If your mom ever claimed that video games wouldn’t pay off, it’s time for a change, as two cities in North Carolina have been named among the best in the country for gamers.

Gaming has been a part of my life since I understood hand and eye coordination. From Atari (I’m not that old…am I? Nope I’m not) to the original Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Xbox 360 & Xbox 1, Playstation 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 plus a small amount of PC gaming, I believe I earned the right to call myself a gamer.

I frequented many old school games like Super Mario Bros, Excite Bike, Metal Gear Solid, Street Fighter (All of Them), Mortal Kombat (All of them), Final Fantasy (7 & up) etc to newer school games like God of War, Battlefield, Call of Duty, WWE 2k series (obviously), Last of Us, Mass Effect, too many to name.

Even though I’m not an online streamer, I can recognize how gaming has gained even more popularity. Gaming can take you away from reality to finally breathe and immerse yourself in a different adventure or story. Video games are one of the absolute best versions of story telling. Some of the greatest stories ever told have come in the form of video games. If you know you know.

That brings us to a new ranking from time2play.com, that says that two cities from right here in North Carolina are the best for gamers. The study looked into things like internet speeds, gaming stores, pizza costs and so much more to figure out the best places.

“To determine the best and worst cities for gamers, we examined a number of factors that are important to gamers,” the study said, in part about it’s methodology. “First, used Nomadlist to determine the average internet speed in each city. We then tallied the number of GameStop and Best Buy stores within 30 miles of the center of each city. Using Expensivity’s Pizza Index, we determined the average price of a pepperoni pizza in each city.”

It’s not much of a surprise that Raleigh ended up at the top of this list, but check out the top 10 here.