Video Game Addiction Can Lead to Individuals Overspending While Playing: Study

Gamers under 40 were found to be the most likely group to spend money on video games, researchers have found.

A new study indicates that 14% of video game players may be at risk of developing a gaming disorder, which also makes them more likely to overspend while playing.

The findings were published in the January 2026 issue of Addictive Behaviors, showing that individuals at risk of gaming disorder are six to nine times more likely to report overspending on video games.

Gaming disorder is defined as a pattern of video game use that becomes hard to regulate, begins to take precedence over daily responsibilities, and persists even when it causes harm. Individuals may experience serious disruptions in their personal, social, school, work or family life. Common signs include constant thoughts about gaming, difficulty cutting back, irritability or distress when unable to play, and continuing to game despite clear negative consequences.

Prior studies have found that gaming disorder may affect one out of 10 adolescent boys, raising concerns about long-term mental health effects. These kinds of risks have led to a series of lawsuits against major gaming platforms, with plaintiffs claiming that companies behind games like Roblox and Minecraft intentionally design features that draw in minors and fuel compulsive play.

In addition to allegations of addictive design, a growing number of Roblox lawsuits accuse that platform of becoming a focal point for child sexual exploitation. Families claim that inadequate safety measures have allowed predators to contact and groom young users, resulting in incidents of sextortion, explicit image exchange, in-person abuse and significant psychological trauma.

In the new study, Australian researchers looked at data from the 2022 International Gaming Study (IGS22), which surveyed 955 individuals across multiple countries, to help determine the proportion of participants who reported overspending while playing video games.

Led by Janni Leung, the team then compared these results to the World Health Organization’s definition of gaming disorder by running a statistical analysis to see how strongly the two were related.

Researchers found that younger adults are far more likely to overspend on gaming than older players. People ages 18 to 40 reported the highest levels of overspending on buying games, in-game purchases and even money-based bets, while adults over 66 had the lowest rates. The study also determined that about 14% of participants met criteria for being at risk of gaming disorder, and those individuals were significantly more likely to overspend across every category.

Heavy gaming habits played a major role as well. Participants who played every day for three hours or more were the most likely to say they spent beyond their limits, especially those with gaming sessions of six hours or longer. In contrast, people who never played for more than three hours at a time rarely reported overspending.

Overall, the findings point to a strong connection between heavy gaming, compulsive behavior and financial overuse, with individuals most at risk for gaming disorder six to nine times more likely to report excessive spending on video games. Younger adults and frequent players were shown to face the greatest risk.

“This study reveals a novel association between Gaming Disorder (GD) and overspending on purchasing games, in-game purchases, and esports betting across various age groups. While younger individuals were much more likely to report overspending, a significant proportion of older adults are also affected.”

— Janni Leung, Game related over-spending across age groups and its association with gaming disorder

The research team is urging clinicians to pay closer attention to the financial toll of compulsive gaming and to develop better strategies to reduce the harms linked to it.

Video Game Addiction Lawsuit Consolidation

As concerns over internet gaming disorder continue to mount, a rising number of video game addiction lawsuits are being brought in federal courts nationwide. On December 10, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) rejected a second attempt by Plaintiffs to have all federal video game addiction lawsuits consolidated for discovery and pretrial proceedings in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

This attempt marked the second time the JPML was asked to centralize these kinds of lawsuits. The panel rejected a 2024 request to combine cases involving more than two dozen companies and games, arguing that the litigation was too broad and varied to necessitate coordination.

In the new motion, plaintiffs focused on only three titles, Epic Games’ Fortnite, Roblox Corporation’s Roblox and Microsoft’s Minecraft, all of which were described as “gateway” games that pioneer addictive designs targeting children. At least 17 lawsuits involving these platforms are pending in seven different federal districts.

However, the judges noted that several of the lawsuits contained certain unspecified defendants, leaving open the possibility of the litigation expanding to involve more products if consolidation was approved.

The decision means that any video game addiction lawsuits will continue to move forward as individual claims in their respective federal court districts for the time being.

Roblox Sexual Exploitation Lawsuits

As opposed to plaintiffs’ attempts to coordinate video game addiction lawsuits, the JPML did approve a transfer order granting consolidation of all federal Roblox child exploitation lawsuits before U.S. Judge Richard Seeborg in the Northern District of California on December 12.

With cases multiplying across courts nationwide, the JPML concluded that placing the Roblox sexual exploitation litigation before a single judge was the most practical way to manage claims and avoid inconsistent rulings and repetitive discovery. 

Judge Seeborg is now expected to work with the parties to begin preparing a series of bellwether cases, which are representative lawsuits intended to move forward first. These cases will allow both sides to present evidence and expert testimony that is likely to be repeated across many of the claims, providing insight into how juries may respond to allegations and defenses.

If no settlement is reached through the MDL process, the remaining lawsuits would be remanded to the federal courts where they were originally filed to proceed as individual trials.

Families may qualify for a Roblox lawsuit if a child 17 or younger met an abuser on the platform and experienced one of the following:

• Attempted suicide or death by suicide linked to abuse
• In-person sexual abuse or attempted abuse
• Sextortion or pressured sharing of sexual images
• Sending or receiving explicit images tied to grooming

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