I feel burnt out on most video games.

I've been experiencing some pretty severe game burnout in the past few days and it got me thinking, so I'm going to try to revive this thread here.

I've completed more games in the last year than I have in all of the previous years of my life combined, I've been playing a ton, mostly because I'm trying to branch out, try different genres and series. I'm certain it'll pass and that fire will be re-lit for me, but what I noticed is that I've gotten pretty bad burnout even with all these new genres and games, to the point where none of my comfort games seem enjoyable and I don't feel like starting anything new at all. So I guess a question is do video games as a medium just become more boring the more you play, and maybe less enjoyable despite efforts to keep playing fresh new games and genres? I have a few ideas, like how if you've experienced the highest of highs in so many games and you've played so many 10/10s that it eventually becomes more difficult to reach that again. Another theory I have is that I may be taking game completions too seriously, I'll write pages of notes while playing games and write lengthy reviews for my blog, so maybe that's taken some of the enjoyment out of playing these games, as much as I love writing reviews. And maybe I'm way overthinking it, it could be something really simple like external factors, or maybe our brains just get bored sometimes and need a second to recover.

I managed burnout very well for a while but I think it's caught up to me now. I've retired a few games very recently just because I got bored and frustrated with them which I suspect is related, I had trouble enjoying Hades, FTL, and the GOTM Turnip Boy Commits Tax evasion, retired all of them within almost a week. So I'm just wondering what other ideas people may have, do you experience burnout at all? How do you manage it? etc. Really just anything that comes to mind with your experience of it, and I'm not particularly looking for a solution, I just want to hear some thoughts.

I pretty much don't experience burnout mainly because playing video games is to me what beer and smoking is to people who do those. Ever since I started my HLTB page, my increase in game completions has increased substantially, I've managed to complete almost if not over 1000 games these past 5 years alone, many of them were replays of course but I have just as many first time runs too. It's just how life has been for me, many of my online mutuals these past 10 years either betrayed me or started to dislike me behind my back without even telling me, this is probably because my life is so unfuffling on top of just people outside of my family being so untrustworthy, at least video games and by extension media in general don't have feelings and won't lie to you.

Still, I will admit this is quite the problem, I want to hopefully find more thing in life than beat games, and watch anime, movies and live shows but right now, I've just got more and more paranoid. The fact that a mutual I was "friends" with for 12 years decided to cut me loose after preaching shit like honesty and integrity and loves to go on about how virtuous he was by bringing up Legacy of Kain characters and the virtues they practiced while also acting like he was way above people with certain political beliefs was enough to make me realize that online friendships really is a waste of time. I'm still trying to get that dude out of my head even though it's been months he's still knaws at me.

This is what I mean, at least when I have fun playing games, people like him don't pop as much into my mind so in a sense playing lots of games for hours on end is my version of getting drunk. It sucks, but maybe I might be able to go beyond on this.

It happens.. Try branching out for a few weeks like read some books or watch movies.. If it has to be games.. Replaying some favorites also tend to help in my opinion. Had a killer time during a burnout around last year replaying all the Metal Gear Solid games.

I've been experiencing some pretty severe game burnout in the past few days and it got me thinking, so I'm going to try to revive this thread here.

I've completed more games in the last year than I have in all of the previous years of my life combined, I've been playing a ton, mostly because I'm trying to branch out, try different genres and series. I'm certain it'll pass and that fire will be re-lit for me, but what I noticed is that I've gotten pretty bad burnout even with all these new genres and games, to the point where none of my comfort games seem enjoyable and I don't feel like starting anything new at all. So I guess a question is do video games as a medium just become more boring the more you play, and maybe less enjoyable despite efforts to keep playing fresh new games and genres? I have a few ideas, like how if you've experienced the highest of highs in so many games and you've played so many 10/10s that it eventually becomes more difficult to reach that again. Another theory I have is that I may be taking game completions too seriously, I'll write pages of notes while playing games and write lengthy reviews for my blog, so maybe that's taken some of the enjoyment out of playing these games, as much as I love writing reviews. And maybe I'm way overthinking it, it could be something really simple like external factors, or maybe our brains just get bored sometimes and need a second to recover.

