Is the gaming demographic really almost half female?

I've seen various sources saying that 40-50% of gamers are female, but is this really true? If we strictly define "gamer" as someone who plays on PC or console, is the female percentage still that high? Or is it high because many statistics include mobile gaming?

It wouldn't surprise me. I know plenty of women who play RPGs, and the industry is a lot less stigmatised than it was 10-20 years ago.

My sister plays games so I can confirm through anecdotal evidence that half of all gamers are women!

Well, when i play things like Battlefield or League of Legends 9/10 i have atleast one female in my team (as i play a lot of games with this girl :P )

I highly doubt it.

I see many woman now playing tablet games, I wouldn't be surprised.

These statistics also take into consideration smartphone/tablet users, so...

When it comes to consoles and the PC though, one could reasonably assume the percentages are a little further apart than that.

No, probably 10% of real gamers are females.

The rest are just angry birds/FarmVille scum

LOL that's sadly what I think of when I see or hear "female gamer". :P

If you take away mobile gaming probably a lot less than 50% but there's still quite a lot of female gamers in "proper games". It depends on the genre though...it's been a while since I bothered using voice chat for any MP but normally if I played a shooter it was mostly guys (and dudebros at that) but if I played an MMO there would be a lot of girls (even going by in voice chat, if you go by their character's genre 90% are girls =P). Happened more than one in GW2 that I joined a pickup group and I was the only guy there.

What is a dudebro?

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude

Brooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Am I doing it right?

Mobile gaming aside, I doubt female gamer percentage is as high as 40-50% but there are definitely quite a lot. I often come across female gamers when playing L4D2.

@gamerguru100: Yeah, duebros are those internet fragile-ego'd homophobic tough guys who will threaten to rape your mother if you "suck" and are somehow really obsessed with the size of your dick.

It depends on the country:

Which Country Has the Most Gamer Girls?

• Japan - 66%
• UK - 49%
• USA - 42%
• Korea - 37%
• China - 27%

You'd assume wrong. And why is a gaming topic in OT?

You're absolutely right. I replied to this earlier and didn't even notice it was in OT. I blame not being fully awake yet =P

Moved.

As people said, most women are on Facebook and mobile games.

Nintendo actually released a figure saying 93% of Wii U owners that accessed the eShop are male (and 90% of Wii U owners have accessed the eShop).

http://mynintendonews.com/2014/08/28/nintendo-reveals-demographics-of-wii-u-eshop-users-males-account-for-93-and-females-only-7/

It's good to know you think people who like angry birds are scum.

Those "numbers" still need to count facebook, smartphone and tablet games, there's no way those are real otherwise.

I wouldn't say that people that only play Candy Crush and Farmville are gamers. But that's just me.

If you count casual games and all demographics, even those who have never picked up a controller but only play facebook games and F2P stuff they pull off Play Store (40-50 years-old mothers, for instance), then sure. However, if you only count demographics that are actually relevant to the gaming industry, then no. You can very easily verify that yourself: ask 10 women you know what videogames they play and draw your own conclusions. Easier still: spend a few hours inside a gaming store over the course of a week and see how many female customers walk in to buy games for themselves (gifts for other people don't count, obviously) as opposed to male ones. It may not be the most scientific method, but it'll give you a solid idea of where the truth lies.

We want more ladies in the gaming community, that is fact, but inflating the stats by including the masses of Candy Crush moms won't help anyone. Even in the 90s every woman with access to a computer would play Solitaire, but that doesn't mean she would call herself part of the gamer culture, and that hasn't changed.

Finally, the objection that "casual games are games too" is technically true, but it's like publishing stats on how many people "listen to music". It's a tad generic and ends up in a figure so vague and hazy that it's completely pointless.

Probably not, but that doesn't mean they're a statistic worth ignoring. Like movies, music, and books, they all started off male dominated in the beginning.

Well a sample is assumed to represent the population if and only if it is well conceived. One way to make the sample ill conceived is to have a strong bias in the sample. Another way is to take the study and use it at a different scope like taking a kitchen sink study and state that it represent a more defined subset. For example a study about how much Americans drive from one state to another does not reflect how many hawaiians travel between states.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MxqSwzFy5w Look 1:26 for a different study to say it. She say a study from a college say it is more 1 female to 7 male.

It's half females, and half of them are males pretending to be females. *Old mmorpg joke*

Ok.

But again, it's just an assumption that's probably neither entirely right or wrong.

There's still more male gamers overall at any rate.

