Eli5: Why do charged electronics (Game controllers, eReaders,) lose their charge when they’re not being used?
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Two things factor into this. All batteries have what’s called a self discharge rate, which is where energy is lost over time because even when not being used the chemical reaction that makes power is still slowly happening. How fast this happens depends on what chemistry the battery uses.
The other (larger) factor for electronics is that even when they are “off” they are still running a program to watch things like power button presses. Running this program uses power and slowly drains the battery.
Edit: 3rd factor I forgot about for some battery types (li-ion and similar) they have built in battery management system electronics (BMS). These use a small amount of power and monitor the health of the battery, making sure it is not discharged too low or charged too high.
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