Youtube: “Seniors playing” – grandma and grandpa tech-savvy, like their grandchildren

Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption and GTA are only for the younger generation? Absolutely not! On YouTube, twelve pensioners from “Senioren zocken” prove just the opposite!

“Grand Theft Auto, what is that? For me, that’s game number 1 and not number 5” , “Hm, but he looks cute, I’d like to have him at home too” or “Okay, good, we’re in the car!” – That’s what it sounds like when Rita, Uschi and Evelyn play GTA 5 for the first time in their lives. Mind you, without knowing what it even is or how the game works. Evelyn is now almost 90 years old, and Uschi and Rita are also in this age group.

Together with nine other seniors, the three older ladies run the YouTube channel “Senioren zocken.” More than 500,000 subscribers now follow the games played by the seniors, who are affectionately known as “granny gamers,” every month.

It all started about four years ago. At that time, senior citizen Evelyn Gundlach (85 at the time), who was already experienced with cameras, was approached by two friends and asked if she would like to try out a few video games in front of the camera. After some time of preparation, the concept of the gambling seniors was finally in place and the original starting team of four ladies was also assembled. And so, on January 19, 2016, the first video of the newly founded channel finally went online: A GTA video

Their clips are never longer than 12 minutes. Even with about one post per week, they publish relatively little. Nevertheless, their videos have up to 1.2 million views. This could also be due to the fact that the twelve seniors are quite entertaining.

Whether it’s Playstation, Nintendo Switch, X-Box or on the PC. The seniors muddle their way through every game world, and their comments are often unintentionally funny, making young gamers in particular laugh.

Award for “Seniors playing” 2018

In 2018, the crowning glory of their unexpected YouTube career came: “Senioren zocken” won the top prize in the “Best of Let’s Play and Gaming” category of the Golden Camera Digital Award. Since then, the “Granny Gamer” don’t let their award out of their sight, no matter where they are, the award is with them!

It also happens more and more often that the pensioners are recognized on the streets and whole school classes want to take a selfie with them. A rather unusual situation for our old hands, who are in no way deterred by modern technology!

The channel has become a nice hobby for the twelve seniors, with which they appear so charmingly in public that one almost believes they have never done anything else. The rather atypical success story in the viral age has even attracted so much attention that YouTube Germany invited the group of pensioners to its 2018 annual review. There, the hearty pensioners are true exotics between Bibi’s Beautypalace, rapper Olexesh, influencer Diana zu Löwen and YouTube veteran LeFloid.

The production

When the group of retirees meets to shoot a new video for YouTube, it’s an exciting action every time. None of the twelve seniors knows what game they will play. Each time it’s a new game or a new version of a familiar old game. This means that the pensioners have to work their way through the controls each time, and perhaps that’s why their comments are sometimes so exasperating.

Unlike some other Let’s players, the pensioners have no time to practice before they record the video. They always film the first attempt and then publish it. Only at home with the grandchildren can they then work on it and become real professionals!

The channel of the “Granny Gamer” is becoming more and more popular, meanwhile they also not only gamble, but react to other gamers, like Paluten, and amuse themselves with him about his really bad driving style. 

So: Gaming is not only something for the young generation, but also for our grandparents! Enthusiastic about technology and with humor, our “Granny Gamers” are conquering the German gamer scene on YouTube and have long since gambled their way into our hearts!