5 Online Games to Beat Stress For Adults [FREE]

A Clinical Counselor says that playing online video games for 30-minutes a day can help alleviate depression and anxiety, and it almost rivals the effectiveness of medication for that purpose! (Source)

I have noticed that playing simple games (not the ultra-competitive adrenaline-pumping team games) has helped me relax more, especially before or after I do some important work.

Plays.org is a website I came across recently that offers 100+ simple (mostly retro-themed) online games that help you to beat stress. You can play all these games on your computer browser – no downloads, no apps to install, and they are free-of-cost to play.

Here are five games that we liked the most on that website. Actually, I chose three and my wife chose two. But first, have a look at the below video with short screen recordings from each of these five games and see if you can recognize them…

My impressions on these five online games to beat stress:

(The individual games are linked to their respective titles, below)

#1. Pinball

About a decade ago, I was using CDMA wireless technology to connect to the Internet. The issue was, the CDMA adapter was not made for the Linux Mint OS I was using at that time, mainly to escape Vista. But I somehow managed to make it work.

There was another glitch – it used to take up to 10 minutes to connect to the Internet. What to do for such a long time? So I downloaded one of the few games available for my OS and that was – PINBALL 🙂

What started as an initial ten-minute playing session sometimes extended well beyond 30-minutes! To say I loved this game is an understatement.

So when I saw the same game, with a few small changes, on plays.org, I played this one first. Needless to say, I liked it the most. All you need to do is flip the left or right arrows, that too occasionally. The ball will keep bouncing and collecting points for you almost on auto-pilot. Perfect game for lazy ppl 😉

#2. Christmas Chain

There is an old adage that goes,

“Education is what you remember after you finish your exams.“

This Christmas Chain is the only game my wife keeps playing continuously – almost daily. That says a lot about this game and how relaxing it should be. Frankly, I didn’t find this game so exciting. This just goes to show that different people have their own unique tastes, and there should be something for everyone if you just care to explore!

#3. Take Off (Car Game)

I hated this game initially. All one needs to do is keep the car on the road, but I kept crashing it every few seconds. I should’ve moved on to another game, but something told me to hold on.

I am glad I did persist. Ond once I got hold of the car controls, I loved this game. This is not a racing game – I don’t like such games anyway. See the above promo video to get an idea.

#4. Wording Word Spelling Puzzle Game

This is another game that I didn’t have a great impression about, but my wife liked it very much. If you are into solving word puzzles, check it out. And yeah, this will also improve your vocabulary!

#5. Snake

If you’ve ever owned a Nokia phone (who hasn’t?) chances are good that you’ve played this game on a tiny black-and-white screen. Don’t you remember the snake that got bigger every time it eats the food, and finally dies because it finds its own size unmanageable?

In a way, that’s the metaphor of life itself.

Well, philosophies aside, if you play this game, I am sure you’ll be bitten by the nostalgic Nokia bug and will want to keep playing – just like me 🙂

Of course, you could play online games to beat stress, but remember one thing – don’t overdo it. Play it for a short time, and maybe return to it after a couple of hours. Also, don’t forget to work OK? 😉 Happy Playing 🙂

Destination Infinity