The new data also reveals that 45% of Xbox owners and 41% of PS5 owners are female, too
This really shouldn’t be news and it certainly shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, but yes, new data from Circana shows that—as we told you in 2017—women play video games. In fact, more than half of all Switch owners are women. And a very vocal bunch of idiots are reacting about as well as you’d expect to this “revelation.”
I am glad this trend is becoming better understood. A more diverse audience means more diverse stories being told, and while another MCU or Street Fighter is a perfectly good game to release a game targeting that more diverse audience will give more options for me. I typically play games like Risk of Rain, Skyrim, Creeper World, and so on, but I have also lost many hours to Viva Piñata, so I would love to see some more diversity in the games on offer.
Bold of you to assume that a certain type of ‘gamer’ sees stories being more diverse as a positive 😩
You do realize women like fighting games and the MCU, right?
That’s the whole point of this statistic: the current gaming market is already palatable to everybody, unlike what your statement seem to misunderstand.
Yes indeed, I more mean that the marketing of video games gas been male coded for my entire life and as such the options have been narrowed to stereotypically male options. This means fewer options and less diversity. My partner loves guitar hero and Final Fantasy both of which were marketed more to men than women. That said, if there were companies trying to capture the female market segment their stereotypes would lead to other games, different from what they currently make. I disagree with the stereotypes but of they are going to use them then at least hit all of them, I want more games to play dammit!
Eh, just because lots of women are playing games doesn’t mean they’re catered to women.
Don’t get me wrong, the industry’s come a long way from every female character having 28DD’s and videogame trailers being all about stoic badasses and explosions. I think the rise of indie games has been great for that. But there’s an undeniable male-coded streak that still exists in marketing and in the industry, especially at the AAA level, and there’s progress we can still make there.
@rustyspoon @dwindling7373 The games appeal to women enough to play them. Nobody is forcing women to play games they don’t like.
Of course gamer bros are salty about this!
Most Switch Owners Are Women, Gamers React Poorly
Interesting title. As if “Women” and “Gamers” were two distinct groups.
Capital G Gamers doesn’t just mean people who play games, it means people who’ve built their whole identity around being weird little exclusionary creeps about gaming
Valid point, but even then, the two groups overlap.
The title seems to suggest that all Gamers were male. The article mostly talks about how that is not the case. It refers to these vocal gamers as ‘some annoying dudes’ within the text. Evidently, only some Gamers reacted poorly, but omitting the “some” makes for a more clickbaity=better headline.
The irony is, this headline strengthens the very stereotype the article aims to combat.
Indeed, I’m assuming it wasn’t the female gamers that reacted badly…
I’ve been trying to find the original study from Circana but all I can find are mentions of it, does anyone have the link to it?
Looks like these are choice stats from Cricana’s forthcoming Market Dynamics In Gaming 2023 report which, annoyingly, doesn’t yet appear to have actually been published yet. I suppose it’ll be announced at https://www.circana.com/press-releases/ when it actually comes out.
Just don’t do news about Twitter reactions. It’s nothing but outrage bait.
I used to browse twitter occasionally, but almost every tweet now has really low quality troll post underneath them. It feels like Twitter just consists of people who find everything outraging and they complain about everything.
It used to be that there were some interesting back and forths on Twitter, but in the last year or so all I see is outrage and insults.
True; this is lazy journalism.
That said, it’s absolutely a real problem. Women aren’t safe participating in many online spaces because a minority of misogynists make it a toxic space for them.
It starts young, too. Girls just don’t show up when I make “gaming” spaces at school. They don’t feel welcome.
I get why journalists go to Twitter, too. It’s a lot easier to find and provide “receipts”. Women who post about their experiences are dismissed regularly with statements like “I don’t see it so you must be making it up,” completely missing the point that they don’t see it because women have been eliminated from these shared spaces already.
Is Kotaku’s business model rage-baiting to generate clicks? Yes.
Is toxicity toward female gamers online a real problem? Also yes.
Some of my friends get annoyed when I take that stance, but it’s absolutely possible for both statements to be true simultaneously. I want women to feel safe if they want to try online gaming, and it’s counter-productive when sites like Kotaku constantly post fear-mongering articles about it rather than offer any solutions.
Toxic incel minority that makes a lot of noise. People have known it for years and nobody gives a damn. Videogames are made for every person to enjoy
It isn’t surprising, at least with my anecdotal experience, but still higher than I expected. Two girl friends of mine started to play lan parties with us since covid, and I know another that is completely obsessed with Valorant, and another that is equally obsessed with Football Manager.
