Is Cupid more active in video games than he is in real life these days? That’d be sad news to release on Valentine’s Day, but in China, it looks like it could be the case. Yesterday, Giant Interactive (NYSE:GA) released some very interesting statistics in a report about in-game marriages in its popular massively-multiplayer game Long Journey 2. Although it’s admittedly an unfair comparison — the game has only been around a few years — it turns out the in-game divorce rate is lower than the real divorce rate in most of China’s first-tier cities.
32.71 percent of marriages in Long Journey 2 end in divorce. That means Long Journey 2 players have a better chance of sticking with their ‘virtual’ spouse — a real person playing the game from a different location — than do actual married couples in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou (where divorce rates are close to 40 percent). Even more interestingly, the most faithful virtual spouses turn out to be from the post-90s generation, i.e., the youngest players. Female players were the most likely to get married in-game.
The data also revealed that in-game marriages didn’t show much correlation with gamers’ economic situations. Apparently it’s OK to marry a man who doesn’t own a house or a car as long as you’re just marrying him in a video game. Data also showed that most relationships — 86 percent — were between players from two different provinces.
Of course, it’s only data from one game, but Long Journey 2 is a popular game, and Giant pulled data from 22 server groups and over 6 million players to compile this report. Apparently in China, stable marriages still reside in the realm of fantasy — literally.
If you’re curious about what a Long Journey 2 marriage looks like, you can check out this video.
[Giant Interactive via Sina Tech]