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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is shown running on a yellow handheld-only Nintendo Switch Lite.
SALT LAKE CITY — A new survey from CenturyLink indicates that couples that play “Mario Kart” together are happier further on down the road.
The survey comes from internet provider CenturyLink, which polled “more than 1,000 people” about whether or not playing video games together can have a positive effect on relationships. As it turns out, one in three respondents between the ages of 18-24 said gaming has improved their relationship with a partner.
ComicBook.com also notes that the survey found “Mario Kart” most positively affected relationships — despite being focused around lobbing turtle shells and banana peels to ruin your loved ones’ perfect lap. Other influential games include military shooter “Call of Duty” and “Skyrim,” an open-world fantasy RPG.
But life isn’t all blue shells and rainbow roads — not everyone surveyed felt the same about video games in their relationships.
CenturyLink found that as respondents grew older, positive opinions on video games and relationships decreased to below 10 percent for the 55 and older age range. Brigham Young University professor James Gaskin says the phenomena is likely because millennials grew up with gaming.
“Romantic partners from the millennial generation grew up with video games as a large part of their lives. Therefore, gaming is simply more natural and accepted. Whereas with older generations, a partner who played video games was perceived as juvenile and irresponsible,” Gaskin said in a statement on the CenturyLink survey.
Previous studies have also shown the various effects of video games in relationship-focused areas of life. Deseret News previously reported that a study from BYU — which was co-authored by Gaskin — shows that playing video games in a team-building environment could increase workplace productivity by 20 percent.
However, Esquire also reports that “Fortnite,” a popular battle royale game, may have been the cause of at least 200 divorces in 2018. Additionally, the World Health Organization found that 2 to 3 percent of gamers worldwide suffer from video game addiction.