I tried to find the original study and can’t. The only source that everyone points to is this tweet by the executive director of Circana. Anyone knows where I can find it?
deleted by creator
His company were the ones that did the survey, so I’d think it’s likely that he’s reporting it accurately. I wasn’t able to find the data set for any of his company’s surveys (I assume youd have to pay for it) but I did find this: https://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/ and this https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/09/11/younger-men-play-video-games-but-so-do-a-diverse-group-of-other-americans/. Those two articles show that while men are more likely to play games, women are still playing them a lot, particularly young women. So Circana’s player pulse survey, assuming it is being represented correctly isn’t out of line with other research done on this topic. The gamers upset about this seem to just be out of touch.
Thanks for the links, will read the second in a bit 👍
Yeah, it’s better to learn not to care about what the Gamers™ say. They love to be angry
so I’d think it’s likely that he’s reporting it accurately
That’s not really a safe assumption to make. Even though they shared their methodology they don’t seem to have shared the questions or the data. Misleading survey questions aren’t uncommon.
I am saying he is reporting the data his company gives him correctly not that there aren’t problems with the methodology. But even if there are issues with the methods here, Nintendo and Sony are reporting similar data as have previously done polls on the matter. And let’s be completely honest here. They’re most likely questioning the data because it doesn’t agree with their anecdotal experiences talking to women. And this is likely because women are playing much different games than they are.
He’s sharing data, that his company collected, but there remains the question of what the data exactly is. I mean, I don’t think any of us were born yesterday, and we’ve seen ‘science’ and ‘studies’ in journalism and how they’ll massage statistics and use vague terms to make specific claims. My favourite of this was years ago a study about cosmetics, which includes things like sun cream, was used to paint the narrative that all Korean men were walking around with make-up. While make-up was a subset of cosmetics, when you actually looked at it, it didn’t really support the claims they were making in the articles about it. For the most part I rarely trust anything like this being shared unless I can have a look at the whole package.
There are real studies and real science behind all these stories, but the journalists and middle men can rarely be trusted to present them in an unbiased manner that can be verified.
I don’t understand why they’re surprised. Gaming has been mainstream for many many years now and women are half the population.
Some of them have a sliver of an excuse, as from my childhood until I was at least in my late 20s, gaming was the realm of kids and geeks with no social life (according to populate opinion). And some people have trouble changing their understanding of the world after a certain point in their lives.
They probably also have a lot of other issues as that kind of mindset can affect a lot of other things, but that is the way some people are.
first they took our jerbs, then they took our 'obbies, what’s next, are they going to demand equal pay as well??!???!?!?!?11
jerbs
'obbiesI admire your effort to seamlessly characterise misogyny on both sides of the Atlantic!
More Americans elide their haitches than brits, IME as brit that lived in the US for a while.
There are some words that don’t get h’s here, like herb (“erb”), but I’ve never heard anyone say 'obbies, at least on the west coast.
what can I say, I believe in equal opportunity
More information from a closer source: https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1667172957066600448
47% of console video game players are female (+1% vs YA) 50% of PC video game players are female (+1% vs YA) 54% of mobile video game players are female (+1% vs YA) For these numbers quoted: n = 10,184 For people interested in PlayerPulse: Frequency: Monthly First Data Captured: Jan 1 2017 Methodology: Circana conducts a monthly survey of US active gamers over the age of 13. Surveys are fielded online, via PC and mobile devices, drawing from a nationally representative pool. Respondents qualify on the basis of having played games in the past month (30 days). To ensure consistency across samples and correct for any biases/errors, Circana implements a weighting system for each monthly dataset based on representative distributions of platform use and platform investment. Circana’s models are based on aggregated, cross-product samples, and are updated quarterly to account for market shifts.Mat Piscatella - Executive Director & Video Game Industry Analyst at Circana (NPD).
Glad to see more women picking up gaming! Here’s hoping that’ll stop my wife from nagging that my gaming habits are purely a “men/boys” problem.
My girlfriend has been literally using my PS5 more than me since I got it, gamer girls do exist and we should cherish them, not alienate them
“I don’t know ANY women
who play games!” Is probably half their comments.They do, of course. They’re just the reason no one on the team has a mic
🤣
Really? People are still acting like this? I remember back in the early 2000s when people were giving me crap for being a female gamer. The sad part is that I have been gaming probably before a lot of these new people complaining about female gamers have been born. I started back in the day with the Super NES. I also have a gaming PC, a Switch, and a Steam Deck. I also have various other consoles.
