Millennial vs Gen Z Gaming

S

SNG32

Member
Do you think these generations are highly different in tastes?

I noticed gen Z like to play more online games than single player such as Fortnite, GTA Online, Roblox etc. I find that you will probably have more hardcore gamers with Millennials that will play Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Armored Core basically more single player games.
 
Last edited:
I think the biggest difference, is that newer generations have much greater tolerance for micro-transactions, loot boxes and games as a service.
Probably because they rarely saw games being sold as games.
 
Idk, but anecdotally most of my Gen Z friends are PC gamers (they don't really have interest in getting a current-gen console) and like to play MMOs (FF14, WoW, Palia, etc.) or Live Service titles (Apex Legends, Fortnite, Genshin, Star Rail).
 
winjer said:
I think the biggest difference, is that newer generations have much greater tolerance for micro-transactions, loot boxes and games as a service.
Probably because they rarely saw games being sold as games.
Click to expand...
Interesting which I think this aspect is making gaming less enticing for the older generations like Millennials, Generation X and some boomers.
 
SNG32 said:
Do you think these generations are highly different in tastes?

I noticed gen Z like to play more online games than single player such as Fortnite, GTA Online, Roblox etc. I find that you will probably have more hardcore gamers with Millennials that will play Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Armored Core basically more single player games.
Click to expand...
How do you define 'hardcore gamers'? Because the person who spends hundreds of dollars a year on Candy Crush or Marge Manor or whatever the newest mobile craze is, is most likely GenX or older.
 
I'm not sure about tastes. I think it's easy to blame gen z on being susceptible to predatory monetary systems in games, but gen z is poor and millennials actually have money to spend in order to eat shit.

What I do know is that younger kids are growing up not knowing how to use a controller.

 
Loomy said:
How do you define 'hardcore gamers'? Because the person who spends hundreds of dollars a year on Candy Crush or Marge Manor or whatever the newest mobile craze is, is most likely GenX or older.
Click to expand...
I look at hardcore gamers as gamers that know the gaming industry news they know all the exclusives coming out and own every current gen gaming console and PC.
 
Last edited:
SNG32 said:
I look at hardcore gamers as gamers that know the gaming industry news they know all the exclusives coming out and own every current gen gaming console and PC.
Click to expand...
First Half GIF
 
As I an older milennial, I tend to shift more towards online multiplayer and GaaS done right, like Helldivers 2.
But I also need my healthy dose of singleplayer games.

Besides, milennials are the transitional generation that grew up with the shift to the digital-era and internet, so there's a large part that overlaps with Gen Z.

But that's why milennials are called milennials.
 
First of all gen z are sort of pussies. They come along and suddenly all men are wearing leggings. I'm sure yoga pants for men are next. I feel like Pete Wentz started it.

Also, suddenly men are supposed to have feelings and it's more than OK to cry. Meanwhile women are wondering why guys aren't hitting on them anymore.

Anywho they wouldn't know good gaming if it smacked them in the face.
 
Us Millennials remember fondly a time where "Games As A Service" and microtransactions weren't a thing. I think we value a good story and a complete package more than the Zs.
 
Just a random guess but I wouldn't be suirprised if they are quite split.
The older Gen Z people (born in 97-99) still grew up with "traditional" games and no smartphones so they might be closer to millennials in their taste, while the younger ones are the generation that grew up with phones, tablets and GAAS
 
winjer said:
I think the biggest difference, is that newer generations have much greater tolerance for micro-transactions, loot boxes and games as a service.
Probably because they rarely saw games being sold as games.
Click to expand...

Which makes sense considering we know 1 in 5 of Gen Z likes to take it in the ass.
 
Last edited:
Gen Z and younger are very, VERY in on GAAS games.

Things like Roblox and Fortnite are games that they all play and they barely look at anything else let alone play it.
 
Mister Wolf said:
Us Millennials remember fondly a time where "Games As A Service" and microtransactions weren't a thing. I think we value a good story and a complete package more than the Zs.
Click to expand...

True. On the flip side gen Z cares more about gameplay and fun rather than a game being cinematic. Escape Fom Tarkov, Warzone, Palworld, Apex Legends, Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, are all about gameplay.

These are broad generalizations of course. There are plenty of millennials who play Fortnite and plenty of zoomers who like a heavily story driven game, but thats what I have noticed.
 
