The Rise Of Vaping In Video Gaming

The popularity of vaping is so significant and widespread that the only connection a vape supplier will often notice between different people buying products is that they are former smokers wanting a safer way to get nicotine into their system.

This can include not only long-term smokers looking for an effective way to quit but also people who started smoking young due to varying pressures and found vaping as a way out before cigarettes could do significant permanent damage.

This leads to vaping developing a number of somewhat unusual periphery demographics, of which one of the most unique is that of the professional video gamer.

Smoking Controllers

To the uninitiated, it can seem strange that people who play computer games, even for a living, would be more drawn to nicotine than anyone else, but there are more connections between vaping and the hobby than you might expect.

Video gaming, whilst primarily a cathartic way to relax and escape into a virtual world for a few hours, can also be immensely stressful, and this is even more the case for people who are being paid to play games.

This can include competitive players, streamers who play video games online to entertain an audience, speedrunners who try to complete a game in the fastest time and people who make a living writing or creating content discussing games.

All of these professions can be intensely stressful, which in turn caused a lot of gamers to take up smoking under the perception that it reduces stress. This is part of the reason why old video game arcades were often filled with clouds of smoke akin to a pub prior to the smoking ban.

However, smoking causes a lot of long-term harm to not only health but also can affect cognitive ability and reflexes, both of which are often critical for competitive players who often rely on twitch reflexes to succeed.

A lot of smoking gamers, therefore, turned to vaping, but in doing so managed to enjoy a range of other benefits alongside a longer lifespan.

Part of it is that they can use vapes that not only contain nicotine but other extracts such as CBD oil or essential oils that may help to relieve tension, allow players to relax and focus on their game.

Alternative flavours can help with this as well, such as a cooling perception of menthol and the perceived cooling effect.

As well as this, it is far more convenient to take a quick puff of a vape than to smoke, which can be very helpful for certain types of players where they either cannot or are not allowed to pause their game.

Furthermore, it can be much better for industry events, as whilst some venues do ban the use of vapes indoors, it is much quicker to step out for a few seconds and take a puff than light up and smoke an entire cigarette.

Whether it actually helps with mental performance is not entirely certain, but there are plenty of gamers who feel like a vape is part of their equipment.