“Am I too old to be playing Animal Jam?” 

“I think I should quit since I’m older now.” 

How many times have you heard these at some point during your AJ career? It makes you sad when you see all of your favorite Jammers leaving the community because they’re ‘too old.’ But how old is ‘too old?’ 

A lot of Jammers say that once they hit high school, it’s time to quit the game. The game is targeted for seven to eleven year-olds after all. But there’s also a large portion of the community that are in the high school level and beyond. Most of the Jambassadors we know and love are older than thirteen! I decided to conduct a series of questions for my fellow Archives members to answer and help me determine what age is too old for our beloved game. I also asked them when they started playing, how long they’ve been playing, and why they stuck around so long. 

By finding the average starting year of the team, I got 2012. This means that the average year the Archives people started playing Animal Jam was around 2012. The average age of our current team members is around 15-16 years old.

Putting the data aside, the reasons why many of us are still in the community are very vast. Everyone has their own take as to why they stuck around. Elvis, one of our site admins, says that they’ve stuck around simply because there were no age limitations. They explain that although some of the items are goofy and the chat filters are wack, none of the minigames or adventures gave them a sense of ‘feeling too old’ for the game. 

Most of us agreed that many stay because of the community itself. Whether it’s editing videos, art, or simply the Jammers within it, there’s always a place for everyone in the community. Lucas explains that he values the friendships he’s made from Animal Jam. He also feels as if he just ‘fits’ in the community. Mintystripes also added on this, saying she loves meeting new Jammers and all of the creative people within the community. 

Retrovibe made a great point by saying how many love the game because it helps with real-world skills. Many of us, here on the AJA for example, are writers, artists, and editors. All of these skills could help us with career choices in the world. Those of us who are YouTubers learn and improve our video production skills, which could become future careers if we choose. My work on the Archives has personally pushed me to work harder on my dream job of being an author! 

Everything stated above leaves us with that last question: How old is ‘too old?’ Most people would agree that teenagers aren’t really ‘too old.’ All of your favorite Instajammers, Youtubers, and Jambassadors are already teenagers, since social media platforms require people to be at least thirteen years old to sign up for an account. In fact, many are even in college! 

Obviously if you’re using YouTube as your job, it wouldn’t be weird to play Animal Jam for video purposes. But, if you’re a full-grown adult who plays Animal Jam for pure fun, it may seem a bit strange. We haven’t really seen any ‘adults’ who play Animal Jam and don’t make content for the game. Shopking, Ellipsity, and WisteriaMoon are a few examples of college-level or adult content creators (and Jambassadors) who make content for us. 

If you truly love Animal Jam, don’t let people’s opinions of you ‘being too old’ make you quit. Most likely, you’re probably not. If you love the game and the community, there’s no reason to quit unless you’ve lost interest. Jam On! 

Special thanks to Elvis, Lucas, MintyStripes, Retrovibe, Elizabeth (Tera), L3G, and my fellow Archives members for helping me out with data!