Memory Games for Seniors: 10 Easy Brain Games

The best memory games for seniors are calm, turn-based games with familiar rules and short rounds: Matching Pairs, Dominoes, Hangman, Shut the Box and Yacht Dice are easy places to start. Below are ten games that keep you thinking about pictures, words and numbers, the settings that make a phone or tablet easier to read, and ideas for playing with grandchildren. Every game here is free on one device, with no sign-up.

A note before the list: these are games, not medicine. No game is a treatment for memory loss, and researchers are still working out what helps memory over the years. What a game reliably gives you is a good reason to sit down with someone, a bit of friendly competition and something to look forward to. If memory changes worry you, a doctor is the right person to ask.

What makes a game good for older players

• Big, clear pieces. Small text and fiddly buttons are the most common complaint about phone games. The site has a Larger text and controls setting (more on that below).
• No clock. Every game on this list is turn-based, so you can take as long as you like over a move. Chess has an optional clock, but it’s off unless you choose one.
• Short rounds. A round you can finish in five or ten minutes is easier to fit around the day, and easier to stop.
• Familiar rules. Dominoes, checkers and Hangman are games many people already know, so the first game starts right away.
• Someone to play. Each game works with family or friends on one device, and most also have a computer opponent at Easy, Medium and Hard for the days you’re on your own.

10 easy memory and brain games

1. Matching Pairs: the classic memory game

All the tiles start face down. On your turn, flip two. If the pictures match, you keep the pair and go again; if not, they turn back over and the next player tries. The trick is remembering where each picture was when it flipped back, and the player with the most pairs at the end wins.

It’s the purest memory game on this list and the easiest to explain. Start on the smallest grid (4 by 3, six pairs) and move up to 4 by 4 or 6 by 5 when it feels easy. Playing alone, the game counts your turns, so you can try to beat your own best. Against the computer, its level is how much it remembers: on Easy it forgets most of what it has seen, which makes it a gentle opponent. Play Matching Pairs.

2. Dominoes: count the pips, remember what’s gone

Match the number of pips (the dots) at either end of the line and try to empty your hand first. The memory part comes as the game goes on: keep track of which numbers have been played and you’ll know which tiles your opponents can’t be holding. The game uses a standard double-six set of 28 tiles, with the Draw game or the shorter Block game, and computer players can fill any empty seat for two, three or four players. Play Dominoes.

3. Hangman: a word game for vocabulary

Guess a hidden word one letter at a time before the drawing is complete. Play on your own and the computer picks a word from its built-in lists, or let a family member type a word for you to guess. It’s a good fit for people who enjoy crosswords and word puzzles, and a round takes only a few minutes. The Hangman rules guide has a few easier and harder ways to play. Play Hangman.

4. Code Breaker: a logic puzzle with colored pegs

The computer hides a secret code of colored pegs. You make a guess, and the game answers with small markers: one kind for a right color in the right place and another for a right color in the wrong place. From those clues you narrow the code down, guess by guess. It exercises working memory (holding several facts in mind at once) more than any other game here, and you can take as long as you like over each guess. On paper, the same idea is played with numbers as Bulls and Cows. Play Code Breaker.

5. Shut the Box: mental arithmetic in a few minutes

Roll two dice and flip down numbered tiles that add up to the roll. With a 9 you might close the 9, or the 5 and 4, or 6, 2 and 1, and choosing well is the whole game. Shut every tile to win outright. It’s quick arithmetic with a little luck mixed in, and it works for one to four players. Play Shut the Box.

6. Yacht Dice: plan your scorecard

Roll five dice up to three times a turn, then score them in one box of your scorecard: three of a kind, a full house, a straight and so on. The thinking is in deciding which dice to keep and which box to use, while keeping in mind the boxes you’ve already filled. It suits a table of one to six players, and the scorecard does all the adding up. Play Yacht Dice.

7. Mancala: counting seeds and planning ahead

Pick up the seeds from one of your pits and sow them one by one around the board. Land the last seed in your own store and you take another turn. Counting the seeds before you move tells you exactly where your turn will end, which makes Mancala a quiet, satisfying counting game. It’s one of the oldest game families in the world; our history of Mancala tells the story. Play Mancala.

