Let’s be real, video game culture has had a bit of a problem with women. There’s an endless ocean of instances where women were harassed online just for being a girl. This is especially true with eSports. But according to recent research, female viewership is increasing.
According to market research firm Interpret’s latest online survey, reported by Brendan Sinclair, women are making up a notably larger portion of eSports audiences than only two years ago.
The survey included around 9,000 U.S. residents. Approximately 30.4% of eSports viewers were female. This is a 6.5% increase from 2016. Now, about 35% of people who play eSports titles are female, as well.
Look at this chart. Join me in breaking it down.
It’s not too surprising really. All of the more “series” games with more toxic reputations to their community are on the lower end, indicating low female presence. While on the higher end, casual games and mobile games are closer to an even balance, with certain titles even having more women than men.
Maybe there’s something to parse from the fact that less aggressive games have a more accepting community, maybe not. I also like how Mario Party managed to sneak into the streak of mobile games on the right end of the graph.
Interpret VP of research for the EMEA Tia Christianson spoke about their findings.
“Changing behaviors among a large segment of people is difficult. Progress of this size always takes time; however, a 6% gain in gender share over a two year period is a trend in the right direction. If two years from now, the female audience grabs an additional 6% in share, eSports viewership will be in gender parity with what we consider standard among traditional console and PC games.”
There’s a lot of sexism in video game culture, especially with competitive ones. It was considered news worthy when Overwatch League had their first female player, and that was just last year. All the same, it’s good to see that it’s at least getting better.