Rentahamster said:
I'm not sure about tastes. I think it's easy to blame gen z on being susceptible to predatory monetary systems in games, but gen z is poor and millennials actually have money to spend in order to eat shit.
Click to expand...
Millennials do have the money and they are spending it on $2000 copies of shitty plastic wrapped SNES games and any retro catnip that companies can fleece them on. Once the millennials are done buying retro games the market is going to go to absolute zero because nobody else will want to buy old physical games (because nobody else alive would have ever even played or seen a physical game).

Also that guy has the voice of Howard Stern and actually knows how to speak and enunciate like someone on radio should, is he a streamer or one of the devs?
 
Last edited:
Thick Thighs Save Lives said:
Idk, but anecdotally most of my Gen Z friends are PC gamers (they don't really have interest in getting a current-gen console) and like to play MMOs (FF14, WoW, Palia, etc.) or Live Service titles (Apex Legends, Fortnite, Genshin, Star Rail).
Click to expand...
This my experience as well.

Most play on PC and it's because of streaming. Twitch and Youtube influenced a lot of their choices. Most originally had consoles but wanted to "be better at the game" and moved to PC. Now nobody I know that young play any MMOs, but it's all live service games like Fortnite, Apex, and now Dead by Daylight for some reason. There are a few that just barely are in the age range that have more varied taste because they grew up on games before the switch to these types of games and the rise of twitch.

The majority of millennials I'm friends with are mostly console players with a few having a PC. One of them basically solely plays WoW.

Gamerguy84 said:
First of all gen z are sort of pussies. They come along and suddenly all men are wearing leggings. I'm sure yoga pants for men are next. I feel like Pete Wentz started it.

Also, suddenly men are supposed to have feelings and it's more than OK to cry. Meanwhile women are wondering why guys aren't hitting on them anymore.

Anywho they wouldn't know good gaming if it smacked them in the face.
Click to expand...
What? lol

The only time Pete Wentz would have been popular was during the mid to late 2000s and the vast majority of people that would have been part of that scene are millennial.
 
Gen Z understands what fun is better than millenials.

Millenials grew up in an era of one type of game. Gen Z grew up in an era of competition therefore they understand the medium better. Unfortunately, many old people have hearts that have become hardened against creativity, fun, and innovation.

Thank God for Gen Z in gaming.
 
Men_in_Boxes said:
Gen Z understands what fun is better than millenials.

Millenials grew up in an era of one type of game. Gen Z grew up in an era of competition therefore they understand the medium better. Unfortunately, many old people have hearts that have become hardened against creativity, fun, and innovation.

Thank God for Gen Z in gaming.
Click to expand...
Found the Zoomer.
 
DryvBy said:
I'm an old geezer now and I was enjoying it with my kid. Almost threw up looking at. The store. $44 for a costume?! Back in my day, costumes and maps were free and we got them from Fileplanet.
Click to expand...

Back in your days, maps were focussed around movement and nothing else. Decorative elements were few and design level design wasn't miles away from what games have today. Character models were so low in poly that even a kid had an easy job to create them. I know because I did both as kid, model maps and character models just for fun.

Sure, today's tools also offer a lot. But games are closed platforms, modding was replaced by cheat protection and multiplayer games are dominated by mobile devices and consoles. Gaming has become a multi billion mass medium.Logically, such a market attracts new commercialization methods.

Regarding the input: more natural interaction options such as "touch" have logically changed the nature of the medium. Some people just like to live in their past gaming is evolving since the first game and will continue to adapt. My children can use everything, keyboard and mouse, controller, touch. Why? Because they are tools and interaction methods that can be learned, I leave it up to them how they prefer to play. Some people forgot that there was a hugely successful console called Wii, which became a blockbuster through more natural interaction with the medium.

Let's get over the fact that the "grown gamers" are just a loud minority who live with the illusion of having the sovereignty of interpretation over what "real gaming" is.
 
Men_in_Boxes said:
Gen Z understands what fun is better than millenials.

Millenials grew up in an era of one type of game. Gen Z grew up in an era of competition therefore they understand the medium better. Unfortunately, many old people have hearts that have become hardened against creativity, fun, and innovation.

