Shocking: Women Make Up 40% of U.S. Gamers
by Wade Larson on July 23, 2008 at 2:31 pm
The news is a week old, but it still bears mentioning, even in this internet addicted world in which “new” is measured in seconds.
The Entertainment Software Association has compiled a new study on gaming demographics. Among the most notable findings is that women do in fact play video games!
Ok, so maybe we knew that. But the study did find that 40 percent of U.S. gamers are women. Perhaps even more interesting is the finding that women age 18 and older represent 33 percent of the gaming population, while males 17 and younger comprise only 18 percent.
This begs the question, then, as to what these girl gamers are playing. Are they rushing game stores for My Pretty Pony or Grand Theft Auto? Because, despite the knowledge that girls do game we continue to see games geared towards girls in an almost condescending manner, “girlie” games, or games that some suits in a board room think girls will want to play.
The ESA’s report also states that 65 percent of house holds game, the average gamer is 35 years old and that one in four gamers is over 50, probably due in part to the massive success of the Nintendo Wii.
The full report can be found here.
What do you think? Are these findings surprising? What will the next demographic survey show?
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on July 23, 2008 3:15 pm
Not surprising at all. I’d like to see the stats on people who play games online also, because I think that the males under 17 would be something like 102%. At least that’s the way it seems whenever I play CoD4.
on July 23, 2008 8:19 pm
They’re playing The Sims. Seriously.
on July 24, 2008 12:33 am
Yeah, I tend to always wonder what they are playing, too. Sims is true, I’m sure. It’s not flying off the shelves just for teenage guys. I’d be specifically interested to find out what percentage of those girls line up taste-wise with the most prevalent male demographic.