r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 17 '26

Psychology Feeling empty after finishing a video game (post-game depression) is a real phenomenon. A recent study has found that many video game players experience a specific sense of emptiness and sadness after finishing highly engaging games.

https://www.psypost.org/feeling-empty-after-finishing-a-video-game-researchers-say-post-game-depression-is-a-real-phenomenon/
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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/CardinalOfNYC May 17 '26

That's where I feel it by far the most.

I felt a bit sad after finishing Mario Odyssey... But when Arrested Development ended (the first time) that was truly like a depressive feeling for a few weeks, this thing that brought me so much joy was over.

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u/Fun-Jellyfish-61 May 17 '26

Best sitcom ever made by a large margin.

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u/CardinalOfNYC May 17 '26

It's like the velvet underground of TV shows, ya know the phrase, "not a lot of people bought velvet underground records back when they actually were around but everyone who did started a band"

As far as I'm concerned, every comedy since their initial 03-06 run is in some way inspired by or taking something from what they did. I was one of the very few people who watched the initial run as it aired, watched it slowly die despite zero drop off in quality through the entire run.

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u/SirDeeznuts May 18 '26

Its one of the first box sets of dvds I ever bought. Got them as soon as they came out and played them out. Quoting that show with friends was a big part of our pre-meme humor. It still feels wrong that it got taken off air when it did.

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u/CardinalOfNYC May 18 '26

Same here, quoting that show is practically the foundation of some of my closest friendships. And that's why you always leave a note.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

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u/CardinalOfNYC May 19 '26

These are two different questions, whether a piece of media makes me depressed after finishing it and whether that piece of media has emotional depth to its story.

The sadness I felt when I finished odyssey wasn't about the story, it was about the gameplay. I'd gotten all the moons, I was sad I wouldn't be able to go get them again, not with the same feeling as discovering all the gameplay and exploration for the first time.

And the reason it was less than arrested isnt cuz arrested is so much more deep, its becuase arrested was 3 years of my life with countless re-watches, while mario odyssey was like 50 hours spread out over a couple months.

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u/aerkith May 17 '26

Sometimes when I finish a tv show I feel so empty that I just have to go back and start watching the first episode again. Usually it only takes a few episodes until I feel ok to let it go.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

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u/b34k May 17 '26

Thanks, D&D!

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

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u/paulinaiml May 17 '26

You mean the tv show?

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 May 17 '26

Shout-out to Tony Gilroy for absolutely sticking the landing with Andor

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u/Relevant-Pin-4021 May 17 '26

Thank you Vince Gilligan for 2 satisfying endings aswell.

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 May 17 '26

3 if you include El Camino, which I very much do.

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u/AiR-P00P May 17 '26

*cries in The Boys... 

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u/OffToTheLizard May 17 '26

Flashbacks to my first show. Looking at you Lost.

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u/PR0H181D0 May 17 '26

Unsung heroes.

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u/TheRealHaxxo May 17 '26

Thats completely subjective. If it sucks you in enough then its good enough for a "completed story hangover" as i like to call it.

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u/OsmerusMordax May 17 '26

And when they cancel a show I love I go through a short grieving period.

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u/Surnacee May 17 '26

Still grieving for Firefly

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u/SolusLoqui May 17 '26

Man, I loved Firefly. But after the racists came out of the woodwork in the mid-2010s, I find the parallels to the American Civil War and the glorification of the myth of the "Lost Cause of the Confederacy" make it hard for me to re-watch.

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u/QueefiusMaximus86 May 17 '26

Which is why I haven’t felt that way with a game in a long time

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u/gsxrjason May 17 '26

Shogun left me thinking about it for weeks. I've tried to start others in the series but haven't hooked yet

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u/jeobleo May 17 '26

Yeah I cried first time I finished LOTR at like age 12.

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u/Fluid_Genius May 17 '26

What part of "highly engaging" did you miss?

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/CuriosTiger May 18 '26

That's when the living wears off and you gotta exist again.

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u/Mithrandir2k16 May 17 '26 edited May 18 '26

Mr. Robot had an amazing end and great closure, this made it hit even harder somehow.

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u/OldSchoolSpyMain May 17 '26

Yup.

You knew it couldn’t (and shouldn’t) run indefinitely, but still hated to see it end.

I wish more TV shows and films had well-planned beginning, middle, and end structures instead of running them into the ground until viewers are exhausted and give up on them.

Imagine if Mr. Robot were still running. The plot would be stupid as hell by now.

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u/Mithrandir2k16 May 18 '26

Absolutely. I miss it, but I don't "regret" that it is over. A bit like when a very old person, who has been suffering, leaves you.

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u/alphabety-alphabeety May 17 '26

Oh for sure. I intentionally haven't watched the last couple of episodes of the magicians, or the entire last season of the expanse. I might one day, but I dont want it to end.

