Public concern and formal study

A report by the Council On Science And Public Health to the AMA cited a 2005 Entertainment Software Association survey of computer gaming players, and noted that players of MMORPGs were more likely to play for more than 2 hours per day than other gamers. In its report, the Council used this 2 hour per day limit to define "gaming overuse", citing the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline of no more than 1 to 2 hours per day of "screen time".It may be worth noting that the ESA document cited in the Council report does not contain the 2 hour per day data.

In a 2005 Tom's Games interview, Dr. Maressa Orzack estimated that 40% of the players of World of Warcraft (an MMORPG) were addicted, but she did not indicate a source for the estimate. She may have derived the estimate from the informal survey managed by Nick Yee at the The Daedalus Project, who notes that caution should be exercised when interpreting this data.

A 2006 lecture reported by the BBC indicated that 12% of polled gamers reported at least some addictive behaviours. The lecturer, Professor Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University, stated in another BBC interview that addicts are "few and far between."

Michael Cai, director of broadband and gaming for Parks Associates (a media/technology research and analysis company), said in 2007 that "Video game addiction is a particularly severe problem in Asian countries such as China and Korea". Results of a 2006 survey suggested that 2.4% of South Koreans aged 9 to 39 suffer from game addiction, with another 10.2 percent at risk of addiction.

A 2007 Harris Interactive online poll of 1,187 US youths aged 8–18 gathered detailed data on youth opinions about video game play. About 81% of youths stated that they played video games at least once per month. Further, the average play time varied by age and sex, from 8 hours per week (responses from teen girls) to 14 hours per week (responses by teen boys). "Tweens" (8-12 year olds) fell in the middle, with boys averaging 13 hours per week of reported game-play, and girls averaging 10. Harris concludes that 8.5% "can be classified as pathological or clinically 'addicted' to playing video games", but did not explain how this conclusion was reached.

Since the American Psychological Association decision in 2007, studies have been conducted at Stanford University School of Medicine related to video game play. Researchers found evidence that video games do have addictive characteristics. An MRI study found that the part of the brain that generates rewarding feelings is more activated in men than women during video-game play.