I managed burnout very well for a while but I think it's caught up to me now. I've retired a few games very recently just because I got bored and frustrated with them which I suspect is related, I had trouble enjoying Hades, FTL, and the GOTM Turnip Boy Commits Tax evasion, retired all of them within almost a week. So I'm just wondering what other ideas people may have, do you experience burnout at all? How do you manage it? etc. Really just anything that comes to mind with your experience of it, and I'm not particularly looking for a solution, I just want to hear some thoughts.

Your idea of playing too many 10/10 games and not being able to reach that high again is how I dictate what order I play my games in. I don't understand why people will get into something by immediately jumping to the best version of that thing and then being disappointed that nothing else compares. Like buying your first VR headset and starting with Half-Life Alyx. Of course other VR games will pale in comparison! That's why I generally play my games from lowest rated to highest so the bar is slowly moving up. It may sound counterintuitive, but I feel like sometimes it's important to space the great games apart with some mediocre ones to truly appreciate them.

Your idea of playing too many 10/10 games and not being able to reach that high again is how I dictate what order I play my games in. I don't understand why people will get into something by immediately jumping to the best version of that thing and then being disappointed that nothing else compares. Like buying your first VR headset and starting with Half-Life Alyx. Of course other VR games will pale in comparison! That's why I generally play my games from lowest rated to highest so the bar is slowly moving up. It may sound counterintuitive, but I feel like sometimes it's important to space the great games apart with some mediocre ones to truly appreciate them.

That seems like some sound advice, though it's a little tough to do with the nature of my series completion stuff. But re-ordering a few games in my side backlog by rating is something for me to consider. Looking at my profile I have 9 games marked as 10/10 masterpieces, they are some of my favorites, and 6 of them I completed in just 2024, so I think you're onto something there. I'll definitely consider this strategy once I get back into action.

As for your advice 2arda. I have been meaning to watch the Evangelion Rebuild movies, and I always love a good book, branching out to other media seems like a good strategy. I've actually been replaying one of my favorite games Metroid Prime recently and I've been having a blast with it, the Metroid games are always fun to replay for me even in burnout so maybe I can come back to that series periodically. I appreciate all the thoughtful replies :)

I've been experiencing some pretty severe game burnout in the past few days and it got me thinking, so I'm going to try to revive this thread here.

I've completed more games in the last year than I have in all of the previous years of my life combined, I've been playing a ton, mostly because I'm trying to branch out, try different genres and series. I'm certain it'll pass and that fire will be re-lit for me, but what I noticed is that I've gotten pretty bad burnout even with all these new genres and games, to the point where none of my comfort games seem enjoyable and I don't feel like starting anything new at all. So I guess a question is do video games as a medium just become more boring the more you play, and maybe less enjoyable despite efforts to keep playing fresh new games and genres? I have a few ideas, like how if you've experienced the highest of highs in so many games and you've played so many 10/10s that it eventually becomes more difficult to reach that again. Another theory I have is that I may be taking game completions too seriously, I'll write pages of notes while playing games and write lengthy reviews for my blog, so maybe that's taken some of the enjoyment out of playing these games, as much as I love writing reviews. And maybe I'm way overthinking it, it could be something really simple like external factors, or maybe our brains just get bored sometimes and need a second to recover.

I managed burnout very well for a while but I think it's caught up to me now. I've retired a few games very recently just because I got bored and frustrated with them which I suspect is related, I had trouble enjoying Hades, FTL, and the GOTM Turnip Boy Commits Tax evasion, retired all of them within almost a week. So I'm just wondering what other ideas people may have, do you experience burnout at all? How do you manage it? etc. Really just anything that comes to mind with your experience of it, and I'm not particularly looking for a solution, I just want to hear some thoughts.

