More North American Women Own A Games Console Than Men

Because..of their boyfriend. just kidding of course cause I actually do own one in my house.

You can stats to tell you anything, I doubt this is entirely accurate

@Hinaru77 That's an interesting point.

That could totally be the case for some, as in my girlfriend "owns" a console and we live together,

Men are joining the PC Master Race

Where did they do these studies in a YWCA?

"having a console in your household" doesn't necessarily mean owning one for yourself and actively playing it.

@Spoony_Tech You seriously don't know Pew Research?

Kind of interesting, but somehow I doubt nearly 2000 people is gonna give you a very accurate estimate. At that sample size it could just be a fluke, who knows... I mean you're taking a relatively small sample and extrapolating that to several hundred million people. There's bound to be some error.

Also good point @Morph .

The survey should have asked if they played a home console, not just if they owned one. Depending on the person/question, just having one in the house could be considered owning a console. It doesn't mean they play the console, or even that the console is theirs. Media outlets always seem so eager to say women play games as much as or more than men, but they never have anything to back it up.

Is quite apparent. I mean, look at the League of Legends teams in the US. If I'm not mistaken, recently, one of the US teams inducted a girl in their group. I don't remember who it was. So @CrazyOtto, girls are part of the PC Master Race as well.

EDIT: Personally, I don't pay much attention to this, because the idea of mine is that everybody, EVERY-Fricking-BODY is a gamer. Hell, my mom is a big Galaga and Tetris fan. My female friends from my U are also gamers. Some of them play Smash and Metroid (the series overall), while most of them play either Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Brave Frontier, Soccer Spirit or some other Japanese or Japanese-like RPG/Strategy RPG.

Sample size too small for this conclusion to be very likely true.

Sorry, can't take this even remotley seriosuly after reading this.

"Some 14% of U.S. adults have a portable gaming device such as a PSP or Sega Genesis game player,"

PSP or Sega Genesis game player were the choices for "portable gaming". Not Gameboy, DS, 3DS or Vita, PSP or Sega Genesis.

Now, I'm sure they meant one of those retro Game Gear consoles and not the ancient home console, but you can't discuss "portable gaming" without including a Ntinedo console, you just can't. And I'm nto saying that as a fanboy, as I'm ok w/ them using PS and Xbox in the US but excluding Wii - even though Wii almost certainly makes up ALL of those females numbers - but I understand - in the US - focusing on PS and Xb. But portable gaming IS Nintendo.

You know what, let's just forget the entire thing, Wii is female gaming, DS is portable gaming, idiots did this research.

@arronishere Santa Claus?

Jus' kiddin'.

they all got them in the divorces... same ones where the men lost theirs

Boyfriend: "Honey look what I got!, AN XBOX ONE!"

Girl: "I WANT A WII U"

Boyfriend: "but..t.. hal-"

Girl: "MARIO KART NOW!!!!"

Boyfriend: "But I spent all my money on-"

Girl: "DON'T CARE, CHARGE IT, EITHER USE YOUR CREDIT CARD OR MY DADDY'S!"

Boyfriend; goes to gamestop and gets laughed at by his CoD friends

I highly doubt this is true.

@rjejr they didn't use just PS and Xbox. It included anything that could be considered a home gaming console. From 1st generation until now.

As for portable gaming, all portables would be included too. E.g. stands for "for example". Not for what two consoles they looked at.

I personally don't know a single women who owns her own system. I know women who's families own systems but they don't play video games. How would those women answer the question? If my non-gamer wife were asked that question, I feel that she would say she owns a game console because technically she does....but she wouldn't without me or my sons.

I really don't care either way. This research always seems like a waste of resources to me, and the findings don't really mean or prove anything. Does it matter that girls play video games or that boys not as much?

I don't know many female gamers myself but I'm from the UK. I still think men spend more time playing video games.

LOL you can count me 14 times on that survey (somewhere around twenty-five if you count handhelds). Playing games has been a part of female culture for a while... its the getting involved in the gamer community (and updating systems on the regular) that is still guy town (in part because if how toxic it can be some times).

Also I hate stock photos. They look so silly.

Don't buy it.

also... looking at the methods link, there are about 950 of each gender, but the numbers per age group doesn't indicate gender, so it could be skewed in any which way.

about half the participants of the survey are 50+ years of age... only 349 are between 18 and 29, the smallest group in the survey, the surveyors asked for the youngest adult in the household... so the youngest adult in the household tended to be above 50... in these interviews across 50 states.

so, naturally, older folks will probably not have a console.. and there's no statement on how many of each gender are how old.

also, straight from the complete report in the section regarding home consoles:

"Younger adults
are also more likely than their elders to own a game
console, while there are no differences based on gender
or race and ethnicity"

@russellohh
well, women do tend to be more social, the men are too busy playing single player games in their man caves.

I'd be more interested to know the percentage of gamers that mainly use and customizable female avatars vs their gender distribution. Anecdotally, I've encountered more than a few fellow male gamers that prefer to use female avatars in games where they are allowed to choose gender and found that mildly interesting.

@Ryu_Niiyama Agreed 5000%. Every girl and guy i know is a gamer, but the women stay off the forums/online chat/etc for a definite reason. WoW and Destiny raids can be 10 women and 2 guys, but the second one of the women speaks up or mentions being a woman OMG CAN I HAVE A PIC WHERE YOU FROM? ?

"ownership is higher among ethnic groups"

This is true by default because everyone is part of some ethnic group.

@Arctic_Nights But that's still the way they wrote it up, eg PSP or Sega Genesis.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/pi_2015-10-29_device-ownership_1-08/

If you are commenting on this website I'll assume you are a gamer. If I ask you to list "portable gaming consoles" how many are you going to give before you get to "Sega Genesis"? I'm ok w/ PSP, that was pretty big, but Sega Genesis is NOBODY'S second choice.

I guess tumblr is estatic right now.

@Morph Pew is very reputable.

It's sad how many commenters here seem to think their isolated personal anecdotes, based around their small and specific social circles, are qualifiable sample sizes, but a survey of nearly 2000 people, somehow is not.

Your personal anecdotes do not refute broad data. That you have chosen a circle of all-male friends who game on PC or console only does not mean women are not buying video games.

I've known many women who are gamers and/or many who own their own devices. That includes my son's mother, my ex-girlfriend, two women I dated over the summer, and my own mother. As it turns out, my social circle involves a wide variety of people. Not just white males in their teens or early 20's.

At the end of this, more women playing video games is nothing but good news. I guess those whelps that can't "find the gamer girl they want" for dating may finally have to own up to their own horrifying personality flaws.

@rjejr
those are simply listed as examples of handhelds. without an example of the survey itself, it's hard to defend or refute the validity of the survey... but I'd have to guess that there was a space of some sort to write in handhelds, and some people probably considered that a handheld.

[edit]
http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2015/10/PI_2015-10-29_device-ownership_TOPLINE.pdf

actually, I think this is the survey... the survey actually says psp or sega genesis game player, as examples... but still lists those... and footnote says it used to be PSP and DS, but they changed it last april...

I can't believe anyone would take this survey seriously. That sample size is laughably small and the choices for portable systems made me lol. I'm really not sure why NL is reporting on this like its news.

