“I play for quite a few hours, but quite a few,” says Marimar Cortizo, a 72-year-old retiree from Leganés. “I have finished the game four or five times, or more.” Bubble Shooter“It’s the game I like the most. It has more than three thousand levels,” Cortizo continues. Every time he finishes it, he asks a son or grandson to delete it and download it again to start over.
Cortizo’s fondness for video games is not surprising: more and more older people are using mobile phones and games are their favorite hobby. Of the 15 most used applications (measured in hours), 14 are games, according to data shared exclusively with EL PAÍS by GfK Dam, a company that has been measuring digital audiences on the Internet in Spain since 2022. The most used in April by those over 65 were Hay Day, Number Match, Sudoku, Candy Crush and Color by Number. The only one that is not a game is Facebook, ranked 13th.
“As soon as I got my mobile, I started playing. I saw my grandchildren playing, so I did too. I entertain myself, so I don’t have to think about it,” says Cortizo. He plays, above all, in the afternoons because in the morning he goes down to the bar to chat. The television is not the same anymore: “I have it on, but I don’t watch it,” he adds, explaining that he plays in front of the TV.
As with younger generations, television has lost ground as a main form of entertainment: “I play when I’m relaxing in the afternoon or watching television, if I’m not interested I play games,” says Ana María Blanco, 71 years old and from Tres Cantos (Madrid). She prefers solitaire and its variants, which she already played with cards: “I’ve always liked games, Parcheesi, Brisca, Tute.” She discovered that there was an app with 250 types of solitaire.
The digital divide is narrowing
This increase in the use of games goes hand in hand with another equally notable one: the reduction of the digital gap in those over 65 years of age. When mobile phones became popular a little over a decade ago, this generation made the leap en masse. Their entry was late and their growth was slower, but now it is inexorable. “People over 66 years of age did not surf the Internet eight years ago and they have gradually started to join. This is where the growth in Internet users has come from. For the first time we are measuring people over 75 up to more atypical values of 90 and something, because fortunately more and more are joining and using the Internet,” explains David Sánchez, director of Digital Solutions at GfK Dam.
“The percentage of older people who use mobile phones is increasing every year, the digital gap is closing,” says Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, a professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Although games dominate in terms of usage time, they are not the main application for older people, who, like all generations, use mobile phones primarily to communicate: “There are different types of users. Some are very limited, but others have intermediate and advanced skills. Obviously, games consume a lot because they are a pastime and when you have retired, if you do not have caring responsibilities, you have more free time and you may play, although in general the application that dominates is WhatsApp,” explains Fernández-Ardèvol.
The phenomenon is very deep, but not so widespread: the older people who play do it for many hours, but not all of them play. “Of my friends, with whom I go to pilates or catering, none of them play, they don’t have that hobby, but on the bus I do see older people who also play,” says Blanco. Paulino Moreno gives classes for older people with the Secot association and has witnessed the evolution. “It has advanced a lot. We have been doing this for seven years and yes, the profile has changed: from not knowing what a telephone is, to understanding all the manipulation of the device and knowing how to call, save a contact and browse the internet,” he says. But among the 2,000 older people that his group sees every year throughout Madrid, the games are not so widespread.
Social media and games tend to be the most used applications by Spaniards. In general, the podium in terms of time in Spain is WhatsApp, Candy Crush and Instagram, in which each Spaniard spends between 11 and 12 hours a month, according to GfK Dam. For older people, time is spent on games, although they are obviously not the same ones played by young people, who prefer Brawl Stars or Roblox. And older people who play tend to play a lot: “People over 65 who play are very hooked, they spend hours on average. Mobile game consumption reigns over computer games,” says Sánchez.
“I have created a folder with six games,” says Ana María Blanco. “The other day I thought about getting rid of Traffic Escape and getting another one, but I always have word search and solitaire,” she adds. Marimar Cortizo has Bubble Shooter, Toon Blast, Candy Crush and another one about animals. This mix of more traditional pastimes such as sudokus and crosswords on mobile phones or simple games with thousands of levels are the ones that dominate. Perhaps the most elaborate on the list is June’s Journey, which requires finding objects in spaces to solve mysteries. The rest, always according to time of use, are Apalabrados, Farm Heroes, Tile Club, Words of Wonders, Pet Rescue Saga, Coin Master and Mahjong Club.
The elderly use their mobile phone an average of 85 hours a month, almost three hours a day. As a generation, they are by far the ones who use it the least on average, but this figure is very uneven: “There are people who use it only occasionally, but what is significant is that if we analyse their average consumption, they only use it 15% less than the average Spaniard. These are not big differences. Not only is the number of newcomers growing a lot, but also their use,” summarises Sánchez, from GfK.
The current trend in Spain is that of parents who are concerned about their teenage children’s use of mobile phones. But there are also those who are concerned about the increasing use of mobile phones by their elders. Professor Fernández-Ardèvol believes that this needs to be put into context: “It is very good that they play. If an adult wastes time on Candy Crush, no one says anything, but if teenagers or older people do it, let’s see if it is bad or good. We need to approach this as we do with adults: what are the digital practices and how important are they,” she says.
Good with bank applications
Other interesting details emerge from GfK Dam’s data on over-65s. Banking apps are widespread: eight out of ten over-65s use them, almost as many as 10 over-65s. millennialswhich are nine out of 10. They do have a different use of information than young people: “They use the media more, there are 40% more people over 65 than generation Z or millennials visiting the media,” says Sánchez.
On the other hand, the common applications that seniors use the least are those of electronic commerce, social networks and services. streaming. On average, a young person from Generation Z uses YouTube, for example, twice as much as an adult. Facebook is exactly the opposite. In general, they are familiar with the networks, but they are not very interested in them, says Sánchez: “They are accessing them more and more, but on average, the time they spend on them is 40% less than the average Spaniard.”
TikTok is a good example of this distance: “It is the ninth most used application by generation Z and millennials and it brings together 60% of those two groups. However, it is the 33rd app for those over 65. More and more people are accessing it, but its use is very low. It is 80% less intensive than if you randomly choose any Spaniard,” adds Sánchez.
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