Teenage Male Gamers No Longer Biggest Demographic

[Aurion]

Not a new trend- I don't think teenage males have been the "dominant" video game demo in close to a decade now, even as they remain prominent in the conversation due to pop culture- remember, the original NES was released in North America 19 years ago.

Those kids, and the SNES kids, and the Genesis kids, and the N64/PS1/DC kids...hell, even the Xbox/PS2 userbases have all grown up at this point. The earlier adopters are either in or entering their thirties en masse.

It's a good thing in some ways- the industry is growing up and out in some ways to adapt to its changing demographic base and mainstream social appeal- and bad in some ways (the existence of an "old guard" has drawbacks, and the growing pains have been, are, and will continue to be immense).

On the one hand it wasn't that long ago that the only people who "played video games" according to popular culture were stereotypically uncool teenage male virgins... but on the other hand it really has when one considers just how much has changed over that timeframe.

And that's all I'm gonna say unless someone gets egregious because the first page of this thread made me facepalm.

 

[runic knight]

Well, this is largely worthless data, isn't it?

I guess in a feel good sort of way, it is nice to hear women are trying to enter the hobby and all. That is good news.

Unfortunately because they include everything from console and pc to mobile, it means nothing towards the state of he industry at large. Why you may ask? Simple, even though women are a larger demographic on some platforms, that is not taking into account how profitable each platform is.

As such, though women may now make up a higher percentage of players then teenage boys, the teenage boys represent a higher level of profitability still because their purchases are more expensive and they contribute more money into the industry then female games. Thus, they're buying habits are still more important to the industry when it comes to dictating the choices taken by the gaming industry.

But yeah, lets all enjoy the feel good aspect of more gamers, that is a good bit of a news after watching the whole Zoe Quinn debacle continue to unfold. Be nice to have some more female games make the transition from mobile into console or pc gaming later on. Will lead to more developers and game makers being inspired too, hopefully. And lead to things like the project by the fine young capitalist https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-fine-young-capitalists--2 (shameless plug of a good cause.)

 

[veloper]

As long as men continue to spend four times a as much on games as women, the industry will continue to chase after those dollars.

It's a shame this link doesn't work, because otherwise this could have been the only relevant bit of information mentioned sofar in this thread.

What the others don't understand is that if an audience continues to throw a lot of money at a franchise, it won't just go away or chance it's successful recipe for a bunch of vocal pinkos on the sideline.

We can all start calling anyone who occasionally plays the free solitaire or minesweeper game, that came for free with their OS, a "gamer" and pretend we're oh-so diverse, but that is meaningless and we're fooling nobody in the industry. Activision, EA and the rest will only care about who actually buys their games and for how much.

All those male-orientated, violent games that the pinkos like to frown on, get made because COD, Battlefield, GTA, etc. is where gamers throw the most money at. Games like that are here to stay.

Fans of less popular genres will have to satisfy themselves with fewer big releases and less pretty GFX as a rule. The good news for them is that since the rise of digital distribution, all the niches are getting much more attention. Start with supporting some of those.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Another year, another study, and the amount of female gamers has yet again grown exponentially.

The only thing that grew is the amount of people who have a Smartphone.

 

[LaoJim]

From what I've seen, phone and family games aren't a gateway drug.

I think you're generally right, but let me give you an example. My mother (60+) got an XBox 360 a couple of years back, so the grandkids would have something fun when they visited. Since they were young she thought she'd better know a bit about it, she started off playing Viva Pinata and the Lego Games, unlocking all the animals/characters "so the kids can have access to them". A couple of Christmases ago she got Skyrim (she's a Lord of the Rings fan). My expectation was that she'd playing it for a couple of hours, get stuck and then I'd have a free copy of Skyrim. She's now completed it twice and has 200+ hours logged into it. She also completed Kingdoms of Amalur and was able to give the standard 'gamer' explanation of what was wrong with Fable 2/3. Last thing she was asking me if she'd enjoy Dark Souls.

Am I the only one who thinks gamer should be someone who at least spends a certain amount of money, a number of hours a day on at least couple of games?

The problem is one of definition. Rather than try to say who is and who is not a 'gamer' which is always going to be slippery, the information should be factual. i.e.

How much money did various demographics spend on gaming within the last year?
How much time in a week do various demographics spend gaming?
How many individual games do various demographics play in a week?
How often do you read/watch information about games in the press/on the internet?
and so on for genres, platforms, on/off-line play.