This is a pretty personal topic and I'm not sure how to speak about that publicly, but I know the feeling.

I have two other main passions outside gaming, literature and music, and I've experienced the same kind of 'burn out' with each three of them, at different points in my life. I can remember at least two years listening less than 10 records, which is absolutely crazy for anyone who knows who obsessed and curious I can be with music. Last year, all of sudden, I went from reading 7 books a month to 0 (and I was in the middle of one my favorite author's last book when it happened). It got better slowly (I'm on my second book this month ^^) and I know it will come back, because it always ends up coming back. As for video games, well, I spent most of the 2000s as a casual or non-gamer at all. I was just tired with video games.

Now why, how, and how to get out of this mood... I think we're all different so I can only speak for myself. In my case, every time I've been through this, I was just doing too much and trying too hard. I wanted to read/play/listen to everything I possibly could, and I did, but in hindsight, I wasn't reading/playing/listening to things I really wanted to and really loved. That's how simple things works with me. Only answer I found is, just like 2arda said, branching out and doing something else, then, when ready, going back to basics (a replay or something from your favorite genre), but not because you think you need to, because you really want to. I know it's easier said than done :)

I could write a detailed post but really I can sum up my thoughts very easily for once.

If you are burnt out on games or finding it difficult to be excited by them, it's time to do something else for a while. The same as any other hobby. Game's shouldn't be a chore or work unless your job is making games. Sometimes I find playing a not so good game instead of all the big games refreshes the palette.

If gaming is your only hobby, then you need a secondary hobby, even if it's a casual one.

That seems like some sound advice, though it's a little tough to do with the nature of my series completion stuff. But re-ordering a few games in my side backlog by rating is something for me to consider. Looking at my profile I have 9 games marked as 10/10 masterpieces, they are some of my favorites, and 6 of them I completed in just 2024, so I think you're onto something there. I'll definitely consider this strategy once I get back into action.

As for your advice 2arda. I have been meaning to watch the Evangelion Rebuild movies, and I always love a good book, branching out to other media seems like a good strategy. I've actually been replaying one of my favorite games Metroid Prime recently and I've been having a blast with it, the Metroid games are always fun to replay for me even in burnout so maybe I can come back to that series periodically. I appreciate all the thoughtful replies :)

It's funny you bring up the series thing. I actually group all the games in a series together and use the average rating to determine where they go in my play order and play them back to back. If you look through my backlog, you'll see some entries that have a little note next to the title like (X% with Y and Z games). Something to think about.

Burnout is a sort of exhaustion caused by stress. So, I am curious if the drive to complete so many games is stressful for you. You said that you are wondering if you are taking completions too seriously, that you are writing lengthy notes and reviews, and so on. I feel this sometimes: "I have to keep playing to complete x games before y date!" This is usually when I'm on a Game Pass or PS Plus trial. Or, "I've completed x games and need to write reviews for all of them" (and I want those reviews to be thoughtful, which takes time!). Or, "I have to play x games for work/because my friends are playing them/so that I can play the new one that comes out/etc."

Whenever I am feeling burned out from games, it's almost always because playing (too much) is creating stress in my life. Often, this combines with other stressors like working long hours, which makes it worse. And I will use gaming to procrastinate and escape from other stressors, which makes stress from both things (games and the other stressors) even worse, like a nasty feedback loop. Sometimes, the game burnout is less defined by exhaustion caused by stress and more that I have genre fatigue. I've had this happen most with open-world games, where just the thought of booting up another game where I know I'm going to methodically check all the "?" question marks on the map makes me want to retire it before I start and do something else.

