That's hard for me to answer. I have more fun now than I did as a kid, but the games are different.

When I was a kid, Simcity 2000 with 256 color VGA graphics was the cutting edge.

Now in this future space year of 2026, there are factory games, RPG's with full voice acting and character animations, games where you can work on cars or farm crops or check paperwork. There are point and click games that work like Monkey Island, only they're pornographic. Instead of monsters in Doom falling in a sprite of chunks, I can see them chainsawed apart or curb stomped. I can build rockets whether they work or not. I can be a robot driving a boat, powering up old infrastructure and scrapping junk to build machines, when I'm not dodging sharks with freakin' lasers on their heads.

Tl;Dr: Its hard for me to tell if I am having more fun gaming as an adult, or the games are just better now.

Personally, right now, as an adult I find myself playing games that are so much more enjoyable than the CoD type games I used to play a lot more growing up. Games I really think kid me would like. So, I'd say in that regard, definitely better. Also better in that I have soft modded consoles that allow me to play backups without needing the gane disc.

But I definitely feel my ability to play them for longer, extended periods of time is slowly slipping away. So not as good in that regard. Used to be able to spend hours in some games whereas now in similar games I'd not be able to do that today.

So, definitely mixed both ways.

gaming is better as an adult if it's something you never did as a kid. not knowing how something works adds to the fun of playing a video game, and kids are blank slates when it comes to experience.

you also have the capability on purchasing it with your own money

Some of us got our sea legs at a very early age.

For me it's much better as an adult just because I don't have poorly informed adults scaremongering over the latest bullshit the news made up.

When I was a kid my mother would immediately jump on every single "the kids are bad" bandwagon there was. As a result I could really only play games at friends houses because were weren't allowed to have video games of any sort. I even bought my own xbox and tv so I could have it in my room when I was 14. The moment she found out she threw it away while I was at school. Never mind the fact that I had spent 500 dollars of my own money.

I'm in my early 40s, and I've found that I enjoy story-based games played on an easy difficulty more. Life is stressful enough nowadays, so I don't need the added stress of competitive gaming.

For me, it's a different kind of enjoyment. Now, I'd rather let my mind wander through a story-based game than frag anything that moves.

I have much less screen time now as an adult. But games have grown in every way and are now a legitimate art form. It's hard to say if I had more fun playing jet set willy on my 48k Sinclair spectrum, or playing cyberpunk on my steam deck. Both were great, in different ways.

I realized I had a Lot more fun experimenting and exploring as a kid like in gta Vice city watching pedestrians Walk, Explore the city and see all the interactions there is. Now when I Play gta 5 I honestly just wanna do my missions even though I think it is interesting but I cant get myself to do the Same as before

As a kid I had time to play what I wanted As an adult I can play what I want but have no time to do so

It's an odd and mixed experience for me: I definitely enjoy it more now because I'm definitely a lot more aware of the genres I enjoy and the genres I typically don't; however, the uncontrollable excitement of playing through Streets of Rage 2 for the first time is not as palpable as it used to be back then.

I'd say in terms of quantity (frequency) I am having more fun now. In terms of quality, fun felt fresher and deeper back then.

When you've played it all, and you're short on free time, unique gameplay that matches your tastes is harder to find.