8. Checkers: the game you already know

Checkers is often the game people remember from childhood, so it needs no teaching. Pieces move diagonally, you jump to capture, and a piece that reaches the far row is crowned a king. The site uses American rules, where captures are mandatory. The checkers rules guide is a quick refresher if it’s been a while. Play Checkers.

9. Reversi: a calm game with a twist at the end

Place a disc so it traps a line of your opponent’s discs, and every disc in that line flips to your color. The rules take a minute to learn, and the score can swing right up to the last few moves, so nobody is ever out of it. One thing to remember: a disc in a corner can never be flipped. Play Reversi.

10. Chess: for the long-time player

For anyone who has played for years, chess against the computer is a good daily game: pick Easy, Medium or Hard, and take back a move if you change your mind. There’s no clock unless you choose one. If you’re rusty, the chess tutorial for beginners and our post on chess piece values are friendly refreshers. Play Chess.

The ten games at a glance

Times are rough guides; a first game always takes a little longer.

Make the screen easier to use

Open Settings (the gear icon at the top of the screen). A few switches there make a real difference on a phone or tablet:

• Larger text and controls makes text and buttons bigger on every page and in every game.
• Colour-safe colours gives players colors that are easier to tell apart, with a mark on every piece. It helps with color blindness, and with tired eyes in poor light.
• Theme switches between light and dark. Try both and keep whichever is easier to read in your room.
• Motion: Reduce turns off sliding and fading, if moving pieces are distracting.
• Tap twice to place shows where your piece will go on the first tap and places it on the second, which helps on busy boards and with unsteady hands.

A tablet is easier on the eyes than a phone, and it’s easier to share across a table. The site works in the web browser you already use, with no account and no password to remember. After the first visit it keeps working without an internet connection, which is handy in a care home or hospital room where the Wi-Fi is unreliable. Most games save after every move, so you can close the page and carry on later.

Memory games with no screen at all

Some of the best memory games need nothing but people:

• I packed my suitcase. The first person says “I packed my suitcase and in it I put a hat.” The next repeats the list and adds something, and so on around the table until someone forgets an item. It’s good for a mixed-age group.
• The tray game. Put ten to fifteen small objects on a tray, let everyone look for a minute, then cover it and write down as many as you can remember. Or take one object away and ask what’s missing.
• Matching pairs with real cards. Lay out pairs from a deck of playing cards face down in rows (two red sevens, two black kings and so on) and play exactly as on the screen.
• A to Z lists. Pick a topic, such as flowers, towns or film stars, and take turns naming one for each letter of the alphabet.
• Twenty questions. One person thinks of a famous person, place or thing; everyone else has twenty yes-or-no questions to work it out.

Playing with grandchildren

Games are one of the easiest ways for grandparents and grandchildren to spend time together, in person or on a visit. A few ideas:

• Let the grandchild teach. Children love explaining a game they know, and it puts them in charge for once.
• Pick games with no reading for the youngest players. Matching Pairs, Snakes and Ladders and Tic-Tac-Toe all work for children who can’t read yet. Young children are often surprisingly good at Matching Pairs, so it’s a fair contest.
• Team up against the computer. Sit side by side, pick Easy, and decide each move together.
• Keep the rounds short and stop while everyone is still enjoying it.

Our family game night picks has more games for a mixed-age table, and our dice games for family night list adds plenty you can play with real dice too.

Tips for a regular game time

• Make it a routine. A game after lunch or a match with a neighbor on the same afternoon each week is easier to keep up than “whenever.”
• Mix the kinds of games. A word game one day and a number or picture game the next keeps things fresh.
• Play against yourself. Matching Pairs counts your turns and Shut the Box shows which tiles are still open, so there’s always a target to beat.
• Keep score kindly. For a group with different abilities, the luckier games (Yacht Dice, Shut the Box, Dominoes) give everyone a real chance.

Whichever game you pick, the best one is the one you’ll want to play again tomorrow. Start with Matching Pairs or Dominoes, and see our family games collection for more.

Written by the Pass and Play Games team.