The latest technology adoption statistics show that older adults love their tablets. As a matter of fact, iPads are one of the favorite gadgets of the elderly because of their large screens, ease of use, and accessibility features for seniors.
According to a research by Pew Research Center, 44% of seniors aged 65 years and older own a tablet while 53% of 50 to 64 years old are tablet users.
Acquiring an iPad is just the beginning of the adventure. After setting up an iPad for seniors, installing some senior-friendly games and apps is important to get the most out of your new gadget.
This article shares the 12 best iPad games for seniors to unlock the true fun and mental stimulation that iPads can bring to older adults.
Do Brain Games Help The Elderly?
According to a study by NIH, brain games and puzzles help stimulate the elderly brain and help sharpen seniors’ multitasking, memory, and reasoning skills. Researchers at UC San Francisco found that video games may offset or even reverse the cognitive decline among seniors.
Playing brain games and solving puzzles can help seniors remember things like names, dates, and phone numbers. Other benefits include:
- Improved social interaction
- Older adults can avoid anxiety, depression, and loneliness
- Mental stimulation to help with the negative effects of aging on senior’s brains
- Playing brain games is one of the best therapeutic activities for seniors
- The studies show that brain games can elevate senior’s mood by promoting the release of endorphins, the brain’s natural feel-good chemicals.
Incorporating brain games into seniors’ daily routines can offer numerous physical and mental benefits.
12 Best iPad Brain Games for Seniors
I have picked the following iPad memory games for seniors on the basis of excellent features, ratings, and feedback from users. Several other brain games did not make it to the list because of excessive ads and most of their features are behind a paid subscription.
1: Lumosity
With 100 million+ users, Lumosity is the most popular brain game for seniors on the iPad. This engaging and comprehensive app is designed to improve cognitive skills and enhance mental agility.
The 10-minute Fit Test is designed to assess users’ strengths and weaknesses through a series of initial assessments. Based on the results, the app creates a customized training program to target specific areas for improvement.
Lumosity offers a diverse collection of challenging games crafted to enhance problem-solving, attention, memory retention, processing speed, and critical thinking.
The key features of Lumosity include:
- 40+ brain games and activities that adapt as you improve
- Customized games that are carefully curated for you
- Challenges for memory, speed, math, language, logic and problem-solving
- Personalized challenges based on your training preferences and habits
- Information and analysis to help understand your cognitive patterns
Whether you are looking to stay mentally sharp or simply enjoy solving puzzles, you will love Lumosity’s brain training activities.
One of the app’s standout features is its adaptability. It adjusts the difficulty levels based on the user’s performance.
I like Lumosity because of its intuitive interface, scientific foundation, and extensive collection of brain games and activities.
2: Peak
Peak combines entertainment and cognitive development for the elderly. It offers fun and interactive ways to enhance memory, sharpen focus and offer well-rounded brain training.
45+ games in 6 categories are carefully crafted to target specific cognitive skills.
The adaptive difficulty levels provide an optimized challenge to keep you motivated and engaged.
Here are some of the Peak features that I like the most:
- Peak is developed with “you” in mind. The data-oriented feedback shows insights about your performance to support your growth.
- Daily brain workouts to keep you mentally sharp
- Skill-based workouts such as coffee break, weakest Link, Low Rank and Total Workout
- Compete with friends and compare your scores
Versatile games and workouts make Peak one of the must-have iPad brain games for seniors. Short on time? Play Coffee Break or choose from a comprehensive suite of games.
In addition to games, the app provides brain training insights and tips, backed by scientific research.
3: Elevate
Elevate is a brain training program designed in collaboration with experts in neuroscience and cognitive learning. The games are based on extensive scientific research to improve the mind’s focus, memory, processing, and speaking abilities.
90%+ users report improved vocabulary, math skills and mental sharpness after frequent use of Elevate.
“Elevate comes out ahead” in the battle of brain training apps according to CNET. Washington Post ranks Elevate games as “good for mental breaks throughout the workday”.
