What is the Most Stressful Video Game to Play? Here's What Science Show

Have you ever wondered which video titles are the most physically demanding and exhausting to play?

To find out, while playing 16 of the most popular and challenging computer, PC and smartphone games on the market, the team at BonusFinder.com sourced 14 gamers and tested their heart rates.

The results are indeed surprising.

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BPM Rise 

Mario Kart is the most stressful game to play, based on average heart rate changes over a 30-minute gameplay session. It's true.

This represents a rise of 32.81 percent on the group average resting heart rate of 64 BPM with heart rates rising by an average of 21 BPM-it is also the physical equivalent of going for a gentle walk.

FIFA 20 is closely behind in second place, with participant heart rates increasing by 20 BPM on average (31.25 percent up on the level of rest).

The top 5 are completed by Call of Duty Modern Warfare (PS4), Dark Souls III and Fortnite, although DOOM, Street Warrior, and Battlefield both narrowly lose out.

Most Relaxing Titles

It's not just a matter of stressing players out of their minds, striving hard to complete levels and win matches. It was found out that only a number of titles directly contributed to lower heart rates and levels of stress.

During a 30-minute session, Animal Crossing, The Sims and Skyrim were both observed to lower the average heart rate of participants by as much as 5%. This may understand their appeal, as it can be really enjoyable and satisfying to play to win games, occasionally what we want to do after a long day's work is unwind, explore and de-stress.

How Did They Test It?

The team examined 14 gamers who claimed they were interested in video gaming, played at least 15 hours a week, and were acquainted with the shortlisted titles.

Every gamer wore heart rate monitors that monitored their heart rates over time and authorized a bulk export to collect data.

They calculated resting heart rates and reported heart rates at 10-second intervals for each gamer for a baseline reference.

To ensure that no outliers or deviations distorted the outcomes, the knowledge was weighted overall players who played each online.

While the experts had multiple heart rate peaks, they took note of each participant's highest peak per game for this study, then averaged this out over the total number of participants (14) to get the final figure.

Other Stressful Games Revealed?

Although average heart rate changes give a clear indicator of overall tension during each gaming session, this data does not say the whole tale. The peak and the changes of BPM across participants of multiplayer and single player games were monitored -- from the elimination stage, the finals and rises in complexity. This is to quantify which games may create the most intense moments. 

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