Given that it's just roughly 2000 people, I don't really trust this survey. They don't represent the majority of people.

Link to the surveyor's methods:
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/device-ownership-2015-methods/
They do a nice job, there definitely may be some bias, especially in wording, but it does do a good job of highlighting how gamers are definitely not mostly just white males, and that many different groups play video games. They are definitely not just manipulating data.

@russellohh
"Please tell me if you happen to have each of the following items, or not. Do you have...
[INSERT ITEMS IN ORDER]?"

"e. A game console like Xbox or Play Station"

which choices of yes, no, (vol) don't know, (vol) refused.

so, if they have children with consoles, they'd probably answer yes, doesn't imply personal ownership, just "have".

It's not just that the sample size is small (N=948 for the survey question the article references), but the difference between the percentages of men versus women is not high enough to warrant making the determination that this represents the entire population of U.S. adults. Their margin of error has to be too high to warrant saying a 5% difference between men and women is statistically significant.

@russellohh
I would say "which consoles do you personally own?" would have been better.
this has nothing to do with gaming habits, just console ownership. the claim is that more women own consoles than men. regardless of whether they play it or not, it could just be a dedicated netflix box, but they own a console.

@mjharper
you're right, it is only about 1000 for that question... it also doesn't specify age and gender groups for that group. all we can say is that out of the 1000 people who answered, more women claimed to have consoles than men.

@russellohh, those poor sods haven't learned that just because a girl plays games doesn't mean they have any extra chance at picking her up. I blame ROM/COMs that encourage the idea of making a connection based on a niche interest. That and families/schools not instructing young men to just leave women alone.

As someone who is in his mid thirties, what I have noticed is that while... men and women my age (gamer or not) still view gaming as a nerd thing.

Men and Women in their early twenties I have noticed don't have the same viewpoint, gaming is just a thing now.

@russellohh
I'm sure plenty of people care, mostly in terms of marketing or sales or something of that nature. someone would probably like knowing who consoles are bought for in terms of adults.

I don't think everyone has consoles... as this survey suggests, old people tend to not have consoles.

mostly this survey is to compare to previous years.

It seems that this survey is more interested in personal ownership, otherwise it would be a "does your household have a.." question, but the poor wording render the data more unreliable period, regardless of the gender.

@russellohh
But not a WiiU? 😟

They are the ones that still have their Wii lying around and haven't sold it yet.

@artofmana they might be, but I stand by my point that you can conjure up stats to prove just about any argument, it doesn't mean it's correct though

@russellohh
Slow your roll, chief! I never said that I don't know any women who play games. I said I don't know any women who own a console because they bought if for herself. Now that's a bit of an exaggeration but if I worked through my 200+ facebook friends I can come up with a lot that play video games, but only maybe a small handful that own their own console. Compare that to the guys and I bet at least a third of them own a console that belongs solely to them.

Does Candy Crush exist on a console? Are phones included in the research? If phones are included, then I could understand the numbers better.

I'm not trying to be sexist. I know plenty of women. That was an awesome comment by the way!

@LUIGITORNADO funny my class and I have study this and it because mostly the woman could have child that want games, have a brother or boyfriend that play games and when my friends work at GameStop mostly women come in not because they want games but because their husband/boyfriend/children want games and mostly don't know what they are getting. Regardless boys is still number 1.

Only women I've ever known to have a console in their house, it was either for tier kids or their boyfriends.

Even my ex girlfriend, her Wii was for "her kids"

Plenty have pointed it out so I won't bother, should have asked purchasing habits as well, and if the system was current gen.

Looks like yet another case of the "Darwin Delusion" in this research. Clearly over-extraplation is in affect here.

@MegaBeedrill I play Blops 2 on my Wii U. I'm a huge CoD fan, and I played MW1 through Blops 1 on PC. Am I not hardcore enough?

I am sure this is skewed by single mothers who bought consoles for their kids. The study should have asked how many of each gender play a console at least 1/week on average

I agree with some commenters. I feel that, if they live with someone who owns a video game console, then they would be more likely to say "yes" even if they don't play the video game console. I am going to be honest and state that I know of only one girl out of at least 30 total friends who have a Wii U. I really want to know who these "42% of women" are. I'm fairly certain that if I randomly picked one or two women off the street and asked them if they play video games, they will deny it.

If this is true, why can't I find a nice girl who plays games?

Wait how many women own men?

I can't say I don't know a bunch of adult women who have gaming consoles...probably as much as I know dudes. But I also know lots of moms who set up their 360s for their 10 year olds too. But they never played it.

"...with 68 percent of US adults owning a phone..."

I own a flip phone. Does that count?

@Obito_Sigma i think out of 30 male gamer friends, only 2-3 guys own a wii u, and out of 45 female gamer friends, 2 own a wii u. Honestly , no one really owns a wii u

My consoles are all mine, I tell you! I expect I'm probably in the minority. The research is likely flawed because of the reasons pointed out. Studies are pretty useless anyway. My favourite was the one reported by the BBC that had found that people who take a lot of medication die before those who do not. No account had been taken of how ill people were and considering that those who take the most medication are the sickest, then that study showed that sick people die before those who are relatively well. D'uh! Or perhaps that taking medication does not prolong life to a level comparable with the healthy population. It's possible to completely miss the point if you try hard enough.

@Yorumi I have a wife, a daughter, a sister, and 2 female best friends. the amount of BS i've had to save them all from is staggering. Just scroll through this article: how many people are just replying "LOL DONT BELIEVE IT GIRLS ONLY PLAY CANDY CRUSH LOLZ".
And that's the kind ones...

@Sonicman All you need now is Mountain Dew and Doritos.

Why is it so hard for people to understand that girls can like games as much as men do? It's not like having a Y-chromosome will somehow inhibit your ability to enjoy games, so why then?

Who came up with the idea that girls don't play games anyways? And it makes sense for both genders to own at least one console/handheld since gaming is such a popular pasttime.

I don't think so. Me thinks their poll is off somehow. I demand a recount with a different poll

@Tempestryke my sentiments exactly.

@Windy Is it that hard for you to believe that women like games as much as women that you demand a recount? also, saying "Me thinks" is grammatically incorrect.

It's great that more girls are gaming but one study isn't going to be factual evidence for the demographic install base. Even if it were entirely true gaming PCs have become extremely popular and increasingly are replacing the need or desire for a console.

@russellohh .....you were the one who brought up Candy Crush????

This survey is about console ownership, or at least that's how I interpret it. You were the one who said you know a 90 year old lady or something that plays Candy Crush. I questioned, what console can play candy crush because I do not consider a phone a dedicated console.

Like I said, I understand that a lot of women play games....but this is about ownership of a console!

@Tempestryke Agreed but video games suffered from blue toy syndrome for a while in the 80s and 90s. I was born in 85 and was lucky that my mom was a gamer as growing up I had very few female friends that played games at all. I used to get the "look" when I would talk about games up until around 11 or so and even then I didn't start having most of my friends really playing until my late teenage years.

That being said I think the lack of women active in gamer culture (forums, dev work, conventions) and then the backlash when they are (Anna Sarkeesian comes to mind) still makes it odd for some people to hear when a woman implies that she owns a console herself and that it doesn't belong to someone else in the house.

