Video Game Addiction Test (IGDS9-SF): Screen Your Gaming Habits in a Few Minutes
This video game addiction test screens gaming habits that affect control and daily life. Adapted from the nine-item IGDS9-SF, it gives an instant educational result and a breakdown of reported concerns.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Video Game Addiction Test (IGDS9-SF) is a free, confidential 9-question self-assessment, based on the validated IGDS9-SF. It takes about 7 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 4 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Nine criteria, not a number of hours
The Video Game Addiction Test screens difficulties controlling play and the effects of gaming on daily life. The IGDS9-SF asks about warning signs over the past 12 months. Time spent playing provides context, while missed responsibilities, continued play despite harm, and difficulty cutting back deserve closer attention.
The nine DSM-5 criteria
Each item maps to one criterion for internet gaming disorder: preoccupation, withdrawal, tolerance, loss of control, loss of other interests, continuing despite problems, deception, escape, and jeopardizing relationships or opportunities.
Compulsion and craving
Whether gaming dominates your thoughts, whether cutting back makes you irritable or low, whether you need ever more of it to feel satisfied, and whether attempts to control it keep failing.
What gaming is costing you
Lost hobbies, strained relationships, hiding how much you play, gaming to escape difficult feelings, and risks to school, work, or the people who matter to you.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Validated IGDS9-SF items | Rarely | Yes, all 9 items |
| Mapped to DSM-5 criteria | No | Yes, one item per criterion |
| Honest about cutoffs | Invented thresholds | Yes, clearly explained |
| Compulsion vs life-impact breakdown | No | Yes, both shown |
| Non-judgmental, gamer-literate tone | Often alarmist | Yes, throughout |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Confidential (no data sent) | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–36 in total. Your result falls into one of 4 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–9 | Healthy engagement | Your answers suggest gaming is a hobby you control, not the other way around. The context below is still a useful read. |
| 10–18 | Some strain showing | Your answers suggest gaming is mostly working for you, with a few warning signs starting to flicker. This is a good moment to notice them. |
| 19–26 | Elevated warning signs | Your answers suggest gaming is pushing back when you try to control it and is starting to cost you elsewhere. This is common and very workable, and it is worth acting on now. |
| 27–36 | High range | Your answers place you in the range research associates with disordered gaming. That can be uncomfortable to read, and it is also the point where getting support genuinely changes things. |
If you're worried about someone else's gaming
This test is built to score your own answers, but plenty of people arrive here worried about a partner, a child, or a friend instead. You cannot make someone take a screening or force a diagnosis onto them, and confronting someone mid-session rarely lands well. What tends to help is naming specific, observed changes, such as missed commitments or a shortened temper when asked to log off, rather than the word addiction itself.
Encouraging them to try the test privately, and offering to help find a clinician through the Psychology.com therapist directory if they are open to it, respects their autonomy while keeping the door open.
When gaming costs money, not just time
Gaming can affect spending as well as time. Purchases may include randomized rewards such as loot boxes or gacha pulls, alongside fixed-price content such as battle passes and in-game currency. These purchases have different designs, so describe what you buy and whether you spend more than you intended. If you have used money needed for essentials, dipped into savings, or hidden purchases, bring those concerns to an assessment even if your screening score is low. This test does not directly measure spending or establish a gambling diagnosis.
Setting a hard monthly cap before you open a store menu, and removing saved payment methods from consoles and phones, closes the easiest path to overspending.
A spending record can give you and a clinician context that the gaming score leaves out. Note the type of purchase, what you intended to spend, and whether spending affected bills or caused conflict. You can discuss these examples without first deciding which diagnostic label, if any, applies.
What to do after the video game addiction test
Choose a concrete concern from your answers, such as losing sleep, postponing meals, or missing commitments. Write down what tends to happen before play starts, what makes stopping difficult, and what gets displaced. The Habit Tracker tool can help you record these observations for a conversation with a clinician; keeping a record does not itself establish or treat a disorder.
If the difficulty also involves browsing or scrolling, the Internet Addiction Test or Phone Addiction Test may help you describe that broader pattern. Both are available through the Psychology.com tests hub. Results from different screens should be discussed separately, because adding their totals together does not produce a meaningful clinical score.
