Open Play: A longitudinal dataset of multi-platform video game digital trace data and psychological measures

A major limitation to understanding digital technology use, and its potential psychological consequences, is the lack of sufficiently detailed, multidimensional, and accurate data. We present a dataset of 2.0K individuals’ video game play telemetry data from Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Xbox, paired with psychological measures across multiple dimensions of mental health, motivations, well-being, and cognitive ability. The data were collected under a preregistered design that included 12 weeks of survey data (thirty daily surveys, six biweekly surveys, three biweekly cognitive tests), and digital trace data for 43 months. Cleaned data include 1.5M hours of video game play across 10,475 titles, 23K responses to 14 survey instruments, and 2.9K attention ability measures to facilitate examining longitudinal associations between play behaviors and psychological functioning. Data and codebook are available under a CC0 (with supplemental reidentification clause) license at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17536656.