Ether way gaming is here to stay and as it becomes more and more normalized across both genders polls like this won't even matter.

@russellohh ...that sounds like polygon...I think I saw those comments earlier.

My aunt used to take me to the arcades and she was thrilled when I bought her an arcade plug n play for mothers day one year, she got together with my other aunt and they had a blast trying to beat each other's high scores on pac-man and galaga.

I had an NES growing up, my mother would sneak into my room at night to play, or she'd play with me, my friends used to come over and play my NES, I'd go over and play their SNES and Sega Genesis.

I own a GBA and a Wii and am saving for a 2DS. My kid plays on the Wii and she owns a DSi and 2DS.

Chicks have been playing and buying consoles and handhelds and hitting the arcades since gaming began.

My boyfriend who is older has never been to interested in videogames, but we corrupted him and now he's wanting a system for himself.

@Tempestryke What is it with moms that sneak into bedrooms to play games?! Granted mine had to do that because my dad vetoed putting the NES in the den because he hates video games. Of course now Mom keeps the wii and 3ds in her office...and she keeps dropping hints about a wiiu...she has ransomed my copy of mario kart wii for it!

in my best Captain Kirk voice DR MARIO!!!!

Reasons I believe that there are equal parts men and women gamers:
1) There's a difference between "Gamer" as just someone who play's games and "Gamer" as identity.
2) Most search engines and social media sites actively and algorithmically push people to others that are just like them.
3) Several female gamers try to hide their gamer identites because of sexual harassment.

@Ryu_Niiyama

Lmao! Nice to know my mom wasn't the only one who did that. XD There you are having this nice dream when all of a sudden your jarred awake by soft cussing and Legend of Zelda music.

I woke my kid up at midnight once to beat a boss for me, she was compensated the next day of course.

Le Gasp! You will hafta storm the house Solid Snake style and rescue Mario!

@yorumi @russellohh Enough women get that treatment. At least enough that its a very high possibility for a woman hanging out by herself in a Bioshock T-shirt is going to have her hackles rise if a gamer approaches her. It also means enough women (and some men) are reluctant to admit to being a gamer.

Its guys like that which caused me to hide my hobby. I almost never tell women that I play video games, even if they do. For man my age playing video games is like porn, it is something you hide under the bed, and don't mention in polite company. ( And at the office you're supposed to pretend that you like the Red Sox, the Patriots, and Sam Addams, anything else could possibly offend someone so you can't mention it.)

Granted, because of the 10 out of 1,000 its generally better and nicer to just give a woman exactly what a man gets... A ride on the T without a single person noticing or talking to you. The ability to just walk into barnes and noble and buy that Sailor Moon manga you say is "for your niece", without anyone interrupting you and making you late, because its rude to just say "Sorry, I have to go now."

@Yorumi no, i told 3-4 real-life stories of why women are less likely to be vocal on forums, groups, etc, because such things do happen. They were specific instances, of real world people. Yes, the most obnoxious men, they're a small percentage, likely under 10%, but they're a screaming, hate-filled segment, that MUST be dealt with, or sent to their rooms without dessert. ISIS isn't all muslims, but they must still be dealt with. Corrupt, brutal cops aren't all cops, but they must still be dealt with. You chose to get offended, indignant, annoyed, whatever that not all men do that. I'm insulting the rage-filled, sexist neckbeard who refuses to admit that women are gamers. If that offends you and you feel insulted, then congrats! I apparently struck a nerve. Guilty consciences are the worst
I'll leave you with my favorite comment about the #NotallMen nonsense
You have a bag of skittles. 90% of them are fantastic, tasty candy. 10% are poison. Eat it, and you will die in horrible screaming butt pain. You have a bag of 200 skittles in your hand. It's a tiny, tiny fraction- 10%! That's just 20 skittles in the bag. Why bring it up? Why complain about it, or call it out? Just because one is enough to kill you, and you're facing 20? But who cares! That's a small percentage, so #NotAllSkittles

@bloodycelt ooo you need to change offices! Around here you're more likely to get teased for liking Sportsball, while the 30-35 year old managers and lead programmers are off buying games on their lunch breaks.
ooo i just read the sailor moon comment. I could buy a sailor moon manga just fine, but then again i don't give two ****s. A female friend did go to a store once, to buya my little pony thing. She was 22. The female cashier went on and on about bronies (i often can't stand bronies, but thats for different reasons...) and how gross it was that man, or adults really, were buying these toys. What stupid, ugly, failure of an adult, male or female, wants to buy my little pony!?!? the cashier demanded. My friend got so upset she just turned around and left.
THE FRIEND WAS ME.

well, it wasnt, i just wanted to say that...

And how is this somwhat important again?

@Yorumi shrugs Different experiences then. In my particular region gaming wasn't strange or niche it was just odd if girls did it. I do remember console ownership being low in general but that was due to price and not lack of interest.

At all of my schools growing up there was always a group of gamers and they were never considered outcasts the way a "nerd" would have been (thank goodness I was both). Granted, if you were a tabletop gamer or up until poke'mon and yugioh got big, a card gamer ...THAT was considered weird in my area. Trust me, I struggled to find someone to play Magic with until my adult years.

However, I still stand by my assessment ...look at commercials for games during that that era...they were marketed towards boys. It wasn't until later that you started seeing commercials or adds that had a co-ed presentation. Even now many game publishers market towards a male only demographic instead of just an age demographic. That is changing and I already acknowledged that early on in this thread; there are more female protagonists that aren't billed as eye candy and those games are selling to everyone. And that is fricken great!

@MrMario02 I actually hope its true. We need more women in gaming. I just think there is something wrong with the poll. I would like to see a legitimate poll run again and see what the count is. If it shows the same thing. Welcome to gaming Ladies. It really would be the best thing for gaming having Women playing against the guys. I know there are women out there already but I doubt they outnumber the men. My guess is the reason more women would own consoles is the amount of single Mothers buying them for their kids. Personally I hope it's women playing them.

@MegaBeedrill Already got 'em, my friend.

I'm a 3DS-playing lady and and I definitely try to sell them to the important men in my life who wouldn't otherwise have bothered. I even BOUGHT one for my best friend. My fiance eventually picked up the Persona Q one once he found out that there were horror games on it.

@Windy: We're here! We're not ALL just playing tranport sims and train driving games, sadly.

I don't know. All of my sisters have next gen consoles, and my mom stopped upgrading with the GBA but still regularly plays it (even buying "new" games off eBay or thrift stores sometimes). Gaming is just a thing from my experience.

@World well maybe I'm totally just wrong lol. I hope so. It would be something else men and women would have in common for having a good time with a good hobby. However my wife won't touch the consoles. But she will play Candy Crush and words with friends on her Tablet. Would be fun if my wife would join me at playing Xenoblade and games like that. I've tried but its not her thing.

Ok, so 37 percent is guys, 41 percent is gals.......who's the other 21 percent?
Dogs? WTF? Also this is a very small control group of less than 2,000 people so that does not exactly scale well when it comes to 320 million people. Good eye catching title though! Really almost had me!