Methodology & sources
The nine questions are adapted from the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale - Short-Form (IGDS9-SF), developed by Pontes and Griffiths (2015) and now one of the most widely used research measures of problematic gaming. Each item corresponds to one of the nine criteria the DSM-5 lists for internet gaming disorder, a condition flagged for further study rather than an established diagnosis, and the same territory covered by gaming disorder in the WHO's ICD-11. Items ask about the past 12 months. The original scale rates each item from 1 (never) to 5 (very often) for totals of 9 to 45; our engine uses the same five anchors scored 0 to 4, so totals run 0 to 36. The numeric range is shifted down by nine points. Wording has also been adapted, so translating a published score into this range does not establish that a research cutoff has been validated for this version.
The result bands on this page are educational guides, not diagnostic thresholds. Studies of the IGDS9-SF have used different approaches to classifying problematic gaming, and a high sum does not mean every criterion was endorsed at the same frequency. The original validation paper does not validate this page's labels or its adapted wording. Lower totals indicate fewer reported warning signs, while higher totals suggest more concerns to discuss with a clinician. Even a low total can accompany a serious problem in a specific area, such as losing sleep or missing essential responsibilities. This test supports education and self-reflection. Only a licensed clinician can assess whether gaming has become a clinical problem.
References
- Pontes HM, Griffiths MD. Measuring DSM-5 internet gaming disorder: development and validation of a short psychometric scale. Comput Human Behav. 2015;45:137-143. doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.006
- American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed., Text Revision. Washington, DC: APA; 2022.
- World Health Organization. International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11). Geneva: WHO; 2022. icd.who.int/
- Stevens MWR, Dorstyn D, Delfabbro PH, King DL. Global prevalence of gaming disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2021;55(6):553-568. doi.org/10.1177/0004867420962851
- Pontes HM, Griffiths MD. Internet Gaming Disorder Scale, Short-Form (IGDS9-SF): questionnaire and scoring instructions. Oregon Health Authority instrument copy. oregon.gov/oha/HSD/Problem-Gambling/Documents/IGDS9-SF.pdf
- World Health Organization. Addictive behaviours: Gaming disorder. who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/addictive-behaviours-gaming-disorder
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 16). Video Game Addiction Test (IGDS9-SF). Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/video-game-addiction
Video Game Addiction Test (IGDS9-SF) FAQ
Is video game addiction a real diagnosis?
Partially, and honestly, the field is still settling it. The DSM-5 lists internet gaming disorder as a condition for further study, not an established diagnosis, while the WHO's ICD-11 does include gaming disorder as a diagnosable condition. What researchers agree on is that a small minority of players develop a pattern of impaired control and real-life harm that looks and behaves like other addictions, and that it responds to treatment.
How many hours of gaming is too much?
Hours alone cannot establish video game addiction. Look at whether you can stop when you intend to, whether gaming takes priority over essential activities, and whether you keep playing despite harmful consequences. Sleep, school, work, relationships, and other interests all provide useful context. Someone worried about these changes can seek an assessment without waiting to cross a particular daily or weekly playing-time threshold.
What score on this test means addiction?
No screening score can diagnose gaming disorder. This page uses educational bands to summarize reported warning signs, and those bands have not been validated as diagnostic thresholds for this adapted version. A higher result suggests more concerns to discuss with a clinician. A lower result does not rule out a serious difficulty in a particular area, such as missed responsibilities or a relationship affected by gaming.
How is this different from the internet addiction test?
Scope. Our internet addiction test, built on Young's IAT, covers problematic online use as a whole: browsing, streaming, social feeds, everything. This test zooms in on gaming specifically, using the criteria psychiatry developed for it. If your pull is more toward endless scrolling than play sessions, the internet addiction test or our phone addiction test will fit your situation better.
Is the test really confidential?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser. Your individual answers are scored in your browser and are never sent to us or linked to you. They stay in this tab so you can return to your result, and closing or clearing the tab clears them. If you ask us to email the PDF, we receive your summary scores with your email address, never your individual answers. No account is needed.
What if my result is high?
It is workable, and you do not have to give up games forever to fix it. Effective approaches include cognitive behavioral therapy adapted for gaming, rebuilding offline activities that used to matter, and addressing what the gaming is soothing, which is often stress, loneliness, anxiety, or low mood. A therapist who understands behavioral addictions can help with the whole picture.
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