“Mami Nena”, the Chilean gamer grandmother who plays Free Fire to overcome the loss of her husband

When the players of FreeFire they see the avatar on the phone screen “Mommy Baby”few would suspect that behind that character is María Elena Arévalo, an 81-year-old Chilean grandmother.

Resident in Llay-Llay, in the Valparaíso region, this octogenarian adopted the virtual identity of “Mami Nena” in 2020 to fight loneliness after the loss of her husband.

The black-haired, bespectacled woman, who usually wears an apron, settles in front of the screens and refines herself lethal purpose to fight on virtual islands. In the virtual world she is a warrior with a short kimono, black gloves and a mask of fangs.

Her sweet voice and her social media posts have made her a sensation on social networks, earning her the nickname “gamer grandma.”

Today it amounts to more than four million followers.

The Chilean gamer grandmother and her beginnings in the virtual world

María Elena Arévalo came to video games in 2020, to face the loneliness that overwhelmed her after the death of her husband after 56 years of marriage.

Near In Chile, 42% of people over eighty feel alone, a risk to their mental health, according to a study by the Catholic University of Chile.

Only at his suggestion Grandchild, Héctor Carrasco, now twenty years old, has immersed himself in the digital world. “I didn’t even know what a mouse was,” Arévalo recalls.

Arévalo trained intensively for a year, playing about two hours three times a week. His enthusiasm led her to reach the “Heroic” rank, the second most competitive level in the game. Despite a pause in her activity due to illness, the Chilean gaming grandmother remains an influential figure in the world of video games.

“I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” he recalls. But over time he liked to “follow them and kill them”he says with a smile.

Arévalo trained about two hours, three times a week, for a year, until he earned the points needed to reach the “Heroic” championship rank, the second most competitive level in the video game.

FreeFire is a popular online shooter video game for mobile phones developed by the Chinese company Garena. Its main feature is that it features intense survival games within the Battle Royal genre, the same one popularized by Fortnite or PUBG, albeit without construction.

In this game, players are dropped onto a remote island where they compete to be the last one standing. The playing area shrinks over time, forcing players to face each other in exciting battles until only one player is left standing, thus deciding the winner.

Three years after starting her digital adventure, widowhood is no longer a problem for her.

He had four million followers on TikTok, before his account was stolen, and 700,000 subscribers on YouTube.

“I feel like she’s like a best friend.“adds the young man, who always accompanies her in her videos.

Currently the “gamer grandmother” is less active in games due to a scleroderma, a disease that causes hardening of the skin. But he’s far from retiring from Battle Royal over cell phones.

A passion that is shared by more and more elderly people around the world. Among them is the Ukrainian team Young Guard, from the game Counter Strike, whose members They are on average 75 years oldor the Japanese Hamako Mori, 93 years old, the oldest player in the world.

“I never imagined it. I played to play, to be there, wagging my finger,” he celebrated after the ceremony.

Another case similar to that of Mami Nani and which surprises the world of gamers is the famous one “Grandmother from the video game Skyrim.”

The American Shirley Curry88 years old, she is one of the most unique video game YouTubers, known for her enormous admiration for The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, a game she learned through her son.

Her fanaticism led her to broadcast her matches on the Internet. She currently has more than 1 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, where she began uploading gaming videos in 2015, when she was 80 years old.

Her popularity among the gaming community has earned her recognition from developer Bethesda itself, who promised to include her as a character in The Elder Scrolls 6 when it finally goes on sale in 2026.

At 86, Curry’s health worries fans after he suffered a stroke while sleeping last March, causing him to forget much of his gaming experiences.

Isabel Martinotti, the Argentine player grandmother

The passion of octogenarians for video games has also been prominent in Argentina. Isabel Martinotti was a famous “gaming grandmother” who quickly won the affection of the community.

According to what he stated in each of his interviews, his passion for video games originated thanks to his nephew, to take him off the streets and teach him that life “is won and lost”.

Isabel Martinotti was the face of the HyperX gaming peripheral brand, owned by Hewlett Packard, and made several appearances both in the media and at conventions, like Argentina Game Show For Me, in 2018.

“I play every day, I dedicate a few minutes to household chores and shopping. But I always play. I like Final Fantasy, The Witcher 3. Now they lent me one to look for treasures. “I like them all,” Isabel said Clarion.

It happens that for her, as she explained, video games were an outlet, a ground wire, which serves to entertain her. “They get me out of all my problems,” she remarked.

“My friends ask me what I was doing, that I looked like a girl. I reply that they are like crosswords. These games keep the mind active because we have to think, look for things… like crosswords. There are many who have criticized me and now they are starting to play,” she observed.

Three months after publishing a post in which she celebrated becoming a great-grandmother, Isabel Martinotti’s family confirmed her death at the age of 89 with heartfelt words. “A great person, always happy, an example, always positive, a great warrior. Your family loves you forever. We will always remember you with that smile that characterized you… a new angel“they wrote.

Video games, as seen in all these cases, have no age: all generations can enjoy them.