@Yorumi Right or wrong doesn't matter here.

Its like crossing the street, if everyone followed the rules and did the right thing, you should be able to just walk across a crosswalk without looking.

But guess what, irregardless if the driver is in the wrong... you still look both ways, because you can't trust other people to do the right thing. The only person's behavior you have control over is yourself.

I notice since 2010 that there were multiple surveys that shown at least 40% gamers being females and more adults play video games than kids (take that mom, dad and 2/3th of my peers), so I'm not surprised anymore.

What would surprise me is if I see them more in public where I life. From NYC gaming events to just playing a handheld game on the bus or train, you would mostly see guys. It's like finding someone else who mostly enjoys playing Nintendo games, you know they're out there but they stay in hiding from the "hardcore mature" gamers.

@Yorumi @ultraraichu that's what i was saying before. Its often better for women to hide their gaming natures. A man MIGHT get made fun of for gaming, a few times, but that mostly happened 20, 30 years ago. now, everyone plays games. A big part of it is the nature of a threat- when a 100 pound, 55 year old woman at a Target or BestBuy makes fun of me for buying Pokemon, (and not buying a sports game or call of duty or some such crap) i can be nice and say that we live in a violent and disgusting world, and it relaxes me with its cuteness Or, if she's being really rude, i can laugh and ask why she's almost 60 and working a crap job that pays 1/4th as much as my 17 year old intern makes. I can turn around, and walk away, amused. I don't need to pretend that i bought it for a niece, or a nephew. What's she going to do, ball up my receipt and throw it at me? Slap me? I could throw her 50 feet through the air. So, I don't care, and that's why its not an issue. But a female gamer gets creepy messages...on her real facebook identity, which shows her hometown. Only two people in that town have her last name, and both are in the phone book. Now, she's scared- better to have not posted on that board at all. Earlier, i told the story of the female gamer in a bar (which wasnt in NYC, tho i was there recently at a gaming event and saw similar stories happening...) wearing a nerdy shirt- the two men that stopped her and demanded to know if she was a REAL gamer were easily twice her size. She was just about to head out to her car, alone. If she angered them, or pissed them off, or did anything besides be super polite, it could have ended really, really poorly for her. She wore the shirt two more times- and again, terrible, awkward, creepy, and potentially, physically violent things almost happened, or did start to happen. "Hey girl, i like that game too! what you dont wanna talk to me? YOU TOO GOOD FOR ME, YEAH YOU BETTER KEEP WALKING" etc. Better just wear a plain black tshirt now. Yeah, it sucks if someone teases you for being a gamer and you're a guy, and Yes Yorumi, people have teased you and i for being male gamers, or adult gamers, or gamers in the 80s, but its still a MASSIVE world of difference between the woman occasionally making fun of the nerdy male outcast, and the actual, physical, terrifying reality of being a woman in today's world. There's a reason some people are hiding from the "hardcore mature" gamers. Sometimes, its better for the women just to hide, or not play in public, or do literally anything ever that calls attention to themself.And that's why everyone can say "i dunno man, i only know two girls that talk about owning their own console, and no one in my guild is a girl..." in reality, half of them are girls, they just don't talk about it,.

@Windy: No, I think you ARE right. There's a lot of that too. Like, with my fiance, we don't play the same type of games. He like stuff like Xenoblade or Resident Evil and I like stuff like Airport Hero and Japanese Rail Sim. We have found our common ground with Kirby games, though.

(Hopefully you guys have something like that!)

@ultraraichu Personally, I tend to stay away from events or "public" stuff online because dudes are always just like, "So you have a 3DS but NAME EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF THE ORIGINAL SUPER MARIO BROS. STAFF YOU FAKE GAMER GIRL" which is sometimes also followed up with "sooo...can I get your number?"

That's why I tend to stick to online communities like Nintendo Life. Mostly no one is like that. I'd love to just shout about games to my IRL people all day, but I've gotten tired of constantly having to justify it so I often don't.

Good to know that when it comes to finding a lady-friend, there are plenty of gaming fish in the sea!

What does it mean by "ownership is higher among ethnic groups"? Because technically everyone falls under some ethnic group. Does it mean ethnic minorities, as in people who don't identify as being White? I'm confused.

This goes along with the study that said 52% of gamers were female.

@World HA. i deleted them for rambling too long and being too rude to someone on here, but ughh i have so many of those stories. Several female friends are programmers and developers of games, so at trade shows and conventions, or even the grocery store they might wear a Fallout shirt, and some guy will say "oh, you like fallout? I BET YOU ONLY LIKE THE DOG ON THE SHIRT, EXPLAIN TO ME THE PLOT OF VAN BUREN AND FALLOUT NEW VEGAS". "Umm....i'm the lead designer of Fallout 4, and i wrote half of van buren," "OMG WANNA HOOK UP, YOU PASSED THE TEST". Yes, random 400 pound dude. The 130 pound married mother of 3 is just jumping for joy that you passed her test, as you sit there holding her arm in the EMPTY parking lot at 1130 at night....

I'd believe it, my girlfriend owns more consoles than I do. She has all the ones I do plus more.

@russellohh Luckily, I've never encountered anything THIS terrible but yep! Like, probably a lot of these guys aren't active threats but it's just...exhausting. I'd rather just like stuff and not have to explain it or have it lead to creepy come-ons or whatever.

Since personal anecdotes can be used to dismiss the study, here's mine to validate it: I am a woman considered part of a "minority" and I own many gaming consoles, both current and past gen, not to mention several handhelds. My younger sister does as well. As do most of our female friends, to varying degrees of course. My sister and I are also early adopters of new gen consoles as opposed to my older brothers. So to me, this study doesn't "surprise" me in the least. Perhaps this just helps to highlight for some people how small or undiversified their social circles might be.

@ikki5 Can confirm that I also own more consoles than my fiance. Also he's a die-hard 90s SEGA fan who thinks the Genesis is the greatest console ever made. The only SEGA console I own is a second-hand Dreamcast I got because it was fifty dollars. We regularly debate this.

@Yorumi I don't think that anyone is actually trying to pull gender politics here. These things DO happen. Stating that something happens disproportionately to one gender doesn't mitigate what happens to the other...they just aren't the subject of the conversation.

The thing is gaming is full of discrimination because it is full of people. However if we are going to bring awareness to the issues and promote a more positive culture we have to talk about the issues. When a person states that they have seen some form of discrimination they usually (usually) aren't saying "hey I hate the other side period or this never happens to the other side too"... they are saying this happens frequently enough that it is to the detriment of the effected party.

However it feels like a lot of your argument is centered around the fact that you have not mentioned having negative experiences due to your gender. Which is actually really great if that is the case. However, it still doesn't mean that women have not been scrutinized, bullied, ridiculed or just simply annoyed because of their chosen hobby. I'm sure the root of it is that the person doing the harassing is a jerk but gaming is being used as the reason to do so.

Also note that while men are often cited as the worst offenders, women ridicule their own gender for gaming as well. Gender issues can be discussed without it being inherently sexist.

