I think my parents realized when they were adults (late 20s, early 30s) is that games had staying power and were potentially evergreen entertainment. They could see it was more than a fad, especially when N years later their kids are playing with the same things (plus Lego) all the time, and weren’t asking for the new whatever toy.

Games get old, but the good ones hold up. Some of my favorite games from 35+ years ago still hold up extraordinarily well. It’s rare that you’ll watch a single movie hundreds of times, but there’s games where you easily can. Certainly not all, but a good chunk of them.

My folks put them down because of real life and because their son could demolish them in anything competitive (heck, I did speedrunning for a bit at some of the highest levels), but when you give them some top quality games and they have the time, they remembered the value pretty quick. As they’re moving into a very fixed income, they see the value for money they get from them.

Granted, they lucked out that one of their kids keeps a pulse on what’s good for all audiences. I don’t think my mom would’ve stumbled onto Baba Is You if I didn’t gift it to her. Dad would’ve never found his ideal digital train set (I now have my father’s trains) in OpenTTD if I didn’t point him in that direction.