Report: Adult women gamers now double the number of under-18 boys


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The Entertainment Software Association, best known for its video game rating system, issued its annual "sales, demographic, and usage data" report on Thursday, chock full of statistics about console, PC, and mobile gaming. The numbers are all worth poring over, but this year's report highlights a particular demographic explosion: adult women, whose gaming ranks now more than double the long-sought-after demographic of boys under the age of 18.

 

According to the ESA's measure of 2013 sales, women ages 18 and over now constitute 36 percent of all measured gamers, compared to boys under the age of 18, who represent 17 percent of the total population. This measure shows a further increase from last year's count of 31 percent to 19 percent (and that 2013 measure only counted boys 17 and younger, meaning the total boost may be even bigger this year).

 

While males still hold the total gamer-population lead at 52 percent, that is a drop from last year's count of 55 percent, and the survey's count of "frequent game purchasers" found that men and women split that category neatly in half. The report also notes a giant boost in women gamers over the age of 50, a group that grew 32 percent in 2013.

 

However, the report didn't break down the gender divide in genre preference or software, possibly because the ESA doesn't track sales figures on digital platforms like the iOS App Store and Steam. This also puts its estimation of 2013's top-selling computer games in doubt; the ESA's tally currently counts seven versions of The Sims 3 (including expansion packs) in its top-20 list, which we estimate would change if download figures were included.

 

The report stated that "casual/social game" use jumped up 55 percent in the past year, but again, thanks to a lack of data, readers were left to wonder how much of that was directly impacted by a rising older-woman demographic. To fill in those cracks, a PBS report pointed to an early-August study by mobile advertising company Flurry Analytics, which found that women players spent over 30 percent more money on mobile games via in-app purchases than men.

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/report-adult-women-gamers-now-double-the-number-of-under-18-boys/

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Candy Crush?

 

But more seriously, there have been a few games that have absolutely pulled women into gaming. Zelda and Skyrim are a couple that stick out to me, as I know quite a few females who were all up into one or the other, if not both.

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That's hard to believe especially assuming gamer means legitimate PC/PS3/XBox360XBox One/PS4 games and not those generic games out there which i imagine they are counting.

 

because i imagine if they only counted legitimate games i could not say there being more adult women gamers vs under 18 boys.

 

p.s. plus, while i could be wrong, in my estimations those who play video games heavily are in their 20's and younger in general which i imagine favors guys as a whole.

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ld be wrong, in my estimations those who play video games heavily are in their 20's and younger in general which i imagine favors guys as a whole.

 

Not really... the gaming boom in the mid 2000's where all the kids from the 90's were teens are now in their mid-late 20's. Not to mention those who gamed in the 90's in their teens who are now in their 30's. Gaming is no longer a sub 20 thing. In fact I think a large portion of the gaming community sits between 20-26.

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This stat does include candy crush, and farmville.

 

So the there defining (in terms of there statas) gamer as casual/web to hard care console. 

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The only reason we have a Wii/Wii U in the house is for Mario games, which my wife loves! She's tried the PS3, but wasn't a fan and none of the games interested her. But Mario, I can always count on Mario being a hit with her and us playing to unwind from the day or pass the time.

 

I never see her play games on her iPhone, iPad or PC, just the Wii U. I have to admit, she is pretty good too. Yes, it's only Mario... but she holds her own and we tend to fly through the games repeatedly.

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The more the better. I would like to see more women take up gaming because it's a hell of a lot of fun. And if your girlfriend sits and games with you she doesn't have to complain about you playing too much :P

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Yeesh :p

 

I know plenty of female gamers in their 30s.  RPGs and MMOs especially, but one of my better friends has more games on Steam than I do....which is a challenge haha.

 

From what I've gathered people rarely advertise the fact that they're a girl when gaming online because of all the twits out there.

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I don't know why some people link to these types of stories to imply there's an equal amount of woman gamers on consoles/PCs. There might be but this kinda story just says games period. And I'm not implying that phone gamers are pretend casual gamers or anything just that theres different platforms for games and the gender split will be different on each one.

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I'm 40 and my mom has played Freecell since it was included in Windows, she even bought Mahjong at some point.  I guess according to them that makes my mom a gamer.  I don't think she considers herself a gamer though and nor do I.  100% of females I know are gamers by this standard.  I mean heck pretty much every girl I know plays Words with Friends, Candy Crush, or some other smart phone or facebook game.  If you're lumping that in as a gamer then I'm honestly surprised the stat is so low.  Maybe my Grandma isn't a gamer???  Do they count playing flash games in the browser as gamers too?  I mean really who doesn't do at least one of those on occasion (in first world countries).

 

For me to be a "gamer" denotes a certain level of effort/dedication that social media games, flash games, and most current smart phones/tablet/microconsole games don't rise to.  That last category is changing, Infinity Blade was probably the first to push the envelope.  GPUs in smart phones and such continue to get better and MS has that Halo game and Amazon is making games for their Microconsole so change is in the wind but the Candy Crush and Words With Friends style games still far outnumber the "serious" ones.  Sims is probably the biggest girl friendly gamer game that I'm aware of.  A good number of girls play WoW as well.  I count Sims and WoW players as real gamers even though I don't personally like either game.

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