Not Just for Kids: Gaming as a Way to Stay Connected

What research says about games, loneliness, and staying in touch

Loneliness is one of the most common — and most under-discussed — challenges of getting older, especially after retirement, after losing a spouse, or after moving away from family. It’s also one of the areas where video games turn out to be an unexpectedly useful tool, according to a growing number of researchers studying older adults specifically.

What the Research Found
A systematic review published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications examined 108 separate studies covering nearly 16,000 adults over age 60, looking specifically at how “serious games” (games designed with a health or social purpose in mind) affect older players. A 2020 U.S. survey cited in that same research found older adults were actually more likely than younger adults to play games daily or weekly — quietly pushing back on the assumption that gaming is a young person’s hobby.

Games played with others — whether a grandchild joining in from another city, or a regular match with a friend — give people a low-pressure, recurring reason to connect. Researchers call this “co-play,” and it shows up across the literature as one of the more consistent bright spots: shared game sessions correlate with better mood and stronger reported social ties.

An Honest Caveat
Not every study agrees on how big this effect really is. Some research finds only a modest link between gaming and reduced loneliness, and researchers are still working out which kinds of games, and how much social interaction within them, actually move the needle. The fair summary: gaming isn’t a guaranteed cure for loneliness, but for many older adults, it’s a genuinely useful piece of a bigger picture — alongside phone calls, visits, and community activities, not instead of them.

Try It Yourself: Every Golden Minds Arcade session shows your best scores right on the hub screen — a simple, natural thing to compare and talk about with a friend or family member who also plays, the same way people compare notes on a crossword or a round of cards.

Sources

• Nature — Use of serious games with older adults: systematic literature review (2023) — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02432-0
• PMC — The Role of Digital Gaming in Addressing Loneliness Among Older Adults: A Scoping Review — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12428625/
• JMIR Serious Games — Social Gaming to Decrease Loneliness in Older Adults (2024) — https://games.jmir.org/2024/1/e52640/
• ScienceDirect — The relationship between co-playing and socioemotional status among older-adult game players — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1875952121000112