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.”

  • unfazedbeaver@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    46
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    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

  • Spellblade@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don’t understand why they’re surprised. Gaming has been mainstream for many many years now and women are half the population.

    • noodlejetski@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      first they took our jerbs, then they took our 'obbies, what’s next, are they going to demand equal pay as well??!???!?!?!?11

      • tom@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        jerbs
        'obbies

        I admire your effort to seamlessly characterise misogyny on both sides of the Atlantic!

    • Zagaroth@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • Unicorn 🌳@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      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 🤷

    • blindsight@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Exaggeration207@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • sarsaparilyptus@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Some of my friends get annoyed when I take that stance, but it’s absolutely possible for both statements to be true simultaneously

          No no no! You have to pick a side that determines all of your opinions about all things, or I’ll call you an Enlightened Centrist on reddit.

    • jabakobob@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

  • TheYang@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    I… have to admit, other than Switch I’d have estimated somewhere around 20% to be honest.

    But I like to be wrong here, cool that it’s not that divided!
    And I’m not sure it’s a good sign that I didn’t expect this.

    Maybe Men are more vocal (possibly because women are less so, because of bad treatment), or maybe I’m just not as attentive…

    • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      1 year ago

      Maybe Men are more vocal (possibly because women are less so, because of bad treatment), or maybe I’m just not as attentive…

      it’s almost certain some of this disconnect is women just not participating in traditional gaming communities because they have to deal with dipshits constantly, yeah. i don’t know if i’d characterize all of gaming as unusually misogynistic, but it’s still probably really easy to find casual misogyny even in the best moderated gaming spaces–and a lot of gaming spaces aren’t that well moderated either

      • psudo@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        There’s also the fact that most people assume everyone else is a guy online, even if the users says otherwise. Given the misogyny you were mentioning I think a lot of the women who do stock around in gamer communities tend to not correct that assumption.

        • Mantis@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Yeah, I’m a woman in my thirties and I’ve played (on PC and console!) since I was five years old… learned a very, very long time ago that most people online would assume I was male and that it is often prudent not to correct them. So I don’t. Twenty years of conditioning telling me to keep my head down. Now that I think about it, that’s pretty sad.

          I hope young girls nowadays feel more comfortable being open about their interests. Maybe I should be more open myself; I can take the hits if it makes things even a little bit easier for them.

        • chaoticPuppies@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Right. I’m a woman who as been gaming since I was about 7 years old. I have learned several strategies to make sure that I don’t draw attention to that fact. It’s always better if whoever I’m playing with assumes that I’m a dude.

  • TheYang@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    basically just elaborating on this twitter thread.

    And because Kotaku decided to play a >1min video ad while i was trying to read:

    tl;dr:
    According to Circana’s PlayerPulse:
    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)

    41% of PS5s in the US are female owned
    45% of Xbox Series consoles are female owned
    52% of Swich consoles are female owned
    50% of gaming PCs are female owned

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      That doesn’t really seem right to me, at least in the US. Most female gamers I know are either married (so any consoles would be joint owned) or play mobile games almost exclusively. Some play on PC, and very few play on any kind of console without being married. Or maybe they just don’t talk about it like men do.

      If that’s accurate, I think it’s awesome! I’m more interested in methodology though. I’d love for this to be true since it means we’ve finally destroyed the stigma against women playing video games.

      • raspberrybush@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The methodology is discussed in the article.

        Here is a tweet embedded in the article that explains how the data was collected.

        While reflecting on our personal experience is useful it is important to acknowledge that our experiences are anecdotal and do not necessarily demonstrate truth.

      • lamentforicarus@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Most gamers you know are married, but most gamers I know are not. Less people are getting married overall, so it statistically could make sense. Also, I’ve found that among my married friends, those who game tend to prerer different kinds of games. For instance I have a friend who PC games but her husband only plays the xbox. So the data probably has variations of that.

  • Krafty@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Spellblade@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • noodlejetski@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

    • Onihikage@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      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??

    • crossmr@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • interolivary@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        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

        • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

    • nude@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Spellblade@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • nude@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

  • Spzi@lemmy.click
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    1 year ago

    Most Switch Owners Are Women, Gamers React Poorly

    Interesting title. As if “Women” and “Gamers” were two distinct groups.

    • buckykat@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      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

      • Spzi@lemmy.click
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

  • overlordror@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m a 38-year-old woman who has been playing games since she was five years old. The myth that women don’t play and enjoy games is a long-running one.

    • mizmoose@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been playing games on computers since 1977, at that time non-video games. Although I did play Pong on tabletop box (a TV screen embedded in a table, with knobs on the table top) in a hotel, sometime before that, probably around 1975 or so.

  • bstix@feddit.dk
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    1 year ago

    I read some digital market reports a few years back, which showed that something like 98% of all people between 13-18 were gaming. Obviously mostly casual games, but nevertheless paying consumers of games. More female than male by a close margin.

    When I discussed it on another gaming forum they were really quick to dismiss casual games altogether, despite it being the very largest group. There’s probably still a male majority in desktop first person shooters, which seemed to be the only “correct” gamers according to he kind of people following that kind of forum. Anyway, if I were to program a game I surely wouldn’t aim at the “stereotypical” gamer. They’re a minority with very high demands and very expensive gear. The whole stereotype is gatekept to the point where I don’t want to participate neither as a gamer or as developer.

    • ShadowAether@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Don’t quote me on this bc I do not remember the source but I remember reading somewhere that if you included the whole gaming market, women were a clear majority because of mobile but many many mobile gamers did not self-identify as gamers which I think probably skews other surveys/studies targeted at “gamers”

  • Los@beehaw.orgM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    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).

  • mayoaddict@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    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, Mekon@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    I remember when they took a group photo of all the people involved with the racing games at Codemasters. Around 600 of us… someone commented, “who are all these people?”. Well, programmers (AI/Phyisic/Audio/etc), Artists, Sound Engineers, Producers, HR…

    And there were women as well. Yes, that’s right, women develop games as well. There’s one of my team.