Changing genres is helpful for me, as is playing the "worst first" like GCTuba said. In fact, I am in the middle of doing that with my backlog. For the past several weeks (in addition to having some highly rated games going), I've been clearing games that have below an 80% user score. I eat my food like this too, worst first! Other helpful tricks are capping my play time and making sure I'm doing other activities that I like. Like, sure I could play 5 hours tonight, and that would be awesome, but I wouldn't do anything else. How much gaming would I be satisfied with? I'd be satisfied with around 2 hours. So instead of gaming for 5 and not getting anything else done, I'll game for 2, spend 30 minutes cooking dinner, exercise for an hour, read for 30 minutes, and spend time with my partner or do something that needs doing around the house or whatever, maybe even go to bed a little earlier and get better sleep. The eating well, exercise, and sleep are all really important for combating burnout and stress generally. I still get to play games tonight, but it is stress-free play (and guilt-free). Sure, I won't feel like I'm getting through my backlog as fast or reaching whatever gaming goal I may want to set, but I can re-evaluate my gaming goals and habits such that it's not causing me stress, and the balance feels so much better. And I am telling myself this as much as telling you, haha. It's not always easy.

original poster.. idk seems abit reductionist view.. yes jumping in game one be jumping in game 5... flying is flying etc etc. its more like whole package despite many shared elements still is quite different, better not think this way... i thought Hogwarts was pretty coolio. I think world and creatures is quite unique and vibes soundtrack was great and its more school like game quests and there arent many like that (Bully game), but guess if still want gaming then need just change genres.. somethin else. 25+ completion burnout is abit too sooooon.

I pretty much don't experience burnout mainly because playing video games is to me what beer and smoking is to people who do those. Ever since I started my HLTB page, my increase in game completions has increased substantially, I've managed to complete almost if not over 1000 games these past 5 years alone, many of them were replays of course but I have just as many first time runs too. It's just how life has been for me, many of my online mutuals these past 10 years either betrayed me or started to dislike me behind my back without even telling me, this is probably because my life is so unfuffling on top of just people outside of my family being so untrustworthy, at least video games and by extension media in general don't have feelings and won't lie to you.

Still, I will admit this is quite the problem, I want to hopefully find more thing in life than beat games, and watch anime, movies and live shows but right now, I've just got more and more paranoid. The fact that a mutual I was "friends" with for 12 years decided to cut me loose after preaching shit like honesty and integrity and loves to go on about how virtuous he was by bringing up Legacy of Kain characters and the virtues they practiced while also acting like he was way above people with certain political beliefs was enough to make me realize that online friendships really is a waste of time. I'm still trying to get that dude out of my head even though it's been months he's still knaws at me.

This is what I mean, at least when I have fun playing games, people like him don't pop as much into my mind so in a sense playing lots of games for hours on end is my version of getting drunk. It sucks, but maybe I might be able to go beyond on this.

relatable..

I was playing Hogwarts Legacy today and I realized that I am not enjoying video games as much as I used to. Every new 'AAA' game feels like a rehash of older games. Using revelio in HL is the same as using witcher sense in Witcher games and using detective vision in batman games. Incendio is literally Igni. Protego is literally Quen. Depulso is literally Aard. Did the flying around (broomstick/quidditch) quests today and it felt like Harry Potter PS2 video game or Superman 64. Every part of gameplay just feels like something taken from other games. The best I can describe HL is like its a beautiful blond bimbo - nice to look at but no substance on the inside. All the secret areas in the game just reward you with some gold in a chest or a piece of gear in a chest. Nothing to get excited over.

Flying around on a broomstick should be fun but I get ptsd from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban video game's superman 64-like Hippogriff flying challenge. Flying through those gold rings in my nightmare.

Only games I am not burnt out on are roguelike and soulslikes. Games where I make incremental progress by dying over and over and getting better at the game.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is coming out in few months. I was so excited for it few years ago but now I am dreading it. Open world games feel like a chore: A list of things to do just to pad out time.

Anyone else experienced burn out? how do you deal with it?

Obviously big AAA games will always recycle things that other games did well. They are made mainly for profit, since now they cost a fortune to make so they tend to take little risks.

