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Almost seven in ten gamers over 50 don’t feel as though video games are “designed with them in mind,” according to a 2023 AARP Research study. This is despite the audience of older players being 52.4 million strong, with the study finding that 45% of people over 50 are gamers of some kind. While the majority of older players expectedly prefer playing games on mobile phones, about 28% play on gaming consoles and 19% consider themselves “enthusiasts” or “immersives” who look for strong storytelling and compelling gameplay in their games.
Older gamers feel like an afterthought to the games industry
As noted near the end of the AARP study, about 66% of older gamers say that games aren’t designed with any thought to their age group. They believe some games are at times “too complicated to understand” and that many “need tutorials to play effectively.”
They also think that they are not reflected in game marketing (69%) or within the games themselves (64%). Certain features like having a range of difficulty settings are important to them, and they are particularly annoyed with forced ads and push notifications in games.
Meanwhile, older gamers say that games have been beneficial to their lives, whether it’s helping them to relax or stay mentally sharp. As such, their top preferred genres are puzzle and logic games, card and tile games, and word games. Overall, they view gaming as “an important aspect of healthy aging.”