@gamerguru100: Aww, I has a sad now. :P

My current Commanding Officer is female, 18 , and she is superb.

Our set up isn't sexist but it does show that you can join us and play and learn with a wide range of people from all over the world.

From age 16 when she joined us she has played games like ARMA and Battlefield and now runs a Battalion in Hardline.

Thats a Battalion with players older than her where she is able to lead and get respect because of how she works and how she plays.

What is great about the gaming organisation I belong to is that we give people really marketable skills in leadership, team play, organisation, speaking and technical skills etc whic really help them develop in game and outside.

We do this by having members that bring real world training programmes and skills that players can use as they wish to develop themselves and the gaming skill. It is a potent mix because you can find yourself being taught or mentored by real experts in their fields (for free!).

It is a great way to actually enjoy gaming and create some very strong skill sets you can demonstrate to potential employers. Makes a change from hiding your gaming hobby because you think it isnt going to help you get opportunites.

I suspect that 16 year old males that joined us wont have the maturity to take what we give them and run with it but they are welcome to try just like anyone else.

It is what you do that matters in Tactical Gaming and if you do what you say you are going to do you wont go far wrong.

http://www.tacticalgaming.net/hq/index.php?app=referrals&reff=17494

there there,don't be sad anymore.

on topic: I can't say it's too realistic for a console version,they do play games but with that high percentage is very alarming,unless it's mobile or arcade.I shouldn't be surprised

I dont believe it I know plenty of women who play casual games but I dont know one female in real life who is a hardcore gamer, but I do know male gamers on the internet who pretends to be female.

Only ever known two woman in real life who liked games. I mean like as a hobby and pastime they did regularly. So I personally have never seen this so called half the industry. If they mean moms, buying shit for kids then maybe but half the players are girls? Doesn't seem likely.

@Smashbrossive50: Aww, thanks. It's always weird hearing these studies and people wanting to (at times aggressively) argue that it can in no way be legit that the male to female ratio is closing in on 50-50. And especially when there is evidence provided that they feel inclined to argue that it's only because of "bullshit mobile games."

Though I do want to point out that mobile gaming isn't as lame as it was 5 years ago, I mean The Banner Saga, Hearthstone, Monument Valley, 'Papers, Please', Thomas Was Alone, FTL: Faster Than Light, Five Nights at Freddy's, Valiant Hearts: The Great War, I can go on. And typically, those questionnaires don't ask "what game do you play" it's "what platform do you play on?"

It's also weird for me since when I was growing up, the ratio in my house was 2:1 (my mom, me, and my brother played, but my dad didn't) but I get I'm an odd-ball variable when it comes to these things.

No, their idea of a "gamer" is anyone who plays games. That means consoles and PC but it also includes people who play mobile games and facebook games etc... The percentage of women who play on consoles and PC is probably more around 20-25% at best.

I don't tend to run into too many girl gamers online in my experiences, and of course it's impossible to know them all, but, from what i've seen, the majority of the reports that include large statistics often include mobile, so do with that what you will

There are alot of girls that stream on twitch with the PS4.

I find it scary how some will just accept a study as truth even if it goes against accepted rules. Like feminist using a general study to reflect a more detail subset.

Numbers can be played with.

I even found another feminist talking about study showing that more hard gamers are about 7 males for every female.

@wiouds:

I find it scary how some will just accept a study as truth even if it goes against accepted rules. Like feminist using a general study to reflect a more detail subset.

Numbers can be played with.

most people don't have a background in statistics. For those that don't, you know that saying about people who work in fast food restaurants never eat there?...same thing with statistics. If you've ever done any kind of work with it, you simply stop trusting it as any more than a supplementary tool or a manipulative tool for getting people who don't know better to join your side of the argument. There's nothing wrong with the math, but it's a tool and its usage depends on the person. These kinds of numbers are notoriously unreliable for intentional and unintentional reasons.

As far as anecdotal evidence...I go to midnight launches all the time for everything from casual releases like Halo to quieter launches and the majority of females there are either girlfriends or mothers. I would imagine that the ratio in younger generations is more even, but for my generation the gamer female, excluding games like the Sims or tetris, seems at times to be a chimera.

Technically yes. 45-55% of all gamers are female. If Smartphone, tablet games are counted. While Candy Crush, Flappy bird, Farmville and Angry birds are casual throw a way games. They are technically games even if on iOS and Android.

But in now way do female gamers make up the Hardcore PC game players. Maybe only 1% of all Hardcore PC game players would be female. There just is no way that many women would build a gaming Computer from scratch with all of the high end components and setting at ultra max.

