Yi An, Jing An, Xin Lyu

Xin Lyu

April 29, 2025

In-game purchase, Player satisfaction, Game identification, Psychological ownership.

Player satisfaction with purchased virtual items plays a crucial role in fostering loyalty, generating positive word-of-mouth, and driving repurchase behaviour. However, this topic has received limited attention in existing literature. Drawing on Social Identity Theory and Psychological Ownership Theory, this study investigates how psychological bonds—both between players and games, and between players and virtual items—influence post-purchase satisfaction. Survey data from 502 players were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that both game identification and psychological ownership significantly enhance player satisfaction, and that virtual item type preference (functional vs. non-functional) significantly moderates these relationships. Moreover, game identification partially mediates the effect of psychological ownership on satisfaction. Overall, this research extends the gamer satisfaction literature by examining the role of psychological bonds in shaping post-purchase evaluations and identifying the boundary conditions under which they operate. It also confirms that social identity and psychological ownership meaningfully influence user satisfaction within digital and interactive media environments.

© 2025, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license