The widespread use of video games has raised concerns about their potential negative impact on mental well-being. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence supporting this notion is largely based on correlational studies, warranting further investigation into the causal relationship. Here we identify the causal effect of video gaming on mental well-being in Japan (2020–2022) using game console lotteries as a natural experiment. Employing approaches designed for causal inference on survey data (n = 97,602), we found that game console ownership, along with increased game play, improved mental well-being. The console ownership reduced psychological distress and improved life satisfaction by 0.1–0.6 standard deviations. Furthermore, a causal forest machine learning algorithm revealed divergent impacts between different types of console, with one showing smaller benefits for adolescents and females while the other showed larger benefits for adolescents. These findings highlight the complex impact of digital media on mental well-being and the importance of considering differential screen time effects.

电子游戏的广泛使用引发了人们对它们对心理健康潜在负面影响的担忧。然而，支持这一概念的经验证据主要基于相关性研究，因此有必要进一步研究因果关系。在这里，我们使用游戏机彩票作为自然实验来确定电子游戏对日本心理健康（2020-2022 年）的因果影响。采用专为对调查数据 （n = 97,602） 进行因果推断的方法，我们发现游戏机所有权以及游戏体验的增加改善了心理健康。拥有控制台减少了心理困扰，并将生活满意度提高了 0.1-0.6 个标准差。此外，因果森林机器学习算法揭示了不同类型控制台之间的不同影响，一种对青少年和女性的好处较小，而另一种对青少年的好处更大。这些发现强调了数字媒体对心理健康的复杂影响以及考虑差异屏幕时间影响的重要性。