They are more likely to buy a console that is ready to go out of the box. But as for Hard core maybe just 7-9% worldwide. How many female gamers buy a console day one. or attend midnight game launches. Not very many.

But since smartphones are considered a platform for games. Then 55% worldwide of all gamers are female. But only 11% could be considered true gamers.

What about that "average gamer age" topic in OT? You gonna move that one here too? Or am I just being singled out because reasons? :(

I figured if that topic can be in OT then so can this one, and GCD is a near lifeless forum, so...

Singled out? I moved your thread, I didn't ban you...You need to relax =P

The topic you referred to is not really about gaming, it's mostly about how old GS users are...if it devolves into "I'm so old I've played game X and Y. Do you remember how much fun game Z was?" kind of conversation it'll be moved here as well. This one is also about the people, not the games, but the conversation will most likely continue on the topic of which games attract what kind of people, and that's GD material in my opinion. If you disagree feel free to ask DigitalDame to overrule my decision, I don't mind =)

I'm good. I was just wondering why only one of the two threads with "gamer/gaming" in the title in OT got moved here.

There may be a lot of females that play games, but not in the traditional core gamer demographic. Most core gamers are still predominantly male. I wish more females played these type of games, but it just isn't so. Sadly, most females that I meet just aren't into games or will only play casual games. I think the younger generation of females is more open to gaming, which is good.

My problem is people just accept those study as fact without putting any though into them.

I do not like it when they use a very general study for a detail subset. They use that study that includes facebook games and apps game but they only talk about counsel and higher demanding PC games.

I read an articles that talk about how the gaming industry should push for more female programers because there was only 1 female for every 7 males while the general population is more even. What the articles did not talk about but I did a bit of research and found 12% of all programmers are female.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MxqSwzFy5w This video talk about a study that shows there been a gender gap and there seem to be one for collage students.

There nothing wrong with one gender enjoy something the other gender does not and it sexist to imply there is.

Not from my life-long gaming experiences. I'd guess it's probably more like a 80/20 ratio at best.

The answer to this would be Yes and No.

Yes, it is true that if you take anything that can be considered a game from Farmville, CandyCrush, facebook games to AAA titles that the female group is around 50%.

If you on the other hand look at what some would say is the core group of games, AAA titles from Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect etc. Then no its not true that half of the group is female. It´s far less and far from 50%

*sigh* I don't think I'm ever going to understand the perception that ones oviducts, vulva, or mammary glands have any real impact on ones ability to be interested in a medium (especially when that medium is video games).

Ya True.

But people like Anita, wu and Quinn isn't helping further that idea that it doesn't matter if you're male or female, all that matters is the gaming and games.

It's probably a bit of a guess, that statistic. No one really knows for sure.

No True Scotsman fallacy approaching.

Gamers play games. To try and define someone who plays IL-2 Sturmovik differently from someone who plays Candy Crush Saga is just going to undermine any point you might have had.

What is wrong with half of gamers being female? Maybe now the market will trend towards more female friendly games (or at the very least, not heavily gendered games, ones with strong male AND female characters relateable to by all audiences).

No. it's not a matter of clans and labels, it's a matter of statistics: minesweeper is a videogame, solitaire is a videogame, snake on mobile phones from 15 years ago was a videogame. Everybody played them when they were bored, so sure: you can cast a monumentally broad net and see how many people "play videogames", but when trying to determine figures concerning gaming culture and the gamer demographic, those games are completely irrelevant.

"Gamers" are not people who "play videogames": they are videogame enthusiasts for whom videogames are a go-to primary hobby, as opposed to people who fire up Candy Crush when they are bored in line at the post office. Much like people who happen to stop and watch a movie while zapping channels on their TV because nothing else is on are not cinema enthusiasts, or someone who only reads news stand romance novels is not a literature enthusiast.

Again, this is not a sectary argument and it's not meant to put casuals down, it's simply calling things with their own name.

Doubt it. That is at least assuming we're talking about home console games. I say that because the only figures we have to suggest a near 50/50 split don't allow for apples to apples comparisons between male/female at the same age groups. The exact information needed to reach determine that 50/50 split is being obscured which looks highly suspect, doubly so when the organisation housing the information actually has a mission statement to show gaming as for everyone, even if it isn't yet.

So there's no good actual figures, but even anecdotally I've yet to see any evidence that the number is 50/50. It's certainly changed over the years, but it strikes me as more of a 70/30 split based on the demographics of videogame retailer store clerks, attendance make up for events like PAX and so on. That's taking a rough head count.