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[Nirolak]

And their findings are... that they're not really that different for people on the same platform type.

Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-10-30-platform-not-gender-drives-gamer-differences-eedar

To provide some context for PC gaming, an examination of core PC (e.g. Steam) gamers suggests that the market is still largely male (65%), with male gamers tending to be slightly heavier players/payers than females (58% of men are heavy players/payers, compared to 40% of women). Despite this difference in investment, there is a heavy degree of overlap in genre preferences - with RPGs, MMORPGs and Strategy games being among players' top five genres.

 

[Log4Girlz]

I'm surprised at the percentage of women playing consoles.

 

[stix zadinia]

Number of women playing consoles is surprising. Certainly does not feel like its that much. When I play, and through the people I know, it feels like a 80/20 split rather than a 60/40.

 

[anexanhume]

I'm surprised at the percentage of women playing consoles.

I can understand the gulf between perception and reality there because they tend to hide/obscure their gender identity when possible, especially online.

 

[Saty]

Combat City Builder.

 

[StoOgE]

I can understand the gulf between perception and reality there because they tend to hide/obscure their gender identity when possible, especially online.

Also,

With the relatively small % of people who actually talk online it's probably down to an assumption issue than actual knowledge of who you are playing with.

 

[viveks86]

Whoa! There are more female heavy console gamers than male? That is truly shocking. Other numbers are in line with expectations.

 

[Nirolak]

Combat City Builder.

Like Clash of Clans or Kingdoms of Camelot.

Whoa! There are more female heavy console gamers than male? That is truly shocking. Other numbers are inline with expectations.

By percentage of total gamers of that gender on the platform.

Basically 65% of men who play consoles are heavy gamers on them and 69% of women who own consoles are heavy gamers on them.

Or, put another way, 27.6% of console gamers are heavy usage women and 39% are heavy usage men, but women are more likely to be heavy usage gamers than men on consoles.

 

[Aeana]

I can understand the gulf between perception and reality there because they tend to hide/obscure their gender identity when possible, especially online.

I don't play online multi-player very often, but when I do, I don't use voice chat because I don't want that extra stress. Usually the only online games I'm playing are MMOs though.

 

[viveks86]

By percentage of total gamers of that gender on the platform.

Ahh I see. Misread that

 

[Foshy]

Whoa! There are more female heavy console gamers than male? That is truly shocking. Other numbers are in line with expectations.

No, it means that of the 40% total female players, 69% are in the "heavy" category. Whereas 65% of the 60% male players are.

Still, it's absolutely great to hear that we're approaching a 50/50 split.

 

[ShinMaruku]

Number of women playing consoles is surprising. Certainly does not feel like its that much. When I play, and through the people I know, it feels like a 80/20 split rather than a 60/40.

There is a huge assortment of games so it isa 80/20 split on certain games but when you put them in aggregate it fits 60/40

 

[sörine]

Whoa! There are more female heavy console gamers than male? That is truly shocking. Other numbers are in line with expectations.

I'm curious how it breaks down into Xbox, PlayStation and Wii platforms respectively. I'd guess Wii takes a higher female concentration than PS or Xbox but that's really just conjecture on my part.

 

[AndyD]

Still, it's absolutely great to hear that we're approaching a 50/50 split.

Indeed.

 

[djplaeskool]

Combat City Builder.

Seems to be big business.
I see about as many ads for Clash of Clans, Grepolis, or Forge of Empires as I do for any PS4 or XB1 major titles.

 

[OminoMichelin]

Someone should send these to AAA publishers.

 

[Guevara]

Women: still not that different from men

 

[Victrix]

I'm not sure if this is more interesting that we're approaching parity, or more depressing because I never hear women online in anything except maybe MMOs, and then only if they're a friend of a friend.

 

[EdibleKnife]

Wow. Very good to know

 

[Mael]

And there we have it the split between gender based on usage.
Gaming is not by and large a boys only club like I thought.

 

[commedieu]

Really puts gamergate into perspective.

