Woman Loses Eyesight in One Eye After Marathon Mobile Video Game Session

A visitor wearing a PlayStation VR headset plays a video game at the Tokyo Game Show 2017. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

A 21-year-old Chinese woman went blind in one eye after a particularly long video game session.

The woman, from the southern Guangdong Province, played “Honour of Kings” for 24 hours straight. She spent her entire Sunday, starting in the morning of Oct. 1, playing the game. In the evening she suddenly couldn’t see out of one eye.

She was diagnosed with retinal artery occlusion. Channel News Asia said that doctors told the woman that the condition is common in older people, but much rarer in someone of this woman’s age and in young people in general. The Singapore-based news outlet said the condition is likely due to eye strain.

“I always say to myself: ‘This will be my last round’, but I just couldn’t stop,” said the unnamed woman.

She works in finance and became addicted to “Honour of Kings” at the beginning of the year. She would wake up at 6 a.m. on the days she didn’t have to work so as to start playing.

“I will take a nap at 4 p.m., then I'll eat something and carry on till 1 a.m. to 2 a.m.,” said the woman. “I would be so absorbed in the game that I would forget to eat or go to the bathroom.”

She said that her parents warned her that she could go blind if she continued to play, but she couldn’t get herself to quit.

The woman is still in the hospital, where doctors are attempting to salvage her vision.

The report said “Honour of Kings” is one of China’s most popular mobile games and it is played by more than 200 million people.

Similar cases of blindness due to intense mobile sessions have occurred, Asia One reported. A 31-year-old Taiwanese woman experienced temporary blindness in August 2016 after an extended session of “Pokemon Go.”

In March of that same year, a young Chinese woman badly damaged her eyesight after watching too many hours of Korean soap operas on a tablet. Doctors diagnosed her with acute glaucoma. The condition is the result of pressure buildup in the eyes that can eventually result in blindness.

Earlier this year, the Daily Mail reported on studies that say staring into screens will rob millions of people of their eyesight. The report mentioned how children are staring into TV, computer, and mobile device screens at a younger age than in previous years, and that energy emitted from these screens may lead to retinal damage.

From NTD.tv