And yet again people tries to shit over the stats instead of 1. realizing the actual significance, and 2. being supportive, welcoming and inclusive into this great hobby of ours.

In fairness the stats on offer are already fairly shitty, dumbed down, badly defined and not that informative (Unlike xaszatm's chart which, assuming the numbers are right, is a lot more useful). You can acknowledge that there are more women in gaming, welcome this trend and still question the patronizing way in which this data is presented.


The issue with this kind of debate is that it always devolves into one side saying "there are now as many female gamers as male gamers" and the other side saying "the females only play Candy Crush and other such trifes" (although they usually use stronger language". This tends to hide the real changes in demographics. Again if you look at the xaszatm's chart there are some stereotypes that are confirmed such as women play family games with their kids, or music games, but there are also some surprises, MMO/RPG are about equal as are platformers and strategy. This is far more interesting than just saying more women play games (occassionaly or often) than men.

(Obviously we can still get snobby about the data if we want; suggesting that the 'platformers' women play are those endless runner games, or wondering which catagories Farmville, Candy Cruch and that Kim Kardashian game are placed in, but anyway it's a start)

Given that my mother is constantly asking me to recommend new games, rarely finds anything she likes, but is willing to drop 40 pounds on it when she does, I'd say the gaming industry isn't catering to AAA-playing women gamers.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Simulation games like ?Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? and ?Candy Crush Saga?

Candy Crush? Simulation? Whaaaaa...? What in life is that simulating?

Also, this is like saying that chunky blokes in their 40s are no longer the average builder as the number of 7-12 year olds with Lego have ovetaken them.

 

[Olas]

I don't know, call it anecdotal evidence, but TB recently came out with a shirt directed towards PC gamers and he decided to make both a men's and women's fit available.

Spoiler: Here's a screenshot

And a few days later he tweeted the following.

Spoiler

Now I'm not stupid, obviously there are some women who buy men's shirts and other factors at work, but I doubt it's 94.8 percent of them. TB said in the video where he advertised it that women only make up roughly 5% of his viewing demographic but said he wanted to include them anyway.

But it clearly doesn't count, because they're filthy casuals playing mobile games, and are not true for-realsies hardcore gamers.

As a side note, what does "casual" even mean any more? I saw a thread a while back calling Assassin's Creed "casual." I guess people just want to feel even more elitist about liking Dark Souls?

Actually Assassin's Creed is pretty casual as fuck if we're talking about difficulty and depth of combat. Assassin's Creed is the game you play if you want to feel like an unkillable god, Dark Souls is pretty much the opposite. Most games fall somewhere in between.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/female-adults-oust-teenage-boys-largest-gaming-demographic/

The schadenfreude here is so sweet. And I am glad there are going to be whiny male gamers crying into their soup over this.

The 21st century is here. Get on board or get out of the way.

Why would anybody cry over sharing their hobby with more people? I don't even understand the logic of that, I'd love it if more of the females I know played videogames. Having your hobby be something only one demo participates in is never very validating.

 

[neokiva]

Least now we don't need to hear about how girls aren't a major force in the game industry. The majority I would say has a pretty big voice.

The whole "we are the biggest demographic so there shouldn't be more female representation in games" etc. argument was getting old.

actually the study only states that "teenage girls play more than teenage boys" females as a whole are still the lower percentage but I'm glad it is getting closer to 50 percent.

 

[Ticklefist]

Am I reading this correctly? Women are one single group while men are divided into age groups?

Heh.

 

[neokiva]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/female-adults-oust-teenage-boys-largest-gaming-demographic/

The schadenfreude here is so sweet. And I am glad there are going to be whiny male gamers crying into their soup over this.

The 21st century is here. Get on board or get out of the way.

Why would i cry with more players to frag or to quest with or pwn in pvp. I have never cared about the gender of my team mates or opponents only thing that matters is are they any good. if not go practice comeback better. also it's not the gamers that need convincing it's the companies (the publishers, developers though mostly the publishers).

 

[chikusho]

The only thing that grew is the amount of people who have a gaming platform.

Fixed that for you.

And yet again people tries to shit over the stats instead of 1. realizing the actual significance, and 2. being supportive, welcoming and inclusive into this great hobby of ours.

