The Entertainment Software Association conducted a survey of 2200 households to see what sort of demographics make up current video game buyers and players. The results are here, and if your fedora is on too tight, you might consider the numbers “damning.” If you’re a woman and you play video games, you might consider the numbers “no duh.”
Can’t argue with science, and science says exactly half of the people buying video games are women. And 48% of video game players are women. For the fanboys who bemoan that they can’t find a girlfriend who accepts the NERD LYFE: the math says there are women not already playing video games who don’t mind you playing Mass Effect, and they’ll even buy it for you for your birthday.
Listen, I joke that I am not really a “girl gamer” because the only games I play are Zelda related or Animal Crossing. But if you consider that I play them every day and in fact schedule time out of my day to maintain my town (THE FLOWERS DON’T JUST WATER THEMSELVES), I could be considered a gamer. The ESA results consider people who play games on their phones “gamers”, too, which means I totally count because HELL YEAH MAGIC KITCHEN.
ESA included the mobile user demographic and found “smartphone use to play video games increased 22% over 2012.” A total of 53% of households play games on their phone. That’s a big number to ignore, especially considering 68% of households are playing video games on a console.
Also of note, women over the age of 18 made up 36% of all gamers. The number of 18-and-under guy gamers is 17%. If only we could teach our cats to wear headsets, we could play Halo in multiplayer all the time.
So can we just stop saying women aren’t interested in video games now? Because that’s wrong. Scientifically wrong and also douchey wrong.
Via The Mary Sue