Thank God for Gen Z in gaming.
Click to expand...
Cracking Up Lol GIF by HULU
 
Honestly, I don't think tastes are as different as you're suggesting. Yes, millennials liked a lot of the single player stuff, but the equivalent of the current crop of stuff you'd mentioned would be Halo, Everquest, Guild Wars, WOW, Counter-Strike, UT. The newer popular stuff is arguably less skill-based, but I don't think it's worlds apart from what people were into 20 years ago.
 
Millennials are an intelligent breed that purchase things like PCs, Steam Decks, PS5s.

Gen Z get gifted a series S from their mom to play Elden Ring on and think it looks amazing and runs great.

They are a special breed of retarded.
 
Gamerguy84 said:
First of all gen z are sort of pussies. They come along and suddenly all men are wearing leggings. I'm sure yoga pants for men are next. I feel like Pete Wentz started it.

Also, suddenly men are supposed to have feelings and it's more than OK to cry. Meanwhile women are wondering why guys aren't hitting on them anymore.

Anywho they wouldn't know good gaming if it smacked them in the face.
Click to expand...
If we break it down, Boomers, Gen X, and Millenials, are all pussies. The Boomers/Gen X are the weak men and women creating hard times, and who do you think made guys weary of asking women out these days? #Metoo and the like didn't start with Gen Z, it started with Gen X and late millenial women trying to exploit the idea to push their careers. Nobody fought back against the self-destruction put in motion by the "Greatest Generation" after WWII and now it is spiraling out of control.

Gen Z has some shit taste in games, but I think at the center of it they want more gameplay-driven experiences vs the cinematic slop that a lot of millenials want because they have been convinced that games from the past that were more experimental and gameplay-driven are immature and embarrassing to like.
 
Last edited:
It's just the sign of the times. They don't eat, dress, talk, listen to the same type of music either. This is life.
 
SNG32 said:
Do you think these generations are highly different in tastes?

I noticed gen Z like to play more online games than single player such as Fortnite, GTA Online, Roblox etc. I find that you will probably have more hardcore gamers with Millennials that will play Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Armored Core basically more single player games.
Click to expand...
Well, there were plenty of multiplayer online games before that, so it's not a brand new development. When I was younger I only played cs, halo and unreal tournament. Now I almost only play story games.
 
Last edited:
Gen Z don't give a fuck about resolutions, framerates and sales figures, which is why they're all playing shit like ROBLOX on their phones.

Most of the trashy discourse around video games online is made up of 40 year old men.

How many Gen Z are here? I'd wager not many.
 
Little Chicken said:
Gen Z don't give a fuck about resolutions, framerates and sales figures, which is why they're all playing shit like ROBLOX on their phones.

Most of the trashy discourse around video games online is made up of 40 year old men.

How many Gen Z are here? I'd wager not many.
Click to expand...
They're all on Era. You guys ran them out.
 
Last edited:
My nephews have played Fortnite for years and continue to play it to this day. I believe it's the "social" element of playing with friends and having shared experiences in the game that keeps them coming back. I totally get that, I just prefer totally different kind of gameplay loops and actually finishing the story of a campaign.

I have bought them Crash N. Sane Trilogy, Spyro Reignited, Immortals Phoenix Rising, etc. for birthdays/christmas and they MIGHT play those games twice until they forget and move back to Fortnite
 
a multicultural team of v said:
Millennials do have the money and they are spending it on $2000 copies of shitty plastic wrapped SNES games and any retro catnip that companies can fleece them on. Once the millennials are done buying retro games the market is going to go to absolute zero because nobody else will want to buy old physical games (because nobody else alive would have ever even played or seen a physical game).

Also that guy has the voice of Howard Stern and actually knows how to speak and enunciate like someone on radio should, is he a streamer or one of the devs?
Click to expand...
Streamer. Developer. Used to work at Blizzard.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Locked
Gen Z is cutting back on Video Game purchases.
3 4 5 6 7
311
3K
Heimdall_Xtreme replied
Will AI be able to save us from millennial/gen Z writing ?
34
2K
Topher replied
How Gen Z and Gen Alpha Are Changing the Way We Game
Social Opinion Cringe  2
80
2K
Kataploom replied
  • Poll
SSD comparison for gaming in 2025: PCIe 5.0 vs 4.0 vs 3.0 vs SATA vs HDD
27
3K
Corporal.Hicks replied
Gaming Handheld PC vs. Gaming Laptop?
13
2K
Boss Mog replied
Top Bottom