The issue with this kind of debate is that it always devolves into one side saying "there are now as many female gamers as male gamers" and the other side saying "the females only play Candy Crush and other such trifes" (although they usually use stronger language".

That's what I find so hilarious. Because it really shouldn't matter. I just find this reaction highly amusing, and yet another example of why the gaming community is infected with whiny children who think the female gamer is a mythological creature.

And really, it doesn't even matter if every single woman in that study played only candy crush.
Consider this, when you first started reading books, what did you read?
When you first started watching movies or tv-shows, what did you watch?
When you first started with any hobby, like painting or playing guitar or building model air planes, what did you paint/play/build?
I'm guessing it wasn't The Illiad/Citizen Kane/The Wire/Photorealistic landscapes/Santana songs etc. As with any hobby, you get eased in to it from rudimentary experiences to more involving ones. Some people stay at different levels of any medium, but you can't get deeper without the first introductory step.

These numbers show a dramatic and highly relevant development in gaming demographics however you choose to look at it.

 

[DOOM GUY]

I know it's been brought up, but these numbers count those who play games like Angry Birds or Candy Crush on their phones. Many, many people do that, hell, my aunt loves those games, but that doesn't mean she gives a shit about the games industry, or what's being released soon on Xbox or PlayStation.

If those are the only games they're playing, I don't think they should really count, as they play those to waste time (not that most of us don't, but it's like a hobby for us), and don't care if the new Assassin's Creed is going to have a female playable character. Are there people who play those little games and "real" games, absolutely, but it's probably not nearly as large of a percentage.

 

[neokiva]

I see loads of females playing Candy Crush Saga on their phones when I'm out. Most of my Facebook crappy game invites are from females.

Well damn, if your personal anecdotes contradict the study (or the anecdotes of others), they must be right!

What the f*ck is that "study"? That looks more like a powerpoint presentation. 24% of gamers use their console to listen to music?! Have you ever heard of someone doing that?

I've done it.

Not often, as I've got a hard drive on my PC dedicated just to music and video, and my music collection is larger than my Ps3 HDD (and 360 HDDs are a joke), but I've done it. Sure, that's just me, but if you're asking if I've heard of anyone, the answer is "yo."

Why is this even a thing to be happy or unhappy about? It all seems incredibly childish.

"Yay, more girls than yucky boys!"

Considering the reaction has been "stay out of the treehouse...."

Yeah, I'll go with "yay."

actually the reaction i see the most is "are you any good? No? response A= gtfo noob or stop dying you noob. response B= Oh okay well when we're not doing an important match. we'll help you get better. in the mean time practice and do research" not "stay out of the tree house"

 

[Timpossible]

Why is it so hard a acknowledge?
Women like to play videogames, too? As much as Men do. For some parts just different gengres?
Are the boys afraid that their FIFA and COD will go away and be replaced by a AAA angry bird?

The only thing that may change is, that we get more lara crofts or ellies: More greatly written female leads and supports for games. And less sexist crap. CoD won't die because of female gamers.

Instead of saying: "No! they are not real gamers" one good reaction would be: "Cool. More folks to play videogames with. You wanny play?"

 

[neokiva]

As long as men continue to spend four times a as much on games as women, the industry will continue to chase after those dollars.

It's a shame this link doesn't work, because otherwise this could have been the only relevant bit of information mentioned sofar in this thread.

What the others don't understand is that if an audience continues to throw a lot of money at a franchise, it won't just go away or chance it's successful recipe for a bunch of vocal pinkos on the sideline.

We can all start calling anyone who occasionally plays the free solitaire or minesweeper game, that came for free with their OS, a "gamer" and pretend we're oh-so diverse, but that is meaningless and we're fooling nobody in the industry. Activision, EA and the rest will only care about who actually buys their games and for how much.

All those male-orientated, violent games that the pinkos like to frown on, get made because COD, Battlefield, GTA, etc. is where gamers throw the most money at. Games like that are here to stay.

Fans of less popular genres will have to satisfy themselves with fewer big releases and less pretty GFX as a rule. The good news for them is that since the rise of digital distribution, all the niches are getting much more attention. Start with supporting some of those.

speaking of niches it looks like survival horror is back on the rise (YES!!! FINALLY) and guillarmo del toro and hideo kojima silent hill OMG NERDGASM. just hideo don't try and do anything like or in relation to that cyborg ninja raiden bs.

