Balanced Play › Limit game time across all devices
How to limit game time across all your kid's devices
Setting a limit on the Switch, then the PlayStation, then the phone doesn't add up to a limit — it adds up. Here's why per-device controls quietly fail, and how one pooled budget fixes it.
If you've set screen-time limits on every device in the house and your kid still games for hours, you're not doing it wrong. The tools are. Almost every parental control — including the free ones built into the Switch, Xbox, PlayStation and iPhone — counts each device separately. So the moment one runs out, there's always another to pick up.
The math nobody tells you: a 1-hour limit can mean 6 hours
Say you set a sensible one hour of gaming per day. Now count the devices a typical kid can reach:
- 1 hour on the Nintendo Switch
- 1 hour on the PlayStation
- 1 hour on Steam on the PC
- 1 hour of Roblox on the PC
- 1 hour on the phone
That's a "one-hour limit" that legitimately allows five hours of gaming — and you approved every minute of it. Add a sibling's device or a friend's console and it climbs higher. This isn't a loophole your kid discovered; it's how the controls are designed to work.
Microsoft says so in its own documentation: "each device tracks their allowances separately… a child who is limited to 1 hour, but can sign into 2 PCs, could use each for 1 hour, for a total of 2 hours of usage that day."
Why the free, built-in controls can't fix this
Every platform ships a free parental control — and every one of them is walled inside its own ecosystem:
| Tool | Pools time across… | Reaches rival platforms? |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Screen Time | Apple devices only | No |
| Google Family Link | Often per-device, not even pooled | No |
| Microsoft Family Safety | Xbox + Windows + Android | No Switch / PS / iOS |
| Nintendo / PlayStation controls | Their own console only | No |
| Balanced Play | Switch, Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Windows PC — together | Yes — one shared budget |
Microsoft's is the closest of the free tools, and it still stops at the edge of Microsoft's own hardware. None of them can give you a single number that covers a Switch and a PlayStation and a phone — because they can't see each other.
The fix: one pooled daily budget across every device
Instead of five separate timers, you set one. Balanced Play links each platform your kids play on and totals their play across all of them every few minutes. When the shared budget is spent, every linked screen locks together — so there's no other device to switch to.
- Connect the accounts. Link the platforms your kids use. You log in to each; Balanced Play rides on its own parental controls and never stores your passwords.
- Set one daily budget. Pick a number of minutes and a bedtime window. That's the whole rulebook.
- It keeps the balance. Play on any device drains the same pool. When it hits zero, everything locks — and it's account-bound, so it holds on a phone hotspot or at a friend's house.
One budget. Every screen.
Balanced Play is launching this year. Drop your email and we'll bring you in early.
One pooled budget across the Switch, Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Windows PC. No card, no spam.
Frequently asked
Does screen time count across all devices?
Not with Apple, Google or the console controls — each tracks its own time and nothing pools across brands. That's exactly the gap Balanced Play fills: one daily total across every device your child plays on.
How do I set one screen-time limit for all devices?
Link each platform, set a single daily number of minutes, and Balanced Play totals play across the Switch, Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Windows PC — locking every screen when the shared budget is spent.
Why do per-device game-time limits fail?
Because each device counts on its own, so a one-hour limit across three devices is three hours — and kids just hop to the next device when one runs out. A pooled budget removes the other device to switch to.