Women may still be in the minority among workers in the games industry, but women have been rapidly becoming an ever bigger part of the gaming audience. The latest report from the Entertainment Software Association, they’re clearly gaining ground, and among all gamers women are 48 percent of the total. More than that, once you break up gamers into age ranges, women are doing extraordinarily well.
As reported by the Daily Dot, the ESA states that adult women are now the largest single demographic in the gaming community. Women over the age of 18 represent 36 percent of the overall gaming population, compared to the second largest demographic, adult men over 18 (at 35 percent of the total).
This is mainly due to the introduction of various platforms to play on, including social games on mobile, as well as casual games on PC’s being the real attention getters.
Older women are getting in on the gaming action as well. The study indicates that women over 50 managed to jump by 32 percent between 2012 and 2013. In addition, the audience for computer and video games now appears to be split right down the middle almost, with 50-50 between male and female audiences.
As you can see by this chart, the numbers certainly add up — and age also plays a factor as well, with more women over 36 plus years of age gaming more than those under 18.
Casual computer games seem to be the most popular with females, as online and mobile puzzle games, board games, trivia games and card games, all show a huge spike in popularity.
In terms of general audience size, the U.S. has an impressive amount overall, with 59 percent of Americans playing some form of games, while 51 percent of all U.S. households have some form of game console, like the Xbox One and/or PlayStation 4.
