You may be surprised to learn that 52% of women are gamers. With all the action packed, blood spewing video games out today the main audience has to be male, right? Wrong.
I was shocked when reading these facts:
Based on interviews with 4,000 UK residents, the researchers found that women now account for 52 percent of the gaming audience, which is up from 49 percent three years ago. The study, which was commissioned by the Internet Advertising Bureau, also revealed there are now more people over 44 years old playing games than children or teenagers. The gamer audience reportedly stands at 33.5 million Britons, which is 69 percent of the population.
This surge of women becoming gamers and staying gamers can be explained by the popularity of the smartphone. The smartphone has made gains more readily available to everyone. This could be due to the smartphones ease-of-use.
One scenario that comes to mind is when women are waiting for their children to be done at appointments. While sitting in the waiting room playing a game on their smartphone to pass the time is very desirable. That is one example, but women will play whenever possible, very intently as well.
During the interview women shared that puzzle games were their go to games. The study also showed that women are also interested in disc type games by a large margin. So that discredits the stereotype that women only enjoy smartphone games. It’s a wonder if the future of game design will change in the future now that studies are showing that a quarter of all gamers are now over 45-years-old.
Another interesting thing to consider is, if women make up the majority of the gaming audience why is the number of women working in the game industry so low? Wouldn’t the people who play the game the most have the most to offer when it comes to game development and other aspects of the industry? Only 12 percent of game designers in Britain are women and 3 percent of all programmers are women. Also, the number of women speaking at gaming conferences and events is minute. These shocking numbers are not because women are not interested in working in the industry it’s just how the present industry is constructed. It’s interesting to ponder how the game industry would change if more jobs were available to women.
It will be interesting to see future studies to see if this popular trend continues. If it does, I wonder if there will be industry changes in the future.