Yes, it’s perfectly normal for adults to play video games! In fact, a lot of video games were designed to be played by adults.
There’s this common misconception that video games are childish and are meant to be consumed by children and children only. But that’s incorrect, many video games are actually made to be played by grown adults. Games like World of Warcraft, The Last of Us, Ghosts of Tsushima, and many more.
When people hear “video games”, they immediately think of games like Super Mario, Animal Crossing, or Minecraft and since they associate those video games with kids, they think the activity is something only children should do.
Don’t get me wrong, the games I mentioned are okay to play as adults too! But society has programmed our brains to believe that anything bright, colorful, and fun is meant only for kids when that’s further from the case.
Video games can be a great distraction from the problems of everyday life, and even if there was no problem, video games are just a great and fun way to relax. We don’t always have to be constantly stressed and productive, sometimes all we gotta do is pick up our console and tend to our farm in Stardew Valley.
Wanna know more about how video games can be a healthy part of adult life? Keep reading!
What Type of Video Games Should Adults Play?
Adults can play any type of video game depending on their taste and what they want to do.
If you’re looking for something casual to play, you can play games like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, or Spiritfarer. If you want something more violent, games like God of War, Mortal Kombat, and Call of Duty might be up your alley.
If you wanna play with friends, you can try co-op games like It Takes Two, Overcooked, and Cuphead. Basically any playable game, as long as it matches your taste, you can play. As they say, there’s no age limit to fun.
Playing games is a great way to relax after a long hard day of work, it doesn’t matter what you play.
Video games have actually been seen to be an effective form of therapy. A study published in SAGE journals has shown that prescribing patients casual video games to play along with giving them SSRI prescriptions actually helps in reducing anxiety.
How Many Adults Play Video Games?
According to DataProt and Statista, there are over 3 billion gamers all over the world with the average age of a gamer being 35 years old. In America, more than 214 million Americans play video with 38% of them being between the age of 18 and 34 years old.
Playing video games well into adulthood is more common than you think. In fact, a lot of adults all over the world not only have video games as their hobby but also as their career.
Here’s a table of data taken from Statista of the top countries with the most eSports player:
| Country | No. Of Players |
| United States | 3,731 |
| China | 1,710 |
| Brazil | 1,380 |
| Republic of Korea | 1,041 |
| France | 1,020 |
| Germany | 966 |
| United | 888 |
With winnings going up to about 200 million dollars. Besides eSports, people also make a living off of video games by playing them and streaming them on the popular streaming platform known as Twitch.
But even without the intention to make money off of playing video games, playing games for no reason other than to play is still a common thing for adults. According to USA Today, a study recently found that more adults actually play video games than children.
So there’s no need to feel embarrassed or weird over the fact that you’re an adult playing video games. It’s perfectly normal and many adults do it.
Can Gaming Affect Your Health?
Yes, gaming can affect your health if you do too much of it. As with almost anything, excessive gaming can be detrimental to both your physical and mental health.
Video games have been linked to:
- Obesity
- Poor sleep or insomnia
- Behavioral problems, including impulsive actions
- Loss of social skills
- Violence
- Less time for play
- Eye strain
- Neck and back problems
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Difficulties with work or school
It’s important to note that these health issues arise with too much screen time as a result of video game addiction and not actually a direct result of playing video games itself. If you pace yourself and moderate how much you spend on your screen playing games, you likely won’t face any issues.
Another thing to note is that most of these health issues are not solely caused just by playing video games alone.
For instance, if you are a physically active gamer, you probably won’t end up obese. Likewise, if you’re conscious about your posture all the while gaming, you probably won’t face neck and back problems.
That said, video game addiction, just like any addiction, is a difficult hurdle to get through and can often lead to unhealthy lifestyles even if you were a healthy person before. The best thing to do is to limit how much time you play video games and keep yourself active.
Wanna know why people get hooked on video games? Have a look at our other article here!
At What Age Should I Stop Playing Video Games?
There’s no set age for when you should stop playing video games. You can play it for as long as you want to!
There’s this weird belief around playing video games where the older you get, the less you should be playing video games. That shouldn’t be the case at all. Video games are fun no matter what age you’re at, it’s just like any other hobby.
It doesn’t make sense to abandon something you love and enjoy simply because you’ve reached a certain age in your life. You can be well into your sixties and still play Mario Kart and that would be fine.
In fact, there is an 87-year-old grandmother who’s popular for playing video games. She goes by the username Skyrim Grandma but her actual name is Shirley Curry.
If you wanna learn more about her, have a look at this short documentary about her:
Are There Any Benefits to Playing Video Games?
Yes, there are many benefits to playing video games. When done moderately, playing video games can improve certain aspects of yourself such as:
- Improved cognitive abilities
- Increased hand-to-eye coordination
- Greater multi-tasking ability
- Increase response time
- Stimulate creativity
Improved cognitive abilities
Many video games require players to think and use their cognitive skills to make quick decisions and apply smart strategies. Studies have shown that playing video games can actually improve cognitive function.
A study with around 2,000 students shows that kids who played video games for up to three hours a day have shown better cognitive skills than kids who didn’t.
Better hand-to-eye coordination
Games such as Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed have been found to improve hand-to-eye coordination.
A study at the University of Toronto discovered that gamers had better sensorimotor skills than those who weren’t into playing video games. This can be useful outside of the gaming world as many tasks require keen hand-to-eye coordination.
Greater multi-tasking ability
Gamers can also become quite adept at multi-tasking as many video games require players to focus on more than one thing at a time.
An article from NPR has discussed how gamers are a lot quicker to take and focus on a new task while simultaneously doing another than non-gamers. An article from Scientific American discusses this benefit as well.
Increase response time
Gaming requires players to be quick to react to attacks and defend themselves. This leads to an increase in response time among gamers.
A study done on gamers and non-gamers show that those who frequently played video games had a quicker response time than those who didn’t.
Stimulate creativity
Games can also stimulate creativity! When people think of games, they think of blood and violence. But there are many games out there that encourage players to be creative. Some even reward those players for their creativity.
A Michigan State University study found that video game playing is actually tied to creativity, whether the game being played is violent or non-violent.
Conclusion
- It’s totally normal for adults to play video games. It’s just like any other hobby.
- There’s a variety of video games in different genres. Adults can play whatever game they want.
- There are over 3 billion gamers all over the world and over 200 million in the U.S. The average age of a gamer is 35 years old.
- Excessive gaming can have negative effects on a person’s mental and physical health but it can also have positive effects if done moderately.
- There’s no set age for when you should stop playing video games. Anyone can play video games for as long as they like.