Background: During the 2020-2021 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown, social activities were limited by the government-recommended social distancing guidelines, leading to an abundance of mental health issues.
Methods: We hypothesized that Twitter sentiment analysis may shed some light on Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its impact on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results: We found that social gaming and social media may be used as tools to cope with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusions: Further research, including randomized study designs and prospective measurements of mental health outcomes related to social gaming behavior are required.
Keywords: Sentiment analysis; Social gaming; Twitter; Well-Being.
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