Edit: Just saw your comment to World. So whoops I take that back about the negative experience part but I think you aren't hearing what is being said here. Nobody is calling you a rapist or whatever because you are male. Nobody is calling you anything, however that doesn't mean that other men haven't done things to women because they are women. You do realize that when a woman or even a man cites a bad experience with men it isn't inherently misandrist and that it isn't a personal attack? You do also realize that if a man notices the crap things that some other men do that doesn't mean he hates himself or his gender?

@Yorumi No, I get that. And, like I said, I'm usually the one drawing men in my life into gaming. But there are guys out there who think a woman talking about games means they either have to immediately challenge her in some kind of weird knowledge duel or just say "hey, gamer girls are hot," you know?

Like, I think it's legitimate to say "specific dude, me professing my love for Umihara Kawase in the comments doesn't mean I'm professing my love for you."

It doesn't mean "every dude, you are all hitting on me." Like, yes. What you're saying is a thing too. And it sucks and I'm sorry people are like that. But if you're not going around hitting on girls who like the same game you do, then you're not those things and I'm not a radical feminist and this isn't Tumblr.

I really doubt that's actually true, but yes there is just as many female gamers as male ones now. It's not like it was back in the Atari 2600 years

One thing I've noticed, that might be why they say more females own consoles, is that alot of guys are going away from consoles and going pc, so this survey could be right.

@hYdeks my thoughts exactly. Everyone games, but its def a higher percentage of men who build their own gaming PCs. I'm a member of an animal crossing group online, and out of 3,000 members, 2,900 or so are women. Every single one owns and plays the game on 3DS, wii, or gamecube. So if we randomly surveyed that group, 100% of women own game console owners, and yet only 3% of all gamers are men.
But, on my Destiny and Doom group, its about 100 women to every 1,000 men, and almost all of the men are on PC. So, it all kinda evens out.

@World My wife and I years ago went through a Sim game on the TurboGrafx CD-ROM called Sim Earth. Recently we played an android Sim called Dungeon Village which I highly recommend to you if you have an Android or Apple device. I was hoping Dungeon Village would come out on 3DS after we got BookStore Dreams. It's kind of the same type of game but better. Highly recommend Dungeon Village to you. There is a free demo available and the game costs 4.95 or something like that

Well most of my friends are women and most own their own system. My friend Cynthia is an Xbox fan girl who plays halo, gears, ect while Cory is a ps fan girl who plays infamous, bloodborne, killzone, ect.
My partner Sarah (of four years) loves Nintendo like I do and is currently hooked on splatoon.
I could do this all day. You guys need to hang out with more gamer lady's

There are so many factors that these kinds of polls don't take into account, though.

"Please tell me if you happen to have each of the following items, or not" is wildly different to "Do you own" or "have you purchased"

@faint i know one of the "ha i bet its only farmville on their phones" posters on another site, and i know for a fact that his wife is a pretty hardcore gamer. Not sure if he was trolling, or after many years of being single and not having enough gamer girl friends, he just forgot about his own wife and daughter...

I seriously have my doubts about this poll. But it would be neat to see more ladies gaming. Especially my age haha.

This was actually proven false. Many other factors were not counted in this poll.

@Windy search "animal crossing new leaf" on facebook. There are a dozen similar groups, (which doesnt matter if you dont like new leaf!) but 99% of the members are women, overwhelmingly in their 20s-40s. One day it was kinda cute- a 45 year old woman asked if she's the only old fart- and within mintues dozens of users were commenting "75, female" "62, female, i play with my grandkids" "52 here, my husband and i play together".
The first user was overjoyed that they werent the only older-than-20 year old woman gaming all day

....and yet they still release all the good games in Europe and not North America. I'm sure a 2nd poll would have startling results if it asked who, worldwide, had the most frustration over lack of good games, and who felt the most slighted by Nintendo. If they can't even bring out Style Savvy here, let alone many other gems, what good does it do for females to even have these game systems?

I'm guessing it's mostly moms buying consoles for their children.

Amazing how naive so many people are. Every single female I know plays/owns video game consoles. Most especially women over 40 like myself. I've been playing since 1977. I've owned nearly every console ever released, and collectively own over 1000 games between all systems. What guy here can top that?!

@Dankykong i honestly think every woman i know owns a PS4, and none of them have kids...

Asking 1907 people in a country with nearly 319 MILLION people!!!
Yeah, that's really representative...

@hYdeks My thoughts exactly, but I have seen more women have PC than men though.

@Windy Thanks for the recommendations! And SimEarth is apparently on the Wii VC? I'm definitely always up for more TG-16 games! Never played one in real-life and I only have a few on the VC (Bomberman '94, Wonder Boy III, and I think that's it although I SHOULD have New Adventure Island by now because I love that series?).

Sorry, but asking an average of 38 people per U.S state, no matter your methods can not conclusively prove that "More North American Women Own A Games Console Than Men".

I wouldn't be surprised if the figures are more or less balanced in reality, but for me, this doesn't prove anything.

@CrazyOtto Exactly!

Sorry Candy Crush doesn't count as a game console or counts as a real "game".

@TromboneGamer Except for the fact that you still can't play newer Nintendo games on PC's so they get screwed by that haha.

@sykotek i like to use female characters in some FPS games because they are thinner and harder to hit. Perfect Dark (N64) is not one of those games because there is better choice called Elvis.

@Blue_Dread True, but unfortunately not everyone cares for Nintendo games. Which of course is the reason PC and other consoles are as successful as they are.

@faint is any of those female gamer friends single?

@russellohh @World Yikes, that is creepy and bold for a real life encounter, kind of expect more of that online for those types of guys.

Personally, I would mostly see the opposite. Some of the events I been to guys treats gamer girls or any "good looking" girls like queens and act like knights. I remember a Super Smash bros Brawl event (4 player free for all) where most of the guys go easy on the very few female players, and if you even attack one of them like any other normal player (me), the rest will come at you like worker bees for the whole match. Even my GF lasted pass the 2nd round and she couldn't even beat a lvl 5 cpu back then.

@Blue_Dread

This is talking about game consoles. Candy Crush is not a game console.

@Vriess

They were able to tell who the next government of Canada would be with only knowing about 8% of the vote. Maybe even less than that. I just know they announced it when they only had 1-2 polls in out of several hundreds in each riding and they called it and were right.

@ultraraichu Ahhh, I've heard of this one but luckily I mostly play local multiplayer where no one does that. That's so insulting, though!

It's strange to me to think of people just not playing games period. Gaming has always been a part of my life. My family owned the NES and SNES because my mom. My dad doesn't play games other than mario kart and only with us kids. I had all the nintendo consoles growing up. We got the Playstation and my brother and I played. My female friends all played video games growing up. Granted I think some quit as we hit high school as gaming was nerdy and for boys. As an adult all my female friends play games, because I have friends with similar tastes. We became friends because we game. Three of my female friends are so into gaming that they have various tattoos from games. I own more consoles and games than my husband, consoles and games I bought for myself. I'm sure more men than women own and use consoles, but women definitely have their own consoles, and not just because their husband or boyfriend has one. I think women aren't as vocal about gaming so sometimes it seems like no women game, but we definitely do!

Because guys are buying multiple systems, while ladies have their one. How many guys you know have PS2, PS3, XBox, XBox 360, PS4, XBox One, versus the Wii/Wii U that are primarily women?

