Being Good at ‘Counter-Strike’ Will Improve Your Decision-Making Skills, Study Shows

By Danial Martinus  •  27 Feb 2025 in Games

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I have to preface this story by making it clear that I’m not much of a gamer. Sure, I’ll occasionally indulge in some Sneaky Sasquatch or some Overcooked 2 here and there, but for the most part, I’m just a boring normie.

And like a lot of old people, I just assumed that playing video games of any kind was just a waste of time, or a good distraction at best.

But according to a recently published study by the University of Sheffield, Counter-Strike—one of the world’s most popular first-person shooter (FPS) games—could help boost people’s cognitive abilities, especially when it comes to decision making under pressure.

Not a waste of time, after all

In the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Sheffield looked at whether people who were really good at FPS games did indeed have superior decision-making abilities.

According to their findings, expert Counter-Strike players respond 89 milliseconds faster than beginners when faced with split-second choices. That might seem like a negligible difference to you, but it makes a world of difference in real life.

They’ve got this unique advantage due to the fast-paced, high-stakes nature of Counter-Strike, which has basically conditioned them to make important decisions quickly. But it’s not just about speed. Expert FPS players also make the right decisions.

Researchers believe that such skills could extend beyond gaming

Many professionals—emergency room doctors, air traffic controllers, and financial traders—operate in high-pressure environments where rapid and accurate decision-making is part and parcel of the job.

The study suggests that the mental agility developed by playing FPS games could be put to use in these demanding fields, providing a pretty solid argument against the long-held assumption that video games are an unproductive pastime.

“Video games can give us a safe arena in which to examine and learn more about how our cognitive abilities respond to high pressure situations,” says Professor Claudia von Bastian, Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Sheffield.

“By studying cognitive processing in this way, we could start to develop new ways to nurture and support the cognitive abilities of people who work in environments where they need to make rapid, accurate decisions under intense pressure.”

The study’s scope extends beyond Counter-Strike. The Sheffield scientists are now collaborating with academics at the University of Geneva to explore the cognitive impact of League of Legends, a multiplayer strategy game played by over 150 million people worldwide.

The Sheffield and Geneva teams aim to address the apparent lack of research into the psychology of the games—an ironic circumstance considering their respective popularity. Among the University of Geneva researchers are Dr Benoit Bediou and PhD student Naïma Gradi, who just so happens to be a retired League of Legends world champion.

To read the full study, click here.

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