When it comes to gaming, many have preconceptions about the average gamer. If movies and TV shows were anything to go by, online gaming is dominated by nerdy teenage boys in bedsits. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth, and today, gaming is multicultural, multi-gender and multi-generational.
There has been a huge rise in female gamers over the last few years, marking a new dawn for gaming and a revolution within the industry.
The Rise of Female Gaming
In the past 15 years the share of female gamers has risen from 38% to 45%, and that is completely changing the culture of gaming.
Where once games were almost exclusively developed for men, that’s changing. According to Steam, 48% of Call of Duty players are female, while brands are also beginning to make more female-focused games, particularly when it comes to mobile browsers and social media.
Platforms such as trusted bingo site Moon Bingo are hugely popular with female gamers and in particular mothers. The variations of bingo and number of sites is forever expanding, with the lockdown seeing a significant rise of 30% of new players, largely made up of females.
It’s savvy from gaming brands and developers, with bingo standing out as one of the first and major successes of female focused gaming really taking off.
More will of course follow. Today it’s reported that 71% of mothers are gamers, and it’s proving not just to be a huge market to attract within bingo, but also other genres too. The largest proportion of gamer mums are playing via mobile, with the likes of puzzles such as Candy Crush, Homescapes and FarmVille proving to be big titles.
However, it isn’t just mobile gaming. The more traditional forms of video gaming are also welcoming more females than ever, and they’re carving careers for themselves.
In places such as Asia, the female market has risen by 19%, and that’s trickling into the likes of eSports and streaming, making for a more accessible and exciting community for female gamers than ever before.
The Top Female Streamers:
- SSSniperWolf
- iHasCupQuake
- Fangs
- Ldshadowlady
- Yogs Cast
There are some huge female gamers these days streaming their play through YouTube.
SSSniperWolf has a whopping 7.2million subscribers streaming Call of Duty and has over a million followers on Twitter. She’s one of the leading females in the industry and is earning international acclaim, and inspiring many more women, not just to game, but enter eSports competitions too.
I’m one of the 3 amazing women featured in a piece with Vogue UK about being a female in E-sports!
I’ve always been a huge fan of fashion and it was truly a honor to be asked to be featured in Vogue. Check it out! 💖https://t.co/IeivCwlcR6
— ✨Ricki Sophie Ortiz✨ (@HelloKittyRicki) May 10, 2020
In an interview with Vogue, the gamer, whose real name is Alia Shelesh, said:
“The past few years have witnessed the rise of female streamers, community managers, game developers and so on. It’s exciting to see our community changing for the better. The best thing about being female is you don’t have to wait in line for the bathroom at a gaming event. But jokes aside, most of us struggle getting on mic while playing for fear of being judged or scrutinised.”
The Issues Female Gamers Face
That does pose problems. While it’s hugely promising to see the gender balance evening within eSports and online gaming, many females still face increased scrutiny due to their gender.
While this isn’t necessarily a problem on more female focused communities such as bingo and mobile puzzles. In eSports it’s still relatively rife.
A Guardian study found countless examples of such stories, while Fat, Ugly or Slutty, an archive of the abuse women receive in online gaming is quite startling.
That’s leading to many hiding their gender and playing anonymously. However, as female gamers rise, it’s hoped such behaviour will go on to be eradicated. One gamer told the Guardian:
“There was one time I did [played anonymously], and I was like, ‘Thanks, I’m a girl though, probably old enough to be your mum’ – and then someone else was like, ‘Me too,’ and then another one said, ‘Me too’ – and it turned out the whole server was full of women. We had just all assumed that we were dudes.”
Good Times for Gaming
Despite this, it’s 100% great news for gaming, and the fact more developers are taking gamers of all age and both genders is hugely positive for the industry.
Over the next few years, there will likely be even more female gamers playing across mobile, console and PC, and that will then begin to infiltrate into the world of eSports and more serious levels of gaming too.
Where once gaming was considered a man’s world, today that could not be further from the truth.
This is the general editors account for Old School Gamer Magazine. Press releases and other general information sent to Old School Gamer are often posted here.