@Morph i agree

@pika677
My husband will only buy xbox, I on the other hand will purchase and use multiple consoles. I actually know quite a few women who use more than just nintendo. I also know plenty of men who exclusively use nintendo. I know guys who love the super "girly" games and women who love "bro" games. That's not to say you can't find a gendered bias when it comes to favored game consoles. I just wish everyone would stop making it a thing and realize people like all sorts of different things and just focus on making good games instead of going for some type of fan service.

@Quorthon YES THIS!

People will always be so quick to try and find ways to disprove all studies that suggest women play more games than men. Studies like this only go to show that more women DO play games — that gaming isn't just a big 'boy's club' (because it isn't). Whether you find it definitive of the truth or not is your prerogative but don't base your reasoning on your social circle.

2000 person sample size... You're better than this NL.

@momoiiru So we're supposed to just accept an inaccurate study because it has favorable results?

D*** straight!!!
Take that you beardy, little neckbeards!

@SushiGummy Don't miss the point - did I say that the study was accurate? I don't mean "more women than men", bad wording on my part, I mean more women in general are playing games. Hence studies like this help to show companies that they can't keep pretending women don't play games. Games aren't just for boys, there are women out there.
Again "Whether you find it definitive of the truth or not is your prerogative".

you hear that? that's the collective death rattle of neckbeards.
bwahahahahahahahahaha
ヘ（。□°）ヘ

@momoiiru There are studies out there that cover this pretty well, and I don't doubt for a moment that a lot of women play games (if I were to guess it's probably close to a 50% split), but skewing research and treating it like a competition isn't going to help anybody. With a pool of 2000 people, you could similarly come up with a study that says 70% of players are men.

That's what I'm trying to say here. I don't care what the results are as long as they're accurate, and flooding Facebook and similar sites with skewed or weak statistics isn't going to help anybody.

We need to be looking for good studies, not studies with the results we want.

@SushiGummy
Oh, the times they are a changing... <3
(☉ε　⊙ﾉ)ﾉ

@Utena-mobile Am I saying anything wrong?

Here's an interesting statistic: in 2014, 80% of single parents are female, and single parent households are common, more than half. That means that kids who "own" consoles are much more likely to have mothers taking care of them than fathers, as sad as that is.

https://singlemotherguide.com/single-mother-statistics/

@SushiGummy
ヽ(。_°)ノ

women play more games than men: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/17/women-video-games-iab

@Utena-mobile (ง •̀_•́)ง

@SushiGummy
ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡
welp. I'm off to go play on my PS2, my PS3, my Wii U, my Xbone, and my 3DS. ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!

jk. I'm still here.

@Utena-mobile Nice ninja edit lol.

Yeah, I remember that article. If you want to play it that way:
http://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ESA-Essential-Facts-2015.pdf
This study is more recent and was created by the ESA, a company which works much more closely with the game industry. The sample size was also larger (focusing on 4,000 households rather than 4,000 individuals), and the focus was on the individuals in these households who played games more frequently.

The gender split in this study is 56% male and 44% female. Less female players than there were in 2014, actually.

I'm not trying to argue there are more male players than female players, because I really don't care about that. But statistics aren't a competition. I don't want my side to win, I want to have accurate information. Even this survey I linked which covers 4,000 households isn't really representative of the entirety of the US gaming population, in the same way the article in this page and the article you linked aren't big enough to 'confirm' females have overtaken males in gaming. You have to consider how many people are being polled, where they're being polled, who they're considering gamers, how many hours a week they play, what kinds of games they play, and oftentimes you'll find that there's just not enough information to 'confirm' anything, especially when the split is almost always so close.

Obviously women play games. They play enough that they shouldn't be ignored. To act like they're not there is a mistake. But when I hear an article saying "MORE WOMEN PLAY THAN MEN CONFIRMED" with a 52/48 split and a sample size that isn't even 0.01% of the US population, I shouldn't be the sexist neckbeard just because I don't buy it.

@SushiGummy lol, thanks. ,､’`<(❛ヮ❛✿)>,､’`’`,､

And I'm happy we're about 50/50. You're right, it shouldn't be about who's winning, it should be about what games we can play and what the future of gaming will look like for all of us.

My sister has a DS, 3DS, and PS2; my friend (who is a girl) owns a Wii, 3DS, N3DSXL, and Xbox 360; my other ladyfriend owns a Wii U and 3DS; and I (also a lady) own an N64, PSX, Gamecube, Wii, PS3, Wii U, GBC, GBA, DS, 3DS, and N3DSXL (all of which get used). None of us have children yet, by the way. The systems are for us.

So pretty much equal with all the guys I know. I have found that the women I know tend to own more consoles, while the guys typically just have the latest ones, having sold their old ones for the upgrade. Except my brother. He owns almost everything (the Intellivision is pretty cool looking).

@supergardie
I've noticed that too. It's so annoying because I think classic systems still have some amazing games worth playing (even if the graphics are pretty bad).

Although, tbh anything older than a Super Nintendo is too much for me.

@supergardie
Yup, I hoard all my systems but my husband trades his in for the newest model. He also sells his older games a lot and I like to replay multiple times. Granted he's more fps and my gaming is more varied so his games don't necessarily lend themselves to replays.
I think the more interesting study would be the gaming habits between genders to see if there are any trends. Since its obvious women play games too.

This has to be because of single custodial moms buying consoles for their kids.

@Damo : Saw the article, knew you wrote it. Yes! Someone owes me a carbonated beverage. Is what I would say but I didn't have anyone to bet with so I'll buy myself one later I guess. Don't have to read it to know it's misleading, but I'll read it after.

Lawl: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LiesDamnedLiesAndStatistics

I do wonder, however how they managed to chalk this one up. Probably asked the question wrong. I wonder, but considering the last study, the one everyone quotes, saying 40 odd percent of gamers were women because they play Farmville and Candy Crush...I'm sure there's a lot to make this look stupid. Funny though, it seems they were after propoganda of a different sort. "People who own tablets are highly educated"...wow. I wouldn't give them two shakes, but anyone else is welcome to.

FYI there is an actual product called Sega Genesis Ultimate Portable Game Player in North America. It is sold for $40 at most retailers.
It comes with 80 Genesis games. Granted it's a licensed product to use the properties and from Sega.

You literally find them all over.

Have women been able to shake the "casual" label that 3rd parties, NPD, Sony, Microsoft and NeoGaf gave them?
Does this mean "casuals" make up 42% of the console market?

This is almost definitely nonsense.
There are so many sources of information on this that all roughly agree on the figures. E.g Steam demographics are roughly the same as the Nintendo eshop demographics that Nintendo reported. Which are roughly the same as you find whenever you get an online poll.
There are a lot of people with agendas trying to make it seem like there are more women than there actually are. Didn't imagine Pew would do that though.

@Dezzy
The eShop statistics aren't fully accurate due to being mainly based on credit cards.
If you don't access the eShop directly, you aren't counted.

All the other reports including Nintendo slides based on customer survey finds Nintendo hardware owners are almost equally split between men and women, as it has been the case on every system except for SNES.