It’s bizarre, isn’t it. I’m a woman and I remember growing up with Pokémon, and Zelda and those 2 game series are extremely popular with women. A lot of women I know love puzzle games and were huge fans of Professor Layton on the ds when that was out. I even know a woman at my job who’s into Elden Ring.
I used to play a lot of PUBG on mobile. one of the most active players in our group was a girl and she was an absolute beast. doubly so if she got her hands on an M762.
I dont know if its actually still happening or its just an easy headline that appeals to peoples stereotypes.
Gamers is such a broad label that encompasses so many different demographics. Im sure there is a tiny, vocal, weird subset that is convinced that gaming is for men, but its certainly not representative of the gamer label as a whole.
A headline having a go at “gamers” is easy, because its not really representative of anyone in particular. I have no doubt that some angsty teenage boys have these opinions, but thats a small group within the gamer label.
Unfortunately, most of the gaming communities I looked (4chan, gamefaqs, reddit, twitter) at had a significant portion of the comments refusing to believe it. Some were able to believe the switch data thanks to games like Animal Crossing and Zelda but significant amount thought these stats were from moms buying stuff for kids. But I will say there were plenty of comments pushing back against that.
Not familiar with the gamefaqs community, but the others probably have a fairly circular Venn diagram between those angsty teen boys and gamers. Especially 4Chan. Twitter lately has been embracing the alt-right that fosters those angsty teen boys as well.
Maybe in wrong, I dont know. From my personal experience at least, which is being a male thats played video games since before the turn of the century, I dont see any of the people I play games with or have played games with over the last few decades holding these types of views. That may just be down to who I chose to play games with though.
My wife doesnt play much anymore, but she used to get the whole “woah a grill in my game?” Thing, but it was usually harmless and didnt go much further than those initial comments.
That anyone ever acted like that is so insane to me, it doesn’t even feel like it happened on the same planet. Among my middle/high school circle of friends through the 00’s, not a single one of us would have ever given shit to anyone, male or female, for playing video games. To us, every new gamer we met was a potential new friend who spoke our favorite language. Then we graduate, go out into the world, look around on the internet, and hear stories that there exist complete fuckwads on this green earth trying to keep girls out of gaming?? Like… what??
No Kotaku is acting like this. There was a distinct lack of evidence in their article
Some suggested the data is wrong or that the owner stats are skewed by moms buying consoles for boys
This isn’t acting poorly, this is just questioning the methodology, which is a good idea, because a lot of these surveys are very poorly done or have obvious holes in them like that one. .
They later shared the methodology, but it still isn’t clear what the exact questions were.
The rest of the article is the Kotaku writer speaking very vaguely about people. Was it 2? 200? 2000? who responded like this? You certainly wouldn’t know from that article, but Kotaku isn’t shy about painting all gamers with the same brush in the headline.
They’re “questioning the methodology” because they didn’t like the answer. While, yes, being skeptical is good, this skepticism wouldn’t even be happening if the result was what gAmErS wanted it to be
yeah we don’t have to pretend most of the unskewing here is being done with good intentions because it’s not, lol. there is a real, unambiguous swath of capital-G Gamers who hate the idea of gaming being something women also participate in, and they do everything in their social power to raise a fuss about it.
Why are people so stuck in the 1950s?
Glad to have woman playing. To paraphrase Iwata (Nintendo), gaming should be fun for everyone
Edit: “women” because I have butter fingers
The 1980’s for computes, but yeah very much outdated and it’s past time that we accept a good game is appealing to everyone and it doesn’t need to be pink and simple for a women to want to play it
Glad to have woman playing.
Just one? Guess it’s fitting given you’re on lemmy.one :P
RIP Satoru Iwata, the least bad gaming CEO. Dude actually took a pay cut when Nintendo wasn’t doing well.
This just in: Woman is Borg.
God knows why some people are like that.
“God” has a lot to do with it, yes.
My girlfriend has ~800 hours in Lost Ark and ~500 hours in Guild Wars 2.
She always nags me about not finding her new games. I am glad we are compatible in more than one thing.
Try No Man’s Sky, it brought countless fun hours to my SO and I. Same for Satisfactory.
This just in, “gamers” react shitty to something.
But “gamers” is evidently the wrong word, it should be “men”. The whole point is that there are a ton of female gamers, and then they equate gamers with men in the title 🤷
You are 100 percent correct on that.
Thanks for the correction.
