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‘Gamer Granny’ hits a new high score: 90-year-old sets Guinness World Record as oldest gaming YouTuber

By Adam Pockross
Gamer Grandma

While most nonagenarians are still calling their grandkids to help them send a text, Gamer Grandma is over here slaying Resident Evil 3. (OK, fine, we had some trouble sending a text earlier today, too.)

Meet Hamako Mori, better known to her 274,000-some-odd YouTube followers as Gamer Grandma. She just turned a youthful 90 in February, which, according to Guinness World Records, officially makes her the oldest gaming YouTuber.

To the delight of her many admirers, Mori puts out roughly four new videos a month, which show off her gameplay skills and unboxing joys. And while we can’t really understand much of what she’s saying, it doesn’t really matter, because Gamer Grandma had us at “konnichiwa” ...

Mori tells Guinness that she started playing video games 39 years ago, after witnessing kids around her having all the gaming fun.

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

So she started playing … a lot! To the point where now she’s averaging seven to eight hours a day — sometimes even going guns-a-blazing till 2 in the morning, per CNN, as she did during one powerhouse Dauntless session. (Which is even more impressive considering the last time we saw 2 a.m. it was during a once-a-century asteroid shower.)

As you’d expect, after 39 years of gaming, Mori has amassed quite a collection of old games and consoles, which you can gander a few glimpses of in Guinness’ touching profile below ...

Mori's first console was the “Cassette Vision,” which debuted in Japan in 1981. And while many of the games themselves have come and gone, you can see her light up when she pulls out her old Super Mario Brothers. “That’s a memorable game!”

These days, Gamer Grandma is more into action games on the PlayStation 4, particularly Grand Theft Auto V, because it has age restrictions, “so children can’t play it,” and because it’s “like watching a film.”

Thankfully, Mori isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, and is “truly enjoying” her life. She says she just wants to keep gaming and posting her videos because of all the nice comments (perhaps there’s another Guinness Record to be gleaned there?). And all those encouraging comments just make her want to keep making more and more videos.

Which takes us back to the reason Mori started uploading gaming videos in the first place. "It's such a waste if I'm the only one enjoying it."

Keep spreading that joy, Gamer Grandma, one zombie kill at a time. 

(via Guinness World Records)