Woman Suffers Blindness after Playing Mobile Game

Chinese woman turned a blind eye to the dangers of marathon video gaming and is now paying the price.

A Chinese woman has lost partial vision in her right eye after playing wildly popular video game, Honor of Kings, all day long.

The woman, 21, who goes by the alias Wu Xiaojing, was playing Honor of Kings last week for a whole day when she lost vision in her right eye. After several hospital visits to figure out what happened, doctors diagnosed her with retinal artery occlusion, saying it was caused by severe eye strain.

According to South China Morning Post, Wu told local news outlets she played the game obsessively on her days off.

“On days when I have no work, I usually get up at 6am, eat breakfast and play until 4pm,” she said. “Then I’ll eat something, have a nap and play until 1am."

Retinal artery occlusion is a sudden blurriness of vision that is most often seen in older adults. It’s caused by a blockage in one of the small arteries in the retina, kind of like a stroke. While the blockage could be caused by staring at a tiny screen and not getting up for hours, as Wu did, there could also be an underlying medical issue.

Honor of Kings, also known of King of Glory or Arena of Valor is known to be a highly addictive game. It has more than 200 million active monthly players and one of the top grossing games worldwide.

In July 2017, the game’s publisher, Tencent, released guidelines restricting the use of the game for minors under 18, attempting to curb the addition. Players under 12 are restricted to 1 hour per day, players 12-18 are restricted to two hours.

Honor of Kings could be coming to the U.S. via Nintendo Switch.