Much like how professional basketball in this country has an NBA and a WNBA to make it clear that basketball players are male by default and female by exception, similarly, in the video gaming community there exist gamers and "girl gamers", reflecting the fact that video game players are assumed to be male unless otherwise specified. To some degree that assumption is rooted in fact and to some degree it is not. Some just assume that there are virtually no female gamers because they rarely see any in the line at Game Stop awaiting the arrival of the latest Call of Duty or Halo installment. I wanted to make this thread to clarify as best I can for everyone (because I am sometimes asked) how many female video game players there are and what they play.
About 50% of American men and 48% of American women play video games at least casually, while 15% of American men and 6% of American women describe themselves as gamers. In those statistics we see that most people who play video games do so only casually and that that is especially true of female game players, who compose nearly half of all video game players, but only 28.5% of hardcore gaming hobbyists according to this statistical breakdown. We can also see in the stats provided at the link that the share of both men and women who are playing video games both casually and as a proper hobby is increasing generationally, but that men are jumping on board at a much faster rate than women. For example, 4% of men and 3% of women aged 50 and older identify themselves as gamers, while 33% of men and 9% of women between the ages of 18 and 29 identify themselves as gamers. Both statistics are substantially larger for the under 30 group, but we can see that men are adopting gaming as a major life hobby at a far quicker pace.
So what sort of games are women playing? Quantic Foundry did a
massive worldwide survey of 270,000 gamers on this subject earlier this year and found the following gender breakdown of players by game genre, which I'll list by percentage of players who are female:
Match-3: 69%
Family or farming simulation: 69%
Casual puzzle: 42%
Atmospheric exploration: 41%
Interactive drama: 37%
High-fantasy MMO: 36%
Japanese RPG: 33%
Western RPG: 26%
Survival: 25%
Platformer: 25%
City-building: 22%
Action RPG: 20%
Sandbox: 18%
Action adventure: 18%
Sci-fi MMO: 16%
Open world: 14%
Turn-based strategy: 11%
MOBA: 10%
Grand strategy: 7%
First-person shooter: 7%
Racing: 6%
Tactical shooter: 4%
Sports: 2%
The study's findings also clarify that, within any given genre, video games that are conscientiously inclusive in design are more likely to appeal to female gamers. For example, while the overall player ratio for Western RPGs as a genre is just 26% female, 48% of Dragon Age: Inquisition players are female. Similarly, science fiction-themed MMO players overall are just 16% female, but Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has a 29% female player base. And also similarly, while just 14% of open world game players overall are female, by contrast 27% of Assassin's Creed Syndicate players are female. Those who are familiar with these titles will surely understand my point.
Similarly, genres that often have female leads like atmospheric exploration games and interactive dramas are also more likely to attract female players, while genres that basically only pander to men (like sports simulations) are the least popular with female gamers. (Those are my two favorite genres.)
I suspect that cultural elements may be a factor here as well. Take the element of shooting in video games, for example. Guns just are not a big part of female culture. Thus do I think that many women just find games that involve a lot of gunplay somewhat harder to relate to than men might. That's probably also why women are a lot less likely to play even the most progressive of sci-fi themed MMOs compared to their high-fantasy counterparts: because sci-fi themes usually seem to imply more gunplay. (And you'll notice that the main exception, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic includes more swordplay type stuff in terms of its action elements. It's similar in the sci-fi action movies that have succeeded with female audiences in recent years: The Hunger Games, the Star Wars movies, etc. You'll notice the comparative elevation of things like swordplay and archery in terms of their action elements for the most part.) It's similar with white people versus people of color. In the gaming tournament scene, the shooting games (like Counter-Strike, etc.) are heavily dominated by white players while the tournament fighting games (like Street Fighter and so fourth) are dominated by men of color. Why? I figure the fact that white people are several times more likely to own guns might have something to do with it. I suspect hence that the gunplay divide is substantially a cultural one, hence.
Hope that clears things up a little!
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Originally Posted by IMPress Polly
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