I was also burned out last year. I'm a huge TES fan but I never played Skyrim. I wasn't much interested in other games. Once I have finished Skyrim, another game piqued my interest and so on. Now I mainly play old-retro games and indie games and I'm really happy. My backlog is so big and in continuous expansion, it will never be empty.

You just need to find your niche of interest and go from there. Or take some time away from games.

Burnout is a sort of exhaustion caused by stress. So, I am curious if the drive to complete so many games is stressful for you. You said that you are wondering if you are taking completions too seriously, that you are writing lengthy notes and reviews, and so on. I feel this sometimes: "I have to keep playing to complete x games before y date!" This is usually when I'm on a Game Pass or PS Plus trial. Or, "I've completed x games and need to write reviews for all of them" (and I want those reviews to be thoughtful, which takes time!). Or, "I have to play x games for work/because my friends are playing them/so that I can play the new one that comes out/etc."

Whenever I am feeling burned out from games, it's almost always because playing (too much) is creating stress in my life. Often, this combines with other stressors like working long hours, which makes it worse. And I will use gaming to procrastinate and escape from other stressors, which makes stress from both things (games and the other stressors) even worse, like a nasty feedback loop. Sometimes, the game burnout is less defined by exhaustion caused by stress and more that I have genre fatigue. I've had this happen most with open-world games, where just the thought of booting up another game where I know I'm going to methodically check all the "?" question marks on the map makes me want to retire it before I start and do something else.

Changing genres is helpful for me, as is playing the "worst first" like GCTuba said. In fact, I am in the middle of doing that with my backlog. For the past several weeks (in addition to having some highly rated games going), I've been clearing games that have below an 80% user score. I eat my food like this too, worst first! Other helpful tricks are capping my play time and making sure I'm doing other activities that I like. Like, sure I could play 5 hours tonight, and that would be awesome, but I wouldn't do anything else. How much gaming would I be satisfied with? I'd be satisfied with around 2 hours. So instead of gaming for 5 and not getting anything else done, I'll game for 2, spend 30 minutes cooking dinner, exercise for an hour, read for 30 minutes, and spend time with my partner or do something that needs doing around the house or whatever, maybe even go to bed a little earlier and get better sleep. The eating well, exercise, and sleep are all really important for combating burnout and stress generally. I still get to play games tonight, but it is stress-free play (and guilt-free). Sure, I won't feel like I'm getting through my backlog as fast or reaching whatever gaming goal I may want to set, but I can re-evaluate my gaming goals and habits such that it's not causing me stress, and the balance feels so much better. And I am telling myself this as much as telling you, haha. It's not always easy.

You're absolutely right that games shouldn't be a source of stress, they really should be an escape, or at least a coping mechanism for it. And that's definitely something I should think about more. There are times I just decide to not take notes for a game because I don't feel like it, and I keep reviews on the shorter side if I'm disinterested, so for me I wouldn't say that's as much of an issue. But I think the self imposed time restraints are a big part of it, especially for people who may be over-optimistic about time estimates and whoever it seems like a really big stress trap to fall into, including myself. Your mention of the open world fatigue does remind me that I've actually made a big shift in the past year to not 100% complete every game that I play, because for a while I tried to do that, in fact it's quite rare for me these days to 100% a game. So I think that's a big part of why I was able to go for so long without getting any burnout for a while is because of that shift, at least compared to how often I got burnt out before that. And that advice about time management, leaving time for self care as well as other hobbies is great.

This whole thread discussion ended up being deeper than I expected lol, but I'm all for it.

I've been experiencing some pretty severe game burnout in the past few days and it got me thinking, so I'm going to try to revive this thread here.