Steam demographics don't accurately reflect PC gaming, because only a minority of PC games are on Steam.

It is well known that men are the primary owners of Playstations and Xboxs, which is to be expected since the software almost exclusively caters to them on those platforms.

To be fair most gamers view women and girls as "casual" gamers who only buy shovelware and Candy Crush, even though it's not true.
Females really don't care for shooters, realistic sports games, realistic racers and most M-rated AAA cinematic games, which is what most of the industry has been putting out since 2004.

The reason why the 3rd parties, Microsoft and Sony ignore them is due to the fact it is much easier and cheaper to cater to their existing 15-35 males who want to play shooters, realistic sports games, realistic racers and most M-rated AAA cinematic game.
This group known as the "hardcore" and core gamers, are very easy consumers to train and to sell to. They will literally eat up broken games and return next time for more. They will buy endless amounts of DLC and openly defends publishers over it.

Why would 3rd parties, Microsoft and Sony want to invest in any other group, who might not be willing to put up with industry antics?

I'm late to the party but I can't believe there are so many women that actually believe women play games, on consoles, as much, or more than men. You'd think women would know women better than I do. Kekekek. Then again, considering some of them think they only act differently to men because of society...kekekek.

@Xenocity: I thought men and women like the same things,(like video games) so why aren't they also interested in the shooters? I've known women(read: a woman) who liked the Last of Us. Are you really implying women can't like shooters?

@Xenocity
Why would being based on credit cards affect anything?
Men and women equally have access to those.

And I don't buy your claim that Nintendo has been equally male and female. If you got Nintendolife to do a poll right now, I'd almost guarantee you'd find a very similar split that you find on Steam and the other consoles. Which is usually about 80/20 male/female.

And also, why would Steam have unrepresentative figures? Steam has a hell of a lot of games that aren't the stereotypically "male" genres.

@Fee
No, men and women definitively do not like the same things. There are massive disparities in nearly every leisure activity you look at (as well a nearly every career).
That is not the same as saying ALL women don't like them though. Or that women CAN'T like them. This is about averages that dictate the overall trends. Not absolutes.

Nintendolife, you like polls. Why not poll for sex demographics so we can see how accurate these supposed results are with a more meaningful measure?

@Fee
NPD, 3rd parties, Xbox Live data, PSN data etc... show that almost the entire user base of most of the type of games listed are from 15-35 males.
There are other groups that play these games and on other groups who occasionally play them.
There are women who enjoy playing them too, but they are the minority of a minority.

There is nothing directly stopping women from playing and liking them.
Though there are indirect issues; such as "hardcore" and core gamers being unaccepting of women to the point of openly hating on women for playing them.
The marketing and all the material is heavily focused the 15-35 male, with no meaningful effort to connect to women or to get them interested in them.

People who don't care for or genuinely dislike those genres and content are actively painted by the established industry (not Nintendo and companies that support them) as NOT REAL GAMERS and/or "CASUALS" who are destroying gaming.

I rarely play any games in those genres I listed and I am a 30 year old male.
They just don't appeal to me.
I own a few M rated games and the only non Splatoon Shooter I own for Wii U is 007 Legends (which I think is a decent game despite what others say).

I have a female cousin who is in her mid twenties who enjoys playing shooters and some other M rated stuff, but doesn't like to play online because she gets rejected on XBL and PSN (her friends own the systems) because she is a woman (who sounds distinctively female). People refuse to play against her or are very unpleasant to play with.

Most women and Most men in the world do not like the same types of games as the "hardcore" and core gamers...
The "hardcore" and core gamers are minority of people who actually buy and play most systems and games.

@Dezzy
Detailed information is tied to the account holder of the credit card.
So anyone who uses a credit card for purchase of a digital good will be identified by the card holder, even if the card holder bought it for them.
If you use those who pay with eShop cards/credit, Nintendo doesn't get the information unless they want to run a massive scan of NNIDs.
Nintendo says their eShop data is based on credit card purchases in North America (Same for PSN, XBL, Steam, Origin and many other services).

As for PC gaming, the vast majority of PC games sold in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and Africa are sold at retail.

In North America, Steam doesn't even have the majority of PC gaming sales. Canada, Mexico and the rest still prefer buying PC games a retail. Americans split their purchase between retail, Steam, Origin (which is nearing Steam market share), UPlay, GOG, Mac App Store, Windows App Store and many other digital gaming services.

I have learned in my university research that science is only as good as the researchers behind it. When taking a look at the natural world (science) it is important to use the very sophisticated tools that come built into our heads. This study is flawed in some way.

@kshixson
All gaming related studies are flawed.
This is why everyone is still fighting over gaming labels and what defines the different types of gamers.
No one can even agree on what game genres are considered "casual" and who are "casual" gamers.

@Fee ok, so I agree that Candycrush is pretty casual, and I wouldn't really call people who play just Candycrush a "gamer." But have you played Farmville? It's pretty fun and can be more than just a casual game. So this brings me to my point. What is your definition of a "gamer?" Is it someone who HAS to play only Call of Duty or some other "guy" game? I define a gamer as someone who not only plays games but enjoys talking about games and being part of a community of other people who also enjoy games. Newsflash, some Farmville players are gamers.

@Dezzy Nintendo has released polls and we're 50/50. As for steam, well, not everyone who games on PC or laptops use steam. I play lots of games on my laptop but hate steam because I find the store annoying and convoluted. I can't be the only one who thinks so.

And finally, a poll on NintendoLife won't prove anything besides who are more willing to visit gaming centric websites. I find that when it comes to "Gamers", like 90% of the ones who enjoy console wars, fan"boy"ing, and posting lots and lots of opinionated comments are guys. Thus, you'll find more guys on NintendoLife's comments.

@TTGlider
Good point, you never really what you are getting with these studies.

@Xenocity
You still haven't explained why being tied to a credit card would somehow introduce a male-heavy bias. Once again, men and women equally have access to credit cards.

And you're claims about PC gaming there don't influence the point either way.
My question was: why does the Steam data point to a massive male majority (I think it was 85% last time anyone checked it)? What on earth does retail sales have to do with that? Most retail sales nowadays actually require a Steam account to run the games anyway.
But you were saying that the reasons consoles are male majority was because of the genres they focus on. But Steam has thousands of the non-male genres available, much more so than the consoles. So why are their figures still male majority?

Have you ever heard the saying "don't piss down my leg and try to tell me that it's raining"? You could say that about this study.

@Utena-mobile
Source for those polls please?

I think the last paragraph of your comment kinda makes the point I'm trying to get at. Most of the people who're heavily invested in this industry are male. If this poll is remotely accurate, which I still heavily doubt (just based on everyone I've ever known owning a console being almost exclusively male), then I think what it's probably saying is that women are more likely to occasionally buy a console and then play it a few times, whereas men are more likely to buy EVERY console and play it daily.

Wow, these comments

I wonder if this type of poll legitimacy questioning would've happened if the result would've been that more US men own consoles than women

Would be fun to make a research based on these comments of how many males get defensive when being told that their hobby isn't more popular in their gender

Is this subject REALLY this controversial?