The key features of Elevate include:
- Improve Critical Cognitive Skills: This app can help you improve your focus, memory, processing speed, math, and logic
- Personalized Program: Choose between 3 to 5 games to get a personalized daily workout that includes the skills you need the most
- Adaptive Difficulty: The adaptive difficulty progression ensures your experience is challenging
Elevate’s comprehensive set of stimulating and entertaining games will keep your mind sharp. This fun and engaging app will help you improve your focus and you will:
- Express yourself effectively in writing
- Become a better reader with a greater understanding and expanded vocabulary
- Get better at comparing prices, splitting bills, calculating discounts and solving everyday math problems
- Become better at communicating
Elevate’s short and enjoyable mini-games include activities that involve recalling, answering true/false questions, and math and logic quizzes.
If you are looking for the best iPad memory games for seniors, you will have loads of fun and brain work with Elevate at the same time.
4: Math Brain Booster Games
This app is seniors’ best bet for improving mathematical skills and mental agility. A wide range of math exercises and puzzles are designed to challenge and stimulate the user’s problem-solving and arithmetic skills.
The challenge is to concentrate on problem-solving and try to solve as many problems as you can, in a limited time. The variety of games focus on different areas of math.
- Boost Modes to develop the concentration
- Use Personal Training to customize your session
- Use the Math Tables to not forget the basics
- Access and correct your mistakes via the Mistakes Workout
This is an ideal brain game for seniors on the iPad who want to improve their memory and learn numbers and basic math.
I recommend this free app with no in-app purchases to improve your memory, attention, and velocity.
You will also love the “Math Hacks” feature that has tricks for lightning calculations.
5: Left vs Right
Left vs Right promises to keep your mind sharp after 10 minutes of daily use. 50+ mini-games boost your cognitive abilities through a series of engaging and thought-provoking challenges.
The highlights of Left vs Right include:
- Sleek Design and User-Friendly Interface: The first feature that caught my attention is sleek and intuitive design. The visually appealing user interface made navigating through games and activities a breeze.
- Right Level of Difficulty: If brain games are too difficult, seniors can get frustrated and not want to play. If games are too easy, there is really no point in playing. This app just has the games with the “right level of difficulty”.
- Select Brain Workout: There are 6 fun categories to choose from. You can select the games on the basis of what you want to improve including Awareness, Adaptability, Reflex, Reasoning, Precision, and Patience.
Seniors can access the additional games after watching a short video. Give your brain a chance to get fit and stay sharp while having unlimited fun.
6: Mind Pal
The next of the best iPad brain games for seniors is the brain training app, Mind Pal. This app comes with 40 games to target and train the 7 cognitive areas; Memory, Attention, Language, Math, Flexibility, Speed, and Problem-Solving.
The highlights of MindPal include:
- More than 40 games and 1000 levels
- A personalized daily workout based on personal goals
- Word games to help you expand your vocabulary and writing skills
- In-depth insights to track your performance
Although Mind Pal is free to use, many features and games are available after you upgrade to the premium training program. The premium locks 2 of the 5 games that you get every day.
Overall, Mindpal has an excellent collection of games with great instruction and qualifies to be one of the must-have iPad memory games for seniors.
7: GEIST
GEIST has more than 10 million users worldwide with the promise of giving your cognitive skills a boost. The 24 challenging mind games offer unlimited fun in 720 levels. The games are designed to improve your memory, concentration, reaction, logic and mathematical skills.
Other features include:
- 4 Mindfulness exercises to lower stress and mental balance
- Easy-to-use interface with stunning graphics
- Customizable: Choose the games, adjust the difficulty levels and personalized daily workouts
- Statistics to highlight your strong areas and progress and potential for improvement
GEIST has an in-house team of neuroscientists to develop the new games. The new “GEIST Relax” feature helps you unwind with audio relaxation stories and exercises, meditative games, and other tips.
8: Mind Games
Mind Games offers plenty of brain games for seniors on the iPad. You get access to a variety of free games and some trial games, that can be played 3 times each.
If you are not sure where to start, Training Center picks the perfect mix of brain exercises to keep you engaged.
