Hunting down stats on gaming demographics (in reply to a FB comment)

January 22 Comments Off on Hunting down stats on gaming demographics (in reply to a FB comment) Category: Feed, Tumblr

Paul Eldridge For reference, at launch EVE was 95% male in 2006 ( http://virtual-economy.org/blog/interview_with_ccp_eve_currenc ), this changed significantly immediately following it’s Chinese launch and the creation of human avatars as a game feature, where CCP self-reported a drop to 60% male players ( http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/107200/EVE_Online_Releases_Economic_Newsletter_Reveals_Demographics.php ). However, in 2013 they reported a return to 96% male ( http://www.destructoid.com/boy-s-club-why-don-t-more-women-play-eve-online—254710.phtml ).
 
In a 2013 survey cited in the above Destructoid article, 15% of a demographic sample of 40,000 MMO players were women.
 
In terms of stats among people interested in testing games, currently only 5% of QA testers are women according to a 2012 survey ( http://spir.aoir.org/index.php/spir/article/viewFile/694/pdf ), the 2nd lowest among job types in the industry. A 2011 article puts that number at 14% ( http://www.gamingangels.com/2011/05/interview-tonya-constant-co-founder-of-the-ant-firm/ )
 
42% of all gamers are women (ESA, 2011).
 
The majority group of PC gamers were women in 2009 (29% of all gamers) representing the majority of gameplay minutes (54.6%) – http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/09/nielson-study-majority-pc-gamers-female-solitary/.
 
A self-selected group of WoW players surveyed in 2005 were 84% male and 16% female. – http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001365.php
 
A 2013 article found 85% male in WoW’s player base at the time. Interestingly 55% of all female avatars are played by men – http://hyperallergic.com/63902/finding-feminism-in-world-of-warcraft/
 
In 2014 the average adult gaming female had been playing for 13 years – http://www.dailydot.com/geek/adult-women-largest-gaming-demographic/
 
A survey 2 months ago found that 50.2% of all PC gamers were female, with women making up the majority of RPG and Mobile gamers and coming in at 34.0% of MMO gamers. http://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/27/report-men-play-more-mmos-fpses-women-rule-mobile-rpg/
Another survey around the same time found women counted as 40% of the MMO/MOBA( 24% of overall) category – http://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/23/league-of-legends-tops-mmo-revenue-list-hearthstone-no-10/

There’s an interesting Reddit post on ‘assumed to be female’ avatars – http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/1jie39/assumed_to_be_female_personal_experience/

A 2011 poll found 57% of MMO female players to be married – http://www.swtor-life.com/editorial/is-“she”-really-a-“she”-female-gamers-and-gender-bending-in-mmorpgs-by-daelda/4233/ 

In 2009, women made up 20% of Everquest II players – http://dmitriwilliams.com/lfgpaperfinal.pdf 

A previously indirectly cited 3 year survey ending in 2006 found women players of MMORPGs counted as the majority in all age cadres above 23 – http://www.nickyee.com/pubs/Yee%20-%20MMORPG%20Demographics%202006.pdf – with only 27% of female gamers having come into gaming through a romantic partner, though 59.8% played with one. 

The same survey also found that women prefer games with opportunities to relate to other characters and players. Possibly as a result, women players held more close in-game friends. 

Another survey by the same author found that women weight Character Creation, Landscape and Quests as the most heavily preferred game elements. For men it was Character Creation or Quests at the top (depending on Age) and the combat system towards number 2 or 3. 

In the same study, it was shown that women prefer First Person Perspectives while men prefer 3rd. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130552/unmasking_the_avatar_the_.php?print=1

Notably (towards your beta testers question), among MMO players women are *significantly* less likely to abandon current MMO games for new ones. 

I was interested in SWTORs demographics in particular because as a Bioware/ME-style game I thought it might show higher numbers of women, but a somewhat decent survey among heavy-involvement players found the female percentage to be around 20%, consistent with previous findings around MMORPGs. http://www.bethanycorcoran.co.uk/2011/09/30/the-old-republic-demographics/

EDIT NOTE: It looks like Gamasutra reported 40% female EVE players, but the original report (retrievable athttp://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/arts/QEN.pdf ) said avatars. 

Interesting to see both TV shows Nikita and Lost Girl using the same older women/younger girl…

January 24 Comments Off on Interesting to see both TV shows Nikita and Lost Girl using the same older women/younger girl… Category: Feed, Tumblr

Interesting to see both TV shows Nikita and Lost Girl using the same older women/younger girl dynamic. I wonder how much of it is an attempt to broaden the demographic appeal as opposed to character building. Do they pull in more female viewers by sh…