There has been a 62 per cent increase in video gaming among people aged 60 or over in the last year, with one in five admitting to playing video games regularly.

So says research from discount voucher code website, www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk which surveyed 2,310 people and found that nearly half the over 60s gamers play more than three times a week – a quarter playing a video game of some kind every day. Brain training games are the most popular and a third prefer the Nintendo DS console.

The least popular video games console was the PlayStation 3, as 87 per cent deemed it too expensive. The Nintendo Wii was the second most popular with nearly a quarter preferring to use it, compared with 16 per cent who liked the Xbox 360.

There seemed to be little correlation between gender and older gamers, with 17 per cent of men aged 60 years or over admitting to playing video games regularly, compared to 19 per cent of women.

The top ten games, based on the percentage of over 60s who had played the titles, were:

1. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (28%)
2. Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box (27%)
   
3. Wii Sports (26%)
   
4. Mario Kart (24%)
   
5. Wii Sports Resort (22%)
   
6. Animal Crossing (21%)
   
7. Tiger Woods (19%)
   
8. The Sims (18%)
   
9. Fifa 2010 (13%)
   
10. Legend of Zelda (11%)

Mark Pearson, MD of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk said: “Although playing video games is typically seen as a pasttime of the youth, Nintendo seem to have done a lot of marketing to raise awareness among older generations, which correlates well with the fact that older gamers seemed to prefer the DSi and Wii to the more powerful next gen consoles.”

He added: “Twenty years ago, we had games like Sonic and Mario bursting onto the scene, when these gamers would have been middle-aged. I, at 29, can see myself gaming into my 40s and beyond, so can’t see a reason why now, at a time when gaming is becoming a legitimate hobby for people of all ages, older gamers should be missing out. Thankfully, developers are starting to see these Grandgamers as a potential market, so they should become better catered for – not everybody wants to blast Americans playing Call of Duty online!”