Why People Play Pokémon: The Role of Perceived Belonging

The Pokémon video game series is one of the most successful ever created. However, it is still unclear why these games in particular have become so successful while others have not. Based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory and the concept of the Need to Belong, we postulate that an individual’s Perceived Belonging (i.e., the degree to which a person feels connected to and accepted by others) positively influences his/her Actual Game Use, i.e., how often he/she plays Pokémon. After surveying 2,294 German-speaking visitors of one of Germany’s most popular Pokémon websites and applying a structural equation modeling approach, we confirmed that Perceived Belonging is a direct positive influence factor of Actual Game Use as well as an indirect factor through Perceived Enjoyment. Overall, our study suggests that developers should include belonging-oriented aspects into their games, such as virtual pets, to increase individuals’ video game usage through their Perceived Belonging