Gambling disorder symptoms as an indirect marker of microtransaction spending in video games
Abstract
Video games have gained a lot of popularity over the past decades, generating large global revenue, mostly through in-game monetization referred to as microtransactions. Game developers have studied the psychological mechanisms in video game monetization presumably to increase potential revenues, which could for some gamers exacerbate negative personality traits. This is particularly true for microtransactions which may associate with gaming disorder symptoms and gambling disorder symptoms. There is currently insufficient research as to how the various forms of microtransactions relate to symptoms of gaming disorder and gambling disorder. We collected questionnaire data from 461 gamer participants. In order to explore the structure and interrelations between the variables, network analysis was applied. Our results align with previous findings that showed that the amount of money individuals spend on microtransactions increases with the risk of gaming disorder symptoms. However, we demonstrate that gambling disorder symptoms relate only indirectly to online spending through a direct link to physical game purchases. This finding is interesting considering the immaterial nature of microtransactions. Altogether, our findings highlight the need to disentangle gaming and gambling disorder symptoms and microtransactions, isolate psychological markers of problematic behavior, and aim to develop support or preventive technologies to come to the help of vulnerable gamers.
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BibTeX
@misc{benoit2026gambling,
title = {{Gambling disorder symptoms as an indirect marker of microtransaction spending in video games}},
author = {Charles-Etienne Benoit and Szymon Pałubinski and Akito Miura and Takahide Etani and Floris Tijmen van Vugt and Piotr Kałowski and Andrzej Cudo},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/9e28u_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/9e28u_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Gambling disorder symptoms as an indirect marker of microtransaction spending in video games
AU - Charles-Etienne Benoit
AU - Szymon Pałubinski
AU - Akito Miura
AU - Takahide Etani
AU - Floris Tijmen van Vugt
AU - Piotr Kałowski
AU - Andrzej Cudo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/9e28u_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/9e28u_v1/
AB - Video games have gained a lot of popularity over the past decades, generating large global revenue, mostly through in-game monetization referred to as microtransactions. Game developers have studied the psychological mechanisms in video game monetization presumably to increase potential revenues, which could for some gamers exacerbate negative personality traits. This is particularly true for microtransactions which may associate with gaming disorder symptoms and gambling disorder symptoms. There is currently insufficient research as to how the various forms of microtransactions relate to symptoms of gaming disorder and gambling disorder. We collected questionnaire data from 461 gamer participants. In order to explore the structure and interrelations between the variables, network analysis was applied. Our results align with previous findings that showed that the amount of money individuals spend on microtransactions increases with the risk of gaming disorder symptoms. However, we demonstrate that gambling disorder symptoms relate only indirectly to online spending through a direct link to physical game purchases. This finding is interesting considering the immaterial nature of microtransactions. Altogether, our findings highlight the need to disentangle gaming and gambling disorder symptoms and microtransactions, isolate psychological markers of problematic behavior, and aim to develop support or preventive technologies to come to the help of vulnerable gamers.
ER -