17 April 2025

Australians are being played: New Study Reveals Manipulative Gaming Practices

Online gaming platforms are manipulating Australian players, leaving them stressed, frustrated, and out of pocket, a new Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) and Monash University study has found.

The report, Playing the Player, reveals that nearly half of Australian gamers have lost money due to ‘dark patterns’ – deceptive and manipulative designs built into gaming platforms deliberately engineered to confuse, mislead, and pressure players into spending more time and money than they intended.

“The gaming industry is increasingly relying on exploitative design practices that put profits ahead of player wellbeing,” CPRC CEO Erin Turner said.

“We found 46 per cent of gamers have experienced financial harm due to digital gaming, with nearly one-third feeling pressured into making purchases they didn’t intend to make.

“At least half of gamers encountered some form of privacy harm, and the fact that 42 per cent of affected gamers don’t complain — even after financial loss — shows a serious gap in consumer protection. Many players feel powerless against these practices or don’t know where to turn for help.”

Some of the key insights from the survey include:

• 95 per cent of Australian players encountered some form of dark game pattern, such as freemiums, hidden costs and redirections or pop-ups, in the past 12 months.
• 58 per cent had encountered more than 10 different types of dark game patterns in the past 12 months.
• 83 per cent had experienced what they perceive as a negative impact as a result of encountering a dark game pattern.
• 46 per cent experienced some form of financial detriment from digital gaming such as spending more money than intended or making accidental purchases
• 52 per cent encountered some form of privacy harm including accidentally signing up to something, sharing more personal information than intended or creating an unwanted account

One of the report’s authors, Monash senior lecturer in media, Dr Robbie Fordyce, said: “Harmful monetisation strategies are rife across the gaming industry, and many players are aware of the disruptive, unfair, toxic and harmful impacts of these strategies.

“Getting the big picture on the negative impacts of in-game monetisation will help us understand the scale of the problem and help people to make the right decisions around which games they play”, Dr Forcyde said.

The report comes as Australia is considering introducing a ban on unfair business practices. This reform could address many of the worst harms identified, especially if combined with reforms to how businesses collect and use consumer data.

View the full report, Playing the player: Unfair digital gaming practices and their impact on Australians.

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MEDIA ENQUIRIES 

CPRC
Liliana Campos
Communications Manager
T: +61 (0) 493 539 466
E: liliana.campos@cprc.org.au 

Monash University
Chris Bartlett
Media and Communications Manager
T: +61 (0) 422 087 764
E: chris.bartlett@monash.edu