A recent study conducted by US gambling website, BonusFinder, has found the ten most stressful video games to play.
The study measured respondents’ average heart rate increase across 16 of the “most popular and challenging console, PC and mobile games on the market” including titles like Call of Duty (Modern Warfare), The Sims, and even Among Us.
Surprisingly, the game that topped the study was Nintendo’s bright and colorful Mario Kart, with 32.81% of respondents showing an increase in heart rate in a span of 30 minutes, the highest average increase overall.
Mario Kart players might experience an increase in BPM and a surge of adrenaline especially when they’re already in the last lap of the race. With power-ups like triple red shells and Bullet Bill, the race can go either way! This thought alone is enough to cause stress when playing Nintendo’s classic racing title.
Mario Kart was followed by FIFA 20 at 31.25%, Call of Duty at 29.69%, Dark Souls at 28.13%, and Epic Games’s Fortnite on the fifth spot at 26.56% average BPM increase.
Popular mobile title Among Us landed on the tenth spot.
Here are the top ten most stressful video games based on average heart rate (BPM):
- Mario Kart
- FIFA 20
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Dark Souls III
- Fortnite
- DOOM Eternal
- Fall Guys
- Battlefield V
- Street Fighter
- Among Us
- Puma is celebrating Mario’s 35th birthday with some fresh new kicks
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BonusFinder also released another list of stressful games based on peak BPM increase. This time, FromSoftware’s role-playing game Dark Souls took the top spot at 98.44% peak BPM increase over a 30-minute period. Battle royale game Fall Guys came in second at 95.11% BPM increase.
“When participants reached finals of respective Fall Guys episodes, heart rates soared by as much as 63 BPM, almost double the baseline rate,” said Managing Director Fintan Costello.
It’s worth noting however that the study had a small sample size of just 14 gamers, however, all of the gamers played at least 15 hours per week and wore heart rate monitors when they took the test.
You can read the full findings of the study for yourself here.
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