How Old is Too Old to Play Video Games?

Although they started as children’s toys, video games today are serious business. Half of the ten highest-grossing media launches in the last decade are video games, and the games industry generated $180 billion in revenue in 2021. That figure is even more shocking in the wider context of the entertainment industry—it’s larger than the revenue from movies and music combined.

Video games are serious art, too (we’ll forgive you if you scoff). In the half century since Pong machines first ate up kids’ allowances, we’ve seen video games blossom into a uniquely experiential medium for narrative experiences. Big-name studios use massive budgets to adapt the spectacle and cinema of Hollywood into their products, creating visceral and immersive titles that rival any Tinseltown blockbuster. Meanwhile, the thriving indie scene is constantly tinkering with space, color, and interactiveness in new and exciting ways, allowing gamers to step into the boots of a blind adventurer or experience the grief of a mourning father who’s lost a child.

Yet, despite being both a commercially lucrative and culturally meritorious art form (BAFTA seems to think so, anyway), many still consider gaming a hobby that you eventually grow out of. To them, gaming is a pastime that’s only for kids.

As you’ll read below, game user research and the subject matter of modern games prove that’s far from the truth. Still, cultural inertia has kept relevant the old notions of games as child play and gamers as socially stunted, even as these ideas have grown increasingly misrepresentative of modern games and the people that play them.

Shattering stereotypes—a profile of the modern gamer

The idea that video games are for kids isn’t entirely wrong. 51 million kids play games in the US alone, making up a big portion of the American video game market. Naturally with a segment that large, many developers produce games that specifically cater to adolescents. Yet, adolescents don’t even make up a quarter of the whole video games market in the US—the majority of gamers are adults.

The average gamer is 35 years old, and that number’s been trending upwards for decades. A big reason for this is that the kids who grew up playing Mario and Sonic have continued to game into adulthood. Now that they have their own jobs and disposable income, they’re spending it on personal hobbies like video games.

The media likes to portray gaming as a niche pastime, but the data disagrees. About 65% of adults in the US regularly play video games. For comparison, only about 35% of US adults claim to watch movies several times per week.

The socially inactive gamer stereotype is a myth that has been thoroughly debunked. Many of the most popular video games are extremely social experiences by design, encouraging teamwork, coordination, and group interaction. Gamers seek out other human players. One study of 912 players found that gamers preferred to play with others, whether friends or family, and about three in every four gamers made good friends through video games.

Both men and women play video games, as shown in a study by Statista, which found that 45% of gamers in America are women. That ratio holds true even when we pull back the lens and look at global figures. Video games have universal appeal, especially as the advent of smartphones has made them more accessible than ever.

Gamer parents

With so many adults playing video games, it stands to reason that many of them are parents, too.

For gamer parents, video games serve as a way to maintain relationships and interact with other adults. They also use video games to cope with the stresses of parenthood, jumping into a quick round with their friends after a day of taking care of the kids.

There are benefits for the kids of gamer parents, too. A recent survey found that nearly every American kid plays video games. An Iowa State study revealed that parents who kids who game with their parents generally have more balanced relationships with their siblings and parents than those who don’t.

Of course, directly attributing these positives to playing video games is disingenuous. Improved family relationships naturally result from healthy parenting styles, and parents who express an interest in their kids’ hobbies tend not to use authoritative parenting styles, which are known to cause tension and conflict in the family. About 77% of gamer parents play video games with their kids. After all, it’s much easier to engage with your kid’s hobby when you enjoy it, too.

While parents who game generally encourage their kids’ gaming hobbies, they’re also much more aware of the dangers of excessive play. A study in Norway found that parents with gaming-related expertise were more able to set healthy limits on their kids’ play.

Gaming over 50

The 55—64 age group is currently the fastest-growing segment in video games. Affectionately dubbed OAGs (old age gamers), this sub-group of older adults is using video games to bridge the technology rift between themselves and the more digital-savvy youth. In the process, they’re discovering games to be a lasting source of joy and mental stimulation. Many continue to game outside of the context of interacting with the younger generations.

The positive effects of video games for older people are well-documented, and they extend beyond a bit of fun and being able to better relate to their kids and grandkids. One paper dating all the way back to 1986 showed how video games might be used to improve perceptual motor skills and boost cognitive functions in the elderly. A more recent study showed how games can help older individuals maintain independent living and improve hand-eye coordination.

So, how old is too old?

Cultural theorist Johan Huizinga wrote in Homo Ludens, his seminal work on the importance of play in human culture: “All play means something.”

So long as gaming makes you happy and you can manage your play within healthy limits, it doesn’t matter if you’re a college student honing your shooting skills in Fortnite, a parent grinding bells in Animal Crossing, or an adventurous septuagenarian diving headfirst into the skeleton-infested dungeons of Skyrim, you’re never too old to play video games.