90-Year-Old Grandma Is the World's Oldest YouTube Gamer

Robin Zlotnick - Author
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PUBLISHED May 19 2020, 11:13 a.m. ET

UPDATED May 19 2020, 11:13 a.m. ET

Hamako Mori has broken a world record. She is officially the World's Oldest YouTube Gamer. On YouTube, she goes by Gamer Grandma, and she has 260,000 subscribers. Her videos regularly have hundreds of thousands of views. Oh yeah, and she's 90 years old.

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In an interview with Guinness World Records, she says she's been playing videos for 39 years now, since 1981. She particularly enjoys action games like GTA5, one of her favorites. Yes, Hamako Mori is officially our new favorite person. 

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"When you start playing, you can't stop," she told Guinness World Records. "It feels as if you are watching a film." As for how Hamako got into gaming, well, she was just kind of jealous of the kids around her who got to play.

"Children around me played games, and I thought it looked fun," she said. "It seemed a waste that only children got to have fun playing these games."

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She says that when she started out, she wasn't very good at all, and while it's fun to play, it's still tough to fail. But she knows that's part of it. When she is able to finish a game smoothly, that feels really good.

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Hamako is really serious about gaming. She has a huge collection of old games that she's been collecting for years. "I have countless numbers of old games," she says. "I can't remember a lot of these games."

Hamako says video games are still a huge part of her daily life. She doesn't play for as long as she used to, but she still plays for about seven or eight hours a day! You go, grandma! When you love something that much, the time passes easily. 

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"I think getting more seniors to play video games in this country is impossible," she told Guinness World Records. She lives in Japan, though she believes it wouldn't be easy to get seniors anywhere to commit to the gamer lifestyle. That won't stop her, though.

"After living for this long, I feel more than ever that playing video games for this long was the right choice," she said in a media release. "I am truly enjoying my life — it's rosy."

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Even though she's now a world record holder, Hamako's plans aren't changing. She maintains her YouTube channel and posts about four videos a month, according to CNN. In her videos, she'll often broadcast herself playing a game, but she also does unboxing videos and more. 

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Thirty-nine years ago, Hamako started playing video games in secret, while no one was watching. Now, people all over the world tune in regularly to see her smash those buttons. 

On May 13, Hamako posted a video to her channel to share her new world record and to thank her fans for helping her get there. But I have a feeling Hamako's star is only getting brighter. You see, people all over the world commented their congratulations in different languages. And that video has nearly two million views. 

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