Some of the games include:
- Face Memory: Memorize a group of faces to see if you can recall them
- Math Star: Practice the basic arithmetic skills, attention to detail, and speed
- Memory Flow: Practice learning and memory and attention to details
- Memory Racer: Practice your processing speed and working memory
- Attention Training Game: Exercise your speed and focus
- Abstraction: Test your ability to differentiate abstract from concrete words
- Speed Trivia: Test and improve your knowledge
- Word Memory: Memorize 30 words and recognize them
Other mini-games include Divided Attention, Mental Categories, Grid Memory, Vocabulary Stars, Object Memory, and Vocabulary Power.
Mind Games opens the door to a wide range of iPad memory games for seniors. Have fun and a mental workout at the same time.
9: Brainwell
Brainwell is what your aging brain needs. It trains multiple areas of your brain so you can use your brain to full capacity. The games are designed to improve concentration and focus.
This app is very helpful for older adults who:
- Struggle to remember people’s names
- Forget birthdays, anniversaries, and addresses
- Have difficulties recalling and remembering things from past
- Struggle to focus on the task at hand
The 50+ scientifically designed brain training games promise a productive and happy life. The app gives you a daily challenging workout to test your logic, memory and mental skills.
The “Cognitive Games” target 6 brain areas while “Logic Games” enhance memory and improve concentration.
If you feel stuck or frustrated with a game, you can always reset and start again.
10: Neuro Nation
Neuro Nation is backed by research from leading neuroscientists and targets the right areas of seniors’ brains. Neuro Nation promises improved memory, attention, reasoning and speed after 15 minutes of training a day.
23 million worldwide users are using Neuro Nation to know their strengths and conquer their weaknesses.
The top reasons to give Neuro Nation a try include:
- Effectiveness: The app has been awarded the AOK Leonardo Health Prize by the German Federal Ministry of Health because of how effective it is.
- Personalization: This app performs a comprehensive analysis of potentials and strengths and designs a personal training plan for you.
- Balanced Training: With 34 exercises and 300 levels, you get a varied training session to promote your brain.
Follow your progress closely with a detailed progress analysis. Neuro Nation is one of the best iPad memory games for seniors who struggle with memory and reasoning.
11: Sudoku
According to a study published by the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, the more people of over 50 years engage in games such as Sudoku, the better their brain functions.
There is enough scientific evidence to highlight the fact that games like Sudoku exercise the left side of the human brain. The left side of the brain is responsible for logic, focus, planning, math, and science-related functions.
Sudoku.com is one of the most downloaded sudoku apps on the App Store with thousands of puzzles. A fun and entertaining game that you always loved, ideal for short stimulating breaks to clear your mind.
- Play an easier level to challenge your mind or expert mode for a real mind workout
- Hints, auto-check and highlighted duplicates to help you when you feel stuck
- Complete daily challenges to collect unique trophies
- Seasonal events with unique medals
Sudoku is one of the classic iPad brain games for seniors that you can play anywhere, anytime. Join millions of players who use this app on a daily basis and have fun with thousands of puzzles that are updated regularly.
12: NYT Games
A study published in NEJM Evidence found that individuals with mild memory issues who did crossword puzzles showed improvement in cognition and experienced less brain shrinkage. Other studies show that crosswords are beneficial for stress relief, memory preservation, vocabulary boost, and general brain health.
The NYT Games app combines many iPad memory games for seniors in a single place. I love this app because there are no ads to interrupt the fun.
Seniors can enjoy the following brain games in NYT Games app:
- Crossword: Daily puzzles that are printed in The New York Times. The puzzles increase in difficulty from Monday to Saturday
- Wordle: Play the original Wordle, created by Josh Wardle. Guess 5 letter word in 6 tries or less
- Spelling Bee: Play the Spelling Bee to find out how many words you can make from 7 letters
- Sudoku: Fill each 3×3 box with numbers 1-9. Do not repeat numbers in sets, rows or columns
- The Mini Crossword: The quick play crossword puzzle that you can solve in seconds
With over 10,000 crossword puzzles and 2000 mini crosswords, you never run out of challenges. NYT Games app has Stats and Leaderboards to track your progress and compete with others.
This is the list of my favorite iPad brain games for seniors. Have fun and improve your mental health at the same time.