So the other day I was talking to my friend. I act kind of gender-neutral, so I asked, "What manly/boyish/masculine things am I into?" They respond, "You play video games." Now, she's a girl. She plays games. But she said that most of the gaming community is male. I didn't really notice it before; Out of all the gamers I've met/know of, 99% of them are male. What do you guys think?
It's true that the majority of gamers seem to be male. However, I can tell you that there's many female gamers and they're just as good at kicking ass. I have 3 close female friends and they all play video games.
I would say that 'core' gamers, those who play CoD, Madden, the occasional Mario game with friends, etc. are mostly male. The 'casual' crowd, those who mainly play Candy Crush, Facebook games, etc. are mostly female. However, the more 'hardcore' gamers, those who try to play a variety of different games, across different platforms, across different generations and genres, are much more sexually and gender-ly diverse. At least, that's what I've found across years of playing video games, following the industry, and going to anime conventions and the like.
Depends on what genre of games you're looking at, the age of the gamers, and what exactly you consider a gamer. Mobile gaming has converted an enormous population of women in their late teens to early twenties and titles like Candy Crush and the Kim Kardashian game have millions of daily players. If you count them then female games probably outweigh male.
Pretty sure most every study has shown it to be about even between males and females, though that is across all genres and platforms and I think are based on self reporting (so someone may classify themselves as a 'gamer' when they probably shouldn't). If you limited it to things like FPSs then you see significantly higher proportions of males, and if you limit it to things like Facebook/mobile games you see much higher proportions of females. Interestingly in August this year Nintendo released statistics for their Wii U eShop usage, and 93% of purchasers said they were male while only 7% said they were female. I would've thought Nintendo would've had more female representation - I expect that the PlayStation/XBOX have even less female representation than this.
I heard that women now make up the majority of gamers actually, but the stereotype is that it's a male thing
they said the same thing about the heavy metal community..... but that really isn't the case. i've met a few gamer girls here and there
All I know is on the other forums I go on which is centered around gaming, 3 or 4 of the 5 or so prominent females in that community turned out to be guys pretending they were girls. xD
Across all platforms/genres, the rates are about equal. And IRL, for me at least, the amounts are about the same, but the girls I know who game are generally a lot more 'hardcore' into it than the guys; while they play console-based games, they're a lot more 'casual' than the girls in terms of range and playtime. Mobile games are just as much games any other, and they make gaming more accessible to a general population which is very neat, imo. Could mean more people playing a wider variety of games in the future, since gaming is stereotyped as a male hobby.
According to the latest articles the split is essentially right down the middle these days to be honest.
No it's about even and the fastest growing segment right now is adult females. It is true, however that most game developers are male and most of the most outspoken, loud, and hideously misogynistic/homophobic gamers are male.
I know many gamers who arent male. I think the reason everyone believes gamers are all male is because they are the ones who shout about it.
In most of the video games I play there are very few women, and the ones who play are generally brought in to it by their boyfriends. Honestly I don't understand why.
It really depends on the game and community to be honest. There are games marketed toward different genders. And female gamers are becoming more and more common these days. I don't know any girls who haven't played at least one game.
It also depends on how they interact with the community as well. Someone can play mostly offline games, or not participate in forums, but may spend just as much time playing games. There's also the fact that many may look at the larger community, say "Nope" and stick to playing with people they know. It isn't a very welcoming group, and my group of friends try to avoid stepping into matchmaking when we can avoid it. But this behavior is the same for a lot of things. There's a difference between those who cook (and treat it as a hobby), and those who actively participate in the cooking community. With all this evidence that women are becoming a majority of the gaming population, I think it is a perfectly fair question to ask why we aren't seeing similar representation in forums/etc. Is it because of the different demographics in games? Is it because of the mosh pit style behavior? Is there something else?
48% of gamers are women. I am female and part of that 48%. I don't just play casual games either. It is however - a stereotypically male hobby. Also - women often turn their microphones off while online gaming to avoid verbal abuse among other things.