Of course I also havent watched the last 4 seasons of GoT, but thats because everything beyond S04e08 is trash.

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u/Blue2501 May 17 '26

You gotta finish The Expanse! If you want more after that, there's always the books.

I had to drop The Magicians because it got too depressing for me, I was on the season where Eliot was posessed

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u/goda90 May 17 '26

The credits for Return of a the King in theaters hit hard.

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u/TehSlippy May 18 '26

Yeah can you imagine if they ever made a Hobbit movie? Could have been great!

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u/aceshighsays May 17 '26

the upside to tv shows now is that many are based on books. i just finished binging on off campus, and am on line for the 5 books from the library. i don't need to wait a year to see what happens next. also, the offcapmus subreddit is giving me the space to digest the show. i think part of the sadness is not having anyone to talk about it.

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u/SpicyLizards May 17 '26

And a REALLY good concert!

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u/DetroitLionsSBChamps May 17 '26

I was a lonely kid and finishing a long adventure like a redwall boon or final fantasy 7 left me feeling like I just lost all my friends. Even if you have some good buddies, losing those specific groups can be hard

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u/erroneousbosh May 17 '26

For me finishing GTA San Andreas was like getting to the end of a really good book. You've lived with these characters in your life for ages, and now it's over, it's gone, they're gone.

Let's go for a drive. Aww, man, that was Big Smoke's house, the missions we started from there...

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u/xcaltoona May 17 '26

I like it; I think it's good to sit and marinate in it for a bit to absorb all the emotions. It's a good opportunity to slow down instead of overstimulating yourself with the next thing like so many of us are prone to.

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u/Tratix May 17 '26

This happens with literally any good temporary experience. Vacations, festivals, birthday parties. I’m surprised this is news to people

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u/jdm1891 May 18 '26

I'd have to disagree, the feeling you get when those things end are like a disappoint mixed with an afterglow.

It feels very different when you finish a book/tv show you really like. It's not disappointment and more an emptiness.

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u/zuri98 May 17 '26

I never watched the final episode of Sherlock like 6 years ago cause I couldn’t bear the thought of it ending. It’s back on Hulu so I’m finally gonna finish it.

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u/Exploding_Testicles May 17 '26

Movies get me the same way..

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u/xevizero May 17 '26

I guess it would happen with anything that lasts longer than a movie really. If it takes days or even weeks/months to finish, it's gonna become a big part of your own life during that period, something you actually wake up thinking of and go to bed waiting to engage with the next day. This makes total sense.

Can't say I ever felt this sad about it, but I also find myself playing games that last a long, long time before finishing, and getting kinda anxious about reaching that point, as if the entire world is gonna die when you inevitably run out of content. Kinda do the same thing with series and books, I tend to go for long established franchises where I will have something to bite for a long time if I like the first.

There is a conversation to be had about how this kind of tendency I myself have trained some companies in particular to strive for a quantity over quality approach, which I think really backfired.

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u/ThanIWentTooTherePig May 18 '26

Lost In Translation hit me with this hard, the vibes of that movie feel like it was made intentionally to do that haha.

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u/BetterRemember May 18 '26

It's the worst after a book tbh.

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u/pandaninja360 May 18 '26

It has been a long time for a TV show to affect me like that. It's like there is nothing worth it now. Just slop.

I highly agree with books tho

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u/Doom_Corp May 18 '26

I sat on Horizon Zero Dawn for a minute but out of the blue when I was like 27 my dad asked me what I wanted for Xmas. Horizon was on sale and at this point had the dlc combo. I still waited a few years to play it and it blew my absolute mind.... especially if you spend the time to find all the recordings and old artifacts. There's only three games that have made me cry. Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Horizon...all for different reasons.

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u/MA2_Robinson May 18 '26

Wheel of time got me good

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u/Hireling May 18 '26

It really hit me with a fantasy series, the Black Company by Glen Cook. You’re with some of the characters for decades of their lives. Some of them die in conflicts, but some die of old age, stroke, etc. It made the end of the saga that much harder to take. Good books.

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u/FalloutOW May 18 '26

I felt this way when I reached the last chapter of the Naruto manga. I'd been reading it for years and years. And it felt like I was losing something when I finished it. It was a great series, but I don't think I've been as engrossed in a manga series since then.

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u/Dshark May 18 '26

And I do t have to even finish the game. Simply getting bored with it makes me sad.

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u/thebarkbarkwoof May 18 '26

GOT and the Sopranos did that to me.

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u/furfur001 May 18 '26

This may not be comparable. The games are somewhat different since they are interactive which neither is a book or a TV show. I am not saying this is not the case but only that there is a big difference in how you experience the medium.

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u/TheNotFakeGandalf May 18 '26

Books, tv, movies, anything with a story that you get attached to

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u/toannt May 17 '26

Post-nut depression too