience as a nurse in an end-of-life care facility.

“She told us basically, ‘I had given up hope on my own profession, and then I played the game and it helped me process through what my own emotions were.’ And then she got back on the saddle and rekindled her own love for the job and felt it was important,” he said.

For many, these games become a sanctuary. In a world that can feel overwhelming, cozy games remind us of the beauty in simplicity. So, go on. Fire up the console.

Welcome back home, Nori! Now that you’ve made friends, improved your town and connected with your nature, you’re ready to cozify your own house. Clean it up and decorate, two key parts of a classic cozy game.

Swipe with the broom to clean your house

The End

Writing and Reporting by

Tiana McGee

Illustrations by

Daisy Chung

Development by

Dea Bankova

Julia Wolfe

Tiana McGee

Design by

Daisy Chung

Tiana McGee

Julia Wolfe

Sound design by

Travis Hartman

Animations by

Daisy Chung

Holly Murtha

Editing By

Julia Wolfe

Claudia Parsons

A theatre with radishes watching the credits roll in

Sources

Leonardo Trujillo, Utrecht University, Cozy Games for Mood Repair, Stress Reduction, and Well-Being; Jorge Pinal & Di Wang, Irreverent Software; Doriane Randria, Minami Lane; Nintendo.

Edited by

Julia Wolfe, Claudia Parsons