Feeling burned out? A licensed psychologist has some advice, and it involves picking up a controller. In a viral video, he ranks video games for burnout on a scale of one to ten. Better still, he admits he has been burned out himself.
His picks range from cosy farming sims to colourful platformers. However, his most interesting point isn’t about which game is best. Instead, he argues that the right game depends on the job you’re trying to escape.
How he rates video games for burnout
He judges each game on three things. First, he looks at how easy it is to pick up. Next, he considers how well it helps you recover, from a clinical perspective. Finally, he scores the overall gaming experience.
He also splits the games into two types. The first type tells stories about working through burnout. Meanwhile, the second type gives you the opposite of your working day.
Type one: games that tell stories about burnout
Stardew Valley comes first, with an 8 out of 10. The game opens with your character stuck at a desk in a soul-crushing corporate job. Then you quit, move to your grandpa’s old farm and start over. As he points out, it’s a burnout story, and plenty of people play it for exactly that reason.
There’s a catch, though. If your job feels repetitive, or Stardew starts to feel like real work, he drops its score to a 2. That’s a key part of his argument, and it comes up again later.
Night in the Woods earns a perfect 10. Your character drops out of college and comes home with nothing left in the tank. According to him, the game is cute, funny and sad. Above all, it captures what it’s like to feel stuck.
Firewatch lands a 7 out of 10. In it, your character runs off to a fire lookout tower in the middle of nowhere to escape a life that got too heavy. He calls it quiet, beautiful and “absolutely an experience worth having.” Still, he adds a small caveat about first-person games, which don’t suit everyone.
Type two: games that feel nothing like work
The second group works differently. He explains that research on recovery shows we bounce back best when we mentally leave work behind. In fact, recent research has even linked playful games like Super Mario to a lower risk of burnout. So the best games are often the ones that feel least like your job.
For example, if you stare at spreadsheets all day, he recommends Astro Bot. It gets a perfect 10. There’s nothing to optimise and no numbers to track. Instead, he calls it “pure joy” and says it reminds you what fun feels like.
Do you work with your hands? In that case, Tiny Bookshop might suit you better. He gives it a 9 out of 10. In the game, you run a little bookshop by the sea and match people with the right books. It’s super cosy, and there’s nothing heavy to lift.
Lastly, there’s Dispatch, which scores an 8. He suggests it for anyone whose job is full of chores. The main character used to be a superhero and now answers phones. Rather than chores, the game focuses on choices and on figuring out who you are when the job that defined you is gone. He calls it “a delight” and hopes the developers make more.
Why the right video games for burnout depend on your job
His biggest takeaway is simple. A game that relaxes one person can stress out another. Stardew Valley might feel like a holiday to an office worker. Yet for someone with a repetitive job, all that watering and harvesting could feel like another shift.
That’s why he matches each game to a type of work. In other words, the goal is to escape, not to swap one to-do list for another.
The final rankings
Here’s how every game scored:
- Night in the Woods: 10/10
- Astro Bot: 10/10
- Tiny Bookshop: 9/10
- Stardew Valley: 8/10 (2/10 if your job is repetitive)
- Dispatch: 8/10
- Firewatch: 7/10
Of course, gaming isn’t a replacement for real support. Anyone struggling with burnout should speak to a professional. Even so, the right game can be a welcome break. And if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by a huge backlog, this list is a good place to start.