Girls Just Want to Game
Almost 50% of all gamers are women. Does this mean:
a) The apocalypse?
b) The end of the video game industry?
c) Girls just want to game?
If you answered anything other than "c", you should read this article. Actually, you should read this even if you did answer "c".
The stereotypical gamer that people usually imagine is male. However, that’s not necessarily an accurate depiction of the real demographics. Females make up almost half of the gaming population.
The latest statistics from the Entertainment Software Association tell us that about 45% of gamers are, in fact, female. Shocking as it may be to some, women over the age of 18 account for a whopping 31% of all gamers. That outnumbers males under 17 (19%) by quite a bit. Pretty incredible, right?
These numbers highlight a problem in the video game industry. There are so many games that are marketed almost exclusively toward a male demographic. A few, however, have broken down that barrier and have given females a voice in gaming.
A classic example of a female protagonist is, of course, Samus Aran in the Metroid series. Who can forget that shocking revelation at the end of Metroid?
Mirror’s Edge, a first-person action-packed platformer that’s had some awesome reviews, is another example. It’s got free-running, fighting, snipers, and an engaging storyline. The kicker? The protagonist is a young woman named Faith.
Women are gradually asserting themselves more and more into the gaming community as a whole, both in development and as fans. We don’t want special treatment, and we don’t need to be singled out. All we want is to game and have fun doing it.
Published Aug. 12th 2013
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John_6248February 4, 2014, 1:19 am*posted as reply when it showed up*
(reply only shows after you have name and email entered- instead of having a prompt when attempting to reply to a comment) -
William Henry Harrison_9386August 13, 2013, 2:29 pm@Katy
And thus we have seen the proliferation of Facebook and mobile games, many of which do not seem to be gunning for the young male demographic, but if you are trying to say that women are spending as much on AAA titles, I'm not buying into that without more specific data. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the article seems to be concerned with "serious" games (if that's not an oxymoron) and not with the more light fare that is typically offered in web-based and mobile games.
(I don't know how to post a direct reply on this site, which probably makes me an idiot.) -
There should be a 'Reply to this comment' link directly under the comment. :) If there isn't, feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected] with what browser you're using so we can hopefully fix it!
As for the report, I suppose it would depend on your personal definition of the market. Currently, in the community, the definition of a 'gamer' is ridiculously flexible, when we need to make it concrete. Personally, I think Facebook and mobile games should be included because some people are very passionate about them, but others will disagree.
It's something we as a community need to work on. I think for the sake of the report, they're counting games as a complete and total whole (mobile, casual, etc). -
John_6248February 4, 2014, 1:49 am"As for the report, I suppose it would depend on your personal definition of the market. Currently, in the community, the definition of a 'gamer' is ridiculously flexible, when we need to make it concrete. Personally, I think Facebook and mobile games should be included because some people are very passionate about them, but others will disagree.
It's something we as a community need to work on. I think for the sake of the report, they're counting games as a complete and total whole (mobile, casual, etc). "
To me it seems like categories should be based on reasons one plays not how much they play or spend.
One can play games for the story, the graphics, the interactions, the challenge, etc. are "Real gamers" that see it as a art or media format.
The new wave seem to use them (play apps) as things to do when bored and to waste time and some are just addicts due to the nature of the game.
I used to consider myself a core gamer. I don't anymore because I have constraints on time to devote but I can't call myself a causal gamer either because I don't play games "casually" like facebook apps or the wii was supposedly intended for (the labeling is comparable to casually going out vs serious relationship(core)?).
I can think what I'm am not better than where I would actually fit in. Maybe occasional core might describe me?
Maybe we should do surveys for what one labels themselves and that label means to them and other questions? -
I'm very happy to see the number of female gamers rising. I wish the number did represent what us "core gamers" really define as gamers. The saddening truth is that the main part of the female gaming population are playing facebook games and little phone app games. The numbers are starting to move towards more "core games" that we gamers play, but right now its a large majority little app games :(.
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I'm so tired of this fad. How about speaking for yourself instead of spewing the exact same nonsense everyone else is?
World of Warcrafts playerbase is not a 50/50 male/female ratio. Call of Duty is not a 50/50 male/female ratio. Battlefield is not a 50/50 male/female.
I could list a ton more games saying the same exact thing. They're not even 60/40.
I think it's awesome that there are far more females playing video games than there were from the 70s-90s but I'm real sick and tired of reading these stories that are skewed.
Hell I just read a story about a gamer who was banned from an MMORPG for reporting sexual harassment and death threats. I even wrote an article on it because it angered me. Even she said the ratio was 80/20 and that is far more damn realistic. http://gameversevault.com/portfolio-view/mmorpg-sexual-harassment/
Just look at the numbers in the article you linked to. The most played online games are puzzle, trivia and card games. Yet the best selling video games are Action followed by Sports and Shooters. Yeah. Sorry. And not a single game in the top 20 selling video games is trivia, card, or puzzle. I am surprised a freakin object game found its way onto the computer game list though.
I'm not trying to argue that women don't play video games. I'm just tired of reading these statistics from women who try to use them as some means of proving that women are half the gaming population when all I have to do is go play a real video game online (not a friggin trivia game) to see that it's over-populated by males. -
The market is 50/50. 50% of money spent comes from women.
This isn't a fad. They're not referencing one game in particular--the market, overall, is half and half. This includes casual and hardcore games. The first paragraph in the CNN article and the ESA report says exactly this. -
William Henry HarrisonAugust 13, 2013, 10:11 amI don't think video game companies are concerned so much with who PLAYS games so much as who spends the most money on them.
But the other half of the equation is that game creators are mostly male. Even look at the new wave of indie devs, and it's hard to find any women.To be honest, I can't think of a single specific indie game being made by a female off of the top of my head, though I know I have heard of a few obscure ones here and there in the past.
Probably the only prominent AAA female game developer I can think of is Kim Swift, and that is mostly because of a single game.
This is kind of a thing that has been bothering me lately. I see a ton of writing about how skewed towards a male demographic games are, but very little about how few women are taking it upon themselves to get into game creation (or any programming-related jobs in general). Again, this even extends to lone indie devs.
So I leave on this note: What percentage of Portal 2 purchasers (that's purchasers, not people who pirated it, borrowed it, or played it via some other means) are female? I don't have the figures, of course, but it seems about as low as most AAA games. -
I like the stats for people playing with their children. I just started playing... Zoo Tycoon with mine. She's only 6 though, so it's penguins and lions for now. PvP will come later maybe ?!
