PAPAYA Uses Digital Games to Revive In-Person Social Connections

As traditional third places disappear, PAPAYA is leveraging competitive digital play to build vibrant communities.

Apr. 9, 2026 at 8:26pm

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A highly detailed, glowing 3D macro illustration of a digital gaming tournament arena, with neon cyan and magenta lights illuminating the futuristic hardware and infrastructure, conveying a sense of energy, competition, and community.PAPAYA's digital gaming tournaments create vibrant new community spaces in an era of disappearing third places.Today in Miami

PAPAYA, a mobile game developer, is using structured digital competition as a catalyst to create new modern third places that foster community beyond home and work. As traditional community spaces shrink, PAPAYA is positioning digital play as a social anchor rather than an escape from interaction, building clear pathways from solo engagement and shared competition to in-person events.

Why it matters

The decline of third places, or environments separate from home and work that encourage informal social interaction, has become a growing concern. PAPAYA's approach aims to fill this void by using digital games as a way to bring people together and build a sense of community.

The details

PAPAYA noticed that many adult mobile game players were not truly "casual" - they practiced deliberately, tracked their results, and cared about improvement. The company saw an opportunity to organize these individual behaviors into something more collective. PAPAYA's games, like solitaire, serve as entry points where players can build skills independently and then enter tournaments to measure their progress against others. This progression from private practice to public competition has become a defining feature of PAPAYA's ecosystem, culminating in events like the first-ever World Solitaire Championship in Miami, where over 400 players traveled to compete in person.

  • In 2019, PAPAYA, then known as Papaya Gaming, entered the mobile gaming market.
  • Earlier this year, PAPAYA hosted the first-ever World Solitaire Championship in Miami.

The players

PAPAYA

A mobile game developer best known for adding competitive structure to classic single-player games like solitaire, using adult play as a catalyst to create new modern third places that foster community beyond home and work.

Robert Putnam

A social scientist who, thirty years ago in his essay "Bowling Alone", lamented that people had become disconnected from their family, friends, and neighbors, citing the decline of places like bowling leagues and bingo halls as a cause for this disconnect.

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What’s next

PAPAYA plans to continue expanding its competitive digital gaming ecosystem and hosting more in-person events to bring its community together.

The takeaway

PAPAYA's approach to using digital games as a way to foster in-person social connections and build a sense of community highlights the potential for technology to help fill the void left by the decline of traditional third places.