Women gamers now outnumber men according to a new survey, and that’s mostly down to apps.
A major new study carried out by Populus for the Internet Advertising Bureau has discovered that there are now more female gamers than male.
According to the study, female gamers accounted for 52 per cent of those who had played video games in the past six months. Three years ago, that figure stood at 49 per cent, so women have now edged into the majority.
That increase in female gamers has been driven by free mobile games apparently. The study found that six out of ten games played by women in the past six months were free to play.
“There are three key reasons why there’s an upsurge in women playing video games,” said psychologist Dr. Simon Hampton to The Independent. “Gender stereotypes say women don’t play video games so mobiles allow them to do so on the quiet. Many games now don’t feature characters to beat or kill which appeals to women as they’re less likely than men to simply play for competition’s sake.”
Games like Candy Crush Saga or others like Farmville attend to attract female gamers too, thanks to their non-violent natures and their intuitive touch-based gameplay.
“There’s also a lot more word games, it’s quite widely accepted that females tend to be more competent linguists.”
However, the survey may be skewed somewhat. The study surveyed 4058 Britons between 8 – 74 online between June 19 and 29.
Statistically, women are far more likely to fill out online surveys than men. So it could just be that more female gamers actually completed the survey than their male counterparts.
We’re convinced that there’s a strong female gaming community, on consoles, PC and mobile devices, but we’re not sure whether a survey is the best way to accurately portray their percentage.
Read more: Xbox One vs PS4
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