I've completed more games in the last year than I have in all of the previous years of my life combined, I've been playing a ton, mostly because I'm trying to branch out, try different genres and series. I'm certain it'll pass and that fire will be re-lit for me, but what I noticed is that I've gotten pretty bad burnout even with all these new genres and games, to the point where none of my comfort games seem enjoyable and I don't feel like starting anything new at all. So I guess a question is do video games as a medium just become more boring the more you play, and maybe less enjoyable despite efforts to keep playing fresh new games and genres? I have a few ideas, like how if you've experienced the highest of highs in so many games and you've played so many 10/10s that it eventually becomes more difficult to reach that again. Another theory I have is that I may be taking game completions too seriously, I'll write pages of notes while playing games and write lengthy reviews for my blog, so maybe that's taken some of the enjoyment out of playing these games, as much as I love writing reviews. And maybe I'm way overthinking it, it could be something really simple like external factors, or maybe our brains just get bored sometimes and need a second to recover.

I managed burnout very well for a while but I think it's caught up to me now. I've retired a few games very recently just because I got bored and frustrated with them which I suspect is related, I had trouble enjoying Hades, FTL, and the GOTM Turnip Boy Commits Tax evasion, retired all of them within almost a week. So I'm just wondering what other ideas people may have, do you experience burnout at all? How do you manage it? etc. Really just anything that comes to mind with your experience of it, and I'm not particularly looking for a solution, I just want to hear some thoughts.

I would advise you to stop gaming for 1 month. Or even longer, until you really feel like gaming again. And stop writing (long) reviews for a while. Gaming should not feel like a job.

You can compare it to a rechargeable battery. Yours is empty.
You can stop for a few days but then you hardly charge anything so it quickly goes back to 0.
Sometimes you have to take a step back to enjoy something again.

I would advise you to stop gaming for 1 month. Or even longer, until you really feel like gaming again. And stop writing (long) reviews for a while. Gaming should not feel like a job.

You can compare it to a rechargeable battery. Yours is empty.
You can stop for a few days but then you hardly charge anything so it quickly goes back to 0.
Sometimes you have to take a step back to enjoy something again.

this is very good advice. i thumbupit

What you're feeling, this video game burnout, is something that a lot of gamers can relate to, especially in a world where "AAA" video games seem more and more similar, or draw on mechanics that have already been seen and reviewed.

My backlog insist on indie game tripple aaa games and all are different platforms.

So i'll try to space it out and mix it up, so i dont get bored easily of the games i play.

I do retire games that i pîck up when they meet some criteria:

-Not playable after trying to fix for awhile (crashes, not starting up, ...)
- if i really like dragging it out and say sigh this game again.
- when it's really not my type of game.

Update: This might be also the reason for me gaming is a hobby and a outlet i can go too after a hard day of work of a hard day, a sort stress releaser and not feel like a job.

I personally stopped having this problem when I had children. My free time became rare so every game became desirable to me. Well, every game that gives out the feeling that I progress towards an end and games that have little to no tedium.

I'd suggest like others to concentrate on other hobbies. I've gamed all my life and was obsessed by video games very young.

Video games are meant to be fun and unless you are having a gaming career streaming or competing, just find something else to do, games will become fun again after a while.

Your idea of playing too many 10/10 games and not being able to reach that high again is how I dictate what order I play my games in. I don't understand why people will get into something by immediately jumping to the best version of that thing and then being disappointed that nothing else compares. Like buying your first VR headset and starting with Half-Life Alyx. Of course other VR games will pale in comparison! That's why I generally play my games from lowest rated to highest so the bar is slowly moving up. It may sound counterintuitive, but I feel like sometimes it's important to space the great games apart with some mediocre ones to truly appreciate them.

Totally agree with this. One of my co-workers brought something like this up where they told me they regularly drink one type of coffee even though they think a different one is better, the idea being that the coffee they like the most doesn't just become routine. It kind of confused me at first, but I realized I kind of do that with games.

You get a better appreciation for the highs when you know what the lower levels of quality are like. Other then ratings, I also try to make sure I mix up genres and especially after a longer game, I like to play some shorter games in between.