@Dezzy
Men are more willing to use their credit cards on digital console purchases, while women aren't.
Just like more women tend use credit cards for iTunes, while men tend to gravitate towards iTune cards.

The reason why Steam is male centric is due to the fact that nearly all the games advertised for Steam are games that are targeted at 15-35 males known as "hardcore" gamers.
Nearly all the games that have sold 1 million on Steam are violent games M-rated games, Shooters, and other games made explicitly for the 15-35 males.
The games that sell the best during Steam sales are mainly those targeted at the same group.
Steam spy has the list and it is very sad list at that.

Valve it's self mainly advertises Steam and their other products almost exclusively on multimedia channels that cater to 15-35 males who play mainly shooters and other genres I listed as "hardcore". Windows PCs are typically advertised towards males, in male dominated marketing channels. Graphics cards and other PC parts are rarely show women and are marketed towards them.

Practically all PC gaming gear including graphic cards from AMD and Nvidia are bundled with games targeted at 15-35 year old males, normally with a shooter or violent action game.
These males and games are also shown in all the PR material and ads. They also make up nearly all the employees at the booths at the trade shows.

People still think the majority of all Windows games and Steam games mirror that of Xbox and Playstation as in nearly all the game are shooters and sports.
Though Sims does get a mention.

Mac and Linux OSs are known for having what 'hardcore" gamers call "casual" games.
This is due to most 3rd parties skipping these OSs due to stigma of users not buying games.

The main people who buy Xbox and Playstation consoles and play them on a near daily basis are 15-35 males who primarily play play shooters, realistic sports games, realistic racers and most M-rated AAA cinematic game.
The most played games on Xbox and Playstation are shooters and sports games.

This group avidly avoids Nintendo systems, though NPD does say they are embracing mobile just as much as everyone else.

Though even on mobile this group of males avoids everything and anything that is perceived as kiddy and "casual", while gravitating towards violent mobile games.

Those who regularly play Nintendo systems are always everyone else, not that pesky male group I keep mentioning.

The majority of men and boys in the world aren't in the group of 15-35 year old males play shooters, realistic sports games, realistic racers and most M-rated AAA cinematic games

The industry became very narrowly focused midway during the PS2 generation on the 15-35 year old males who play shooters, realistic sports games, realistic racers and most M-rated AAA cinematic games.
This group was almost exclusively catered too on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Xbox One and PS4 cater almost exclusively to them.

TL:DR the gaming industry is becoming extremely narrowed over the past 12 years.

@Utena-mobile "What is your definition of gamer" Over-hyped twat. But I don't think that's what you meant. It's funny though. A gamer to you is someone who likes being part of the community. @Ryu_Niiyama said girls aren't into being part of the gaming community. So by your definition she doesn't think girls are a large portion of gamers. She obviously does think girls are a large portion of gamers by her definition though. Funny how you're all over the place. I don't mean people on your side I mean everyone. @Xenocity was right to say all these statistics are flawed, and a lot of people only accept the ones they like. So let's just use our common sense. Who do you see playing which games?

So here's what I believe. Men play more console games. Women play more games like Animal Crossing and Style boutique(really style boutique is one of the only things that came to mind), which are also console games. I could believe that 40+% of people playing Mario Kart are women. I could believe the same for Pokémon. But I know that when I play Smash bros. or Monster Hunter online it is greater than 75% men that I see.(I've played literally thousands of different people in Smash bros. and hunted with hundreds in Monster Hunter) When I played Animal Crossing they were mostly young girls.(only played that online a bit, crossed maybe 75 people) The reason you don't see a lot of girls online isn't because they're being bullied or hit on, for a lot of communities it's just because they're not there. Men are interested in more and varied games than women are. I'm pretty sure I wrote this post badly but I'm kind of sleepy so meh. I'm not going to bother trying to explain everything either.

I've also gotten lots of streetpasses. At least 80% of them were men. I'm racking my brain trying to remember why I care but like I said I'm sleepy. But the bottom line of what I'm saying is. Girls play girl games. Being blunt and legit right there.

@Airola
Yes it is a controversial subject, but not because of men as whole.

The only group that is up in arms over this is 15-35 year old Western males that play shooters, realistic sports games, realistic racers and most M-rated AAA cinematic game.

Most men don't fit that demographic, which we know as "hardcore" gamers.

Also we should note in Asia and to some degree in the West, console gaming still has a horrible stigma attached to it as being something normal adults don't play. Though this stigma is fastly fading in the West and slowly fading in Asia.

@Xenocity

There's an awful lot of claims being made here without any evidence at all.
Where are you getting this idea that men are more likely to make digital purchases with credit cards?

fwiw, this single woman owns a ps4, ps3, xbox one, 3ds and a gaming laptop (tho i really prefer console gaming). also 3 vitas, 2 psps, and a new 3ds for kids. no man in sight.

i get pretty annoyed when sales people dismiss me or treat me like an idiot because i'm a woman, considering i spend a significant amount on this hobby for myself and family.

@Fee
A gamer is someone who likes to be part of A community. Posting on forums or websites like this are not the only communities to be a gamer in. I have family and friends who also play games, and spending time with them, sharing games, and talking about games IS the community that I like to be in.

And @Ryu_Niiyama is right. We see the same thing. Mostly guys are the ones who enjoy posting on websites and forums. But I don't see how not wanting to be part of an online community invalidates being able to call myself a "gamer".
(o_ O )

@Dezzy
NPD releases reports on gaming and other industries including music.
Nielsens and EEDAR also release yearly reports on gaming in the West and who spends what where.
These are yearly reports which you can easily find.

Last years report redefined the 6 different types gamers (yes I said 6) and kicked off massive debates across the gaming press and other media in part because NPD said you must play on a Playstation and Xboxes to be considered "hardcore" and core gamers.
I posted it in another story comment section and other places on the web.

NPD, EEDAR and Nielsen have been stating since Wii Shop Channel launched that men prefer using their credit cards for digital gaming purchases.
I SAID DIGITAL GAMING PURCHASES.

Women according to NPD and IDC (They track tablet, computer, smartphone and other hardware sales) prefer using their credit cards for iTunes (and other similar services).

Whether or not the data is fully accurate is a different story.

I DIDN'T TALK DIGITAL PURCHASES AS A WHOLE!

@Utena-mobile @doll

That's because women are widely viewed these days as the dreaded "casuals" who have been wrecking gaming, buying shovelware, and make up the Wii and DS user base. Women are also seen not caring for traditional games, hence why they gravitate towards Nintendo.

It's also believed that women have no interested in dedicated gaming hardware because they are quite content with gaming on their Smartphones and Tablets.
Women are believed to have jump ship from Wii and DS to Smartphones driving mobile gaming to ever increasing heights even though it is regularly debunked by Apple and Google.

Women are also believed to be put off by the slightest issue, thus lacking brand loyalty in gaming that is typically shown by 15-35 men who buy yearly AAA releases. Women will viewed as fickle gamers, who will jump ship to the next hot game.
They are also known for making a huge storm when they encounter something wrong with their games and take it to social media with vengeance against the developer.

Michael Pachter and his folks at NPD regularly note this in their data publications.
EEDAR notes it too.
EA, Ubisoft, and Activsion have all published their finding on women and games, which is one