Using Demographic Migration Theory to Explore Why People Switch Between Online Games

Online gaming has become a popular leisure-time activity in resent years. In this study, we adopted the push-pull-mooring model, which analyzes human migration behavior based on the demographic migration theory, to explain why players switch from an existing game to a new one. An empirical survey was conducted to collect data from 574 online gamers and then this data was analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that the push-pull-mooring model can be extended to explain the switching intentions of online game players. It appears that the "mooring effects" have a stronger influence on players' switching intentions than "pull effects", while "push effects" have no influence. Finally, this article discusses the implications of our findings and offer possible avenues for management at online game providers to understand their customers better.