I'm not sure if this is more interesting that we're approaching parity, or more depressing because I never hear women online in anything except maybe MMOs, and then only if they're a friend of a friend.

Because they get harassed. On PC though, it seems there are far more vocal women.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

So much for "women mostly play Candy Crush so they're not really half of the playerbase!", eh?

 

[BocoDragon]

As someone who is still in post-secondary, I'm not surprised at all. For the ~20 year old woman, gaming has been a normalized thing for most of their lives. The old "girls don't play games" assumptions of the 80s and 90s are a distant memory.

A girl in my class was just harassing me over FB as to what games she should buy with a new PS4. I didn't think anything of it.. It's normalized for me too. But I remember the days when "girl gamer" was this rare beast... Almost an act of tomboyism. That's over.

 

[Mechazawa]

I'm curious how it breaks down into Xbox, PlayStation and Wii platforms respectively. I'd guess Wii takes a higher female concentration than PS or Xbox but that's really just conjecture on my part.

I would guess the opposite, really. The Wii isn't exactly swimming in RPGs out of two big, more recent ones.

 

[Victrix]

Because they get harassed. On PC though, it seems there are far more vocal women.

I'm aware, that's the depressing part

It could be that pc chat servers skew older, console chat skews younger, or it could be that the type of games I play on consoles simply favor more aggressive male assholes.

 

[OnionPowder]

Something doesn't add up here

Spoiler

106% for female gamers

 

[Mesoian]

Hey look! It's a breakdown of gamers by gender that's actually meaningful. Whodathunkit!

Though I still want to see the sample size.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Something doesn't add up here

Spoiler

106% for female gamers

Hmm, perhaps a typo?

 

[SerTapTap]

Pretty interesting breakdown. All in all much more evenly split than social biases would predict--women are a slight majority on mobile despite the "housewife playing games" stereotype, and there's plenty of women on the console side, though the gender ratio's still a bit out of whack there.

Number of women playing consoles is surprising. Certainly does not feel like its that much. When I play, and through the people I know, it feels like a 80/20 split rather than a 60/40.

My Youtube channel has a surprisingly even gender split (I cover mostly indie games and web games but not stereotypically "female genres" like hidden object stuff usually). Perceptions are pretty out of date, but women still seem less likely to discuss gaming/be open about it as publicly as men. And due to the social biases and abuse I'm afraid I can't blame them, though I'd love to see everyone be open about the fact that they play games and talk more about them.

 

[block tower]

is there a gender breakdown on the new platforms? id be curious to see whos playing more on Wii U, PS4 , and X1. im really not surprised by these numbers, like others have said, most girls i know in the real who game rarely speak online and seldom have GT's that would give away them being female. its sad so many female gamers have to hide, but thats obviously a reflection on how mae oriented the current console gaming landscape is. i wonder if research groups for the bi publishers are looking at this gender parity and thinking about making more female leads in AAA games?

 

[Lunar15]

This puts a dent in a lot of misconceptions. Good study by EEDAR.

 

[Vagabundo]

is there a gender breakdown on the new platforms? id be curious to see whos playing more on Wii U, PS4 , and X1. im really not surprised by these numbers, like others have said, most girls i know in the real who game rarely speak online and seldom have GT's that would give away them being female. its sad so many female gamers have to hide, but thats obviously a reflection on how mae oriented the current console gaming landscape is. i wonder if research groups for the bi publishers are looking at this gender parity and thinking about making more female leads in AAA games?

Wii U is predominately - like 80%+ - male according to Nintendo's own surveys,, I believe.

 

[Nirolak]

PC to note:

To provide some context for PC gaming, an examination of core PC (e.g. Steam) gamers suggests that the market is still largely male (65%), with male gamers tending to be slightly heavier players/payers than females (58% of men are heavy players/payers, compared to 40% of women). Despite this difference in investment, there is a heavy degree of overlap in genre preferences - with RPGs, MMORPGs and Strategy games being among players' top five genres.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I'm just going to put this out there, but I think if we went back to the late 90s and early 2000s. There would be more of a % for males with RPGs. I think the lack there of in the RPG department has caused this and they aren't considering specific genres of RPGs. If that statistic includes Dragon Age and/or Skyrim or even Fallout 3/NV then I'm baffled.