 

[DOOM GUY]

snip

I'd say it's not because of women playing games, but rather this includes the mobile game audience as well, who, for the most part, don't care about "real" games.

The numbers have been like this for a while now, due to more and more people getting smartphones, and they like to play little games on their smart phones 'cause, well, it's fun and better than doing nothing, but the majority of the mobile gaming audience most likely won't jump over to anything else.

 

[jklinders]

That fell off topic fast...

I don't have any particular problem with games being made with women in mind. The more people in this hobby the harder it is to repress it.

I do have a problem with lumping the mobile casual gaming market in the same zone as...shall we say more complex experiences.

Here's the thing, I like me some casual gaming from time to time. It's great for filling that hour between waking up and going to work if I have run out of interesting news to read. But even a...heh casual glance at most casual games and you can clearly see what their demographic is and the makers already know it. From art style, to choice of protagonist occupation and/or gender, they already know that their demographic is primarily female and likely past 30 years of age. The primary demographic for CoD is still a younger male audience and unsurprisingly it is designed accordingly.

I'm not going to deride mobile gaming. That's madness as it's enormously powerful. But this study is mixing and matching two very different parts of the industry and giving them equivocacy. That's no different than saying that an 18 wheeler is is selling to the same demographic as an SUV. They have wheels, they travel at highway speeds so they must be for the same people right? Well not really there and not really here.

You are not going to see AAA gaming to notice this trend until you see women actually picking up on more of the AAA side of the market. Women are getting there but are not there yet. They might not even get there at all. Big companies are slow to change.

I would love to see my fiance get into more of the games I play, she mostly only plays Skyrim and I've been bitten by the MMO bug. She doesn't want the subscription that comes with Elder Scrolls online. I doubt she would stick with any MMO long enough to justify one anyway. I'm saying this because I want it clear I am not hammering in a "no girls allowed" sign. But it also needs to be clear that the AAA side of the industry is never going to give 2 shits what happens on the casual or mobile side of the market because they damn well know that that is a bucket of apples being compared to a bucket of oranges.

 

[neokiva]

Let them come. I'll happily welcome a fellow gamer. Whether you are a RPG gamer, a Platformer gamer, a Action-Adventure gamer, an FPS gamer or all the above,you are still a gamer.

Or whether you own a Smartphone, going by the article.

I'm not too happy about that. sure girls come play real games with real complexity and none of that fb or mobile game bs sure play them while out but when home play pc, ps3+4, xbox 36o (not xbone cause that sucks ass), play steam machine, play mac, play anything that isn't just a scam to lull you into feeding all your money into the companies pocket. play free to play games that don't wall off content or artificially slow your progress then pretend to save you by "letting you pay to speed up" I'm looking at you ddo, dungeon keeper online and star wars old republic (seriously EA who makes gamers pay for extra hot bars)

until women,girls females of all ages understand that while they are games,games like candy crush or minesweeper, they always pale in comparison to proper games with story, with long term goals, with consequences, with choice, with grand exploration and adventure. until i see more of you playing unreal tournament, starcraft 2, diablo 3, league of legends, world of warcraft, battlefield, cod, gran tarismo, need for speed, final fantasy, tales of, atelier iris, all visual novels (although careful some of those are porn), farcry, crisis the list goes on. I wont care how many people throw stats at my face, because in the grand scheme of things your not helping diversity where it counts. So vote with your wallet i want more female protagonists more gay protagonists more trans protagonists, more representations of men other than over muscled meat bags with no brains. help bring back platformers.

in other words ditch casual unless your traveling.

 

[Timpossible]

I'd say it's not because of women playing games, but rather this includes the mobile game audience as well, who, for the most part, don't care about "real" games.
The numbers have been like this for a while now, due to more and more people getting smartphones, and they like to play little games on their smart phones 'cause, well, it's fun and better than doing nothing, but the majority of the mobile gaming audience most likely won't jump over to anything else.

I bold claim, good Sir. I would like to see some statistics that go with your argument.
Because I wonder why more and more women are seen playing games like Assasins Creed and Skyrim. Even fucking CoD and Battlefield. I mean it IS happening. Girls are playing Videogames. Yes. Even the ones that you call "real" games.(btw: what is a real game?)

I honestly don't understand what would be to bad about acknowledging female gamers, "core" or not. Why not welcome them with open arms instead of of always beeing suspicious about "fake-geek/gamer-girls"? Change is a good thing. The things that do not change are dead.