 

[Aeana]

I'm just going to put this out there, but I think if we went back to the late 90s and early 2000s. There would be more of a % for males with RPGs. I think the lack there of in the RPG department has caused this and they aren't considering specific genres of RPGs. If that statistic includes Dragon Age and/or Skyrim or even Fallout 3/NV then I'm baffled.

Of course it includes those games. Why are you baffled?

 

[Northeastmonk]

Of course it includes those games. Why are you baffled?

There was a time when RPGs had a certain flow. They had some things action games included on their own. They were a test to a market that we know now. The RPG genre is broad and has a wide arrange of elements that are simply added to the game to make it feel kept up to date.

A shooter and an RPG can co-exist, but is it truly an RPG or an FPS with stats? Just because you add stats to a game makes it an RPG? Are RPG elements going away and we're just saying, "this is an RPG?". People want to stop the specifics anymore, but I'd probably think differently if I wasn't a child born in 85.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I'm just going to put this out there, but I think if we went back to the late 90s and early 2000s. There would be more of a % for males with RPGs. I think the lack there of in the RPG department has caused this and they aren't considering specific genres of RPGs. If that statistic includes Dragon Age and/or Skyrim or even Fallout 3/NV then I'm baffled.

BioWare and Bethesda's modern stuff are very female friendly though, at least in terms of role playing options.

 

[SliceSabre]

Wii U is predominately - like 80%+ - male according to Nintendo's own surveys,, I believe.

Yea I remember when Nintendo released their gender numbers and how shocked everyone was at how anemic the female numbers were.

 

[block tower]

Wii U is predominately - like 80%+ - male according to Nintendo's own surveys,, I believe.

wow thats not what i expected. so the Wii U virtually lost all momentum the Wii had for female gamers. does MS or Sony ever release gener breakdowns like Nintendo??

 

[Northeastmonk]

BioWare and Bethesda's modern stuff are very female friendly though, at least in terms of role playing options.

BioWare and Bethesda became a growing power because they did that. They made these epic games with simple fundamentals, but they still have a foundation that they built everything on. More so BioWare, Bethesda has upgraded their action-RPGs, so I think it's more of a transition than an acceptance. Possibly a change in direction period.

 

[Aeana]

There was a time when RPGs had a certain flow. They had some things action games included on their own. They were a test to a market that we know now. The RPG genre is broad and has a wide arrange of elements that are simply added to the game to make it feel kept up to date.

A shooter and an RPG can co-exist, but is it truly an RPG or an FPS with stats? Just because you add stats to a game makes it an RPG? Are RPG elements going away and we're just saying, "this is an RPG?". People want to stop the specifics anymore, but I'd probably think differently if I wasn't a child born in 85.

I'm having a hard time following your argument. Are you saying that FPS mechanics drew women in, and women weren't interested in RPGs before that? If so: what.

I'm older than you. I'm also a woman. I have been playing RPGs since the early 80s. The genre has evolved and broadened, but I don't understand what that has to do with this demographic information.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

What would "arcade" mean in terms of handheld games here? Games like TxK on Vita?

Where are my handheld arcade games.


fake edit: I searced for 3DS arcade games, and this came up. So it's basically platformers?

http://games.gamepressure.com/games_encyclopedia.asp?PLA=11&KAT=4

 

[Northeastmonk]

I'm having a hard time following your argument. Are you saying that FPS mechanics drew women in, and women weren't interested in RPGs before that? If so: what.

I'm older than you. I'm also a woman. I have been playing RPGs since the early 80s. The genre has evolved and broadened, but I don't understand what that has to do with this demographic information.

That's wonderful. I'm probably not aware outside two females I met in high school who enjoyed RPGs. That's not to say anything. In college I never met a female who played Final Fantasy or Grandia. I know there's more of a following towards the newer games because they look good. I'm saying in general those games gain an audience. I'm not shocked, but I'm not aware of anything more than my group of guys who played them growing up.

I guess they're easier now to enjoy because you aren't staring at pixels on the screen or waiting for FMVs.

 

[Nirolak]

What would "arcade" mean in terms of handheld games here? Games like TxK on Vita?

Where are my handheld arcade games.


fake edit: I searced for 3DS arcade games, and this came up. So it's basically platformers?

http://games.gamepressure.com/games_encyclopedia.asp?PLA=11&KAT=4

According to their definition guideline: http://www.eedar.com/Uploads/Genre Definitions.pdf

Arcade
Arcade games are similar to coin-op arcade games popular from the 1970s to
the 1990s. Arcade games are characterized by an easy to learn interface and
rules of play, and often emphasize scoring points and level progression.
Most arcade games do not offer save points, but instead limit the number of
lives or time that the user has until they are eliminated. Many downloadable
game titles and web browser based games fall into this genre.
Examples: Pac-Man, Joust, flOw

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

BioWare and Bethesda became a growing power because they did that. They made these epic games with simple fundamentals, but they still have a foundation that they built everything on. More so BioWare, Bethesda has upgraded their action-RPGs, so I think it's more of a transition than an acceptance. Possibly a change in direction period.

But you just expressed incredulity at the numbers including Dragon Age, Skyrim, and Fallout.

I have to join the boat in not understanding what you're arguing.

 

[Northeastmonk]

But you just expressed incredulity at the numbers including Dragon Age, Skyrim, and Fallout.

I have to join the boat in not understanding what you're arguing.

I'm alluding to a few things.

I think for one game genre specifics are much more inclusive without specifics. Games are welcoming people because they don't have this "game" to teach you outside already known mechanics. If you see HP on the screen are you including everything? Is just wording define a game or simple fundamentals?

When I was 15 I went to the mall to play Tekken Tag Tournament. There was girl who was extremely nice to play with, but that was all. I can see why it got to where it is because she'd smirk the guys and their comments. It's been a while since that happened, but it made me aware of the extreme form of criticism that exists in the world today.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

According to their definition guideline: http://www.eedar.com/Uploads/Genre Definitions.pdf

Arcade
Arcade games are similar to coin-op arcade games popular from the 1970s to
the 1990s. Arcade games are characterized by an easy to learn interface and
rules of play, and often emphasize scoring points and level progression.
Most arcade games do not offer save points, but instead limit the number of
lives or time that the user has until they are eliminated. Many downloadable
game titles and web browser based games fall into this genre.
Examples: Pac-Man, Joust, flOw

Well, there's not an abundance of these games on handhelds afaik. There's some on Vita, and a few on 3DS, so it's a bit surprising that this is the preferred genre to female handheld gamers to me. Or any handheld gamers for that matter.

 

[cm osi]

I'm curious how it breaks down into Xbox, PlayStation and Wii platforms respectively. I'd guess Wii takes a higher female concentration than PS or Xbox but that's really just conjecture on my part.

nintendo said that 93% of people who access e-shop are male. dunno about gaming

 

[XiaNaphryz]

That's wonderful. I'm probably not aware outside two females I met in high school who enjoyed RPGs. That's not to say anything. In college I never met a female who played Final Fantasy or Grandia. I know there's more of a following towards the newer games because they look good. I'm saying in general those games gain an audience. I'm not shocked, but I'm not aware of anything more than my group of guys who played them growing up.

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal. Back when I was in junior high/high school 20+ years ago, there were a couple girls back then I'd consider to be serious gamers and they also enjoyed RPGs like FF and Chrono Trigger. I met even more when I went into college.

 

[bishoptl]

That's wonderful. I'm probably not aware outside two females I met in high school who enjoyed RPGs. That's not to say anything. In college I never met a female who played Final Fantasy or Grandia. I know there's more of a following towards the newer games because they look good. I'm saying in general those games gain an audience. I'm not shocked, but I'm not aware of anything more than my group of guys who played them growing up.

I guess they're easier now to enjoy because you aren't staring at pixels on the screen or waiting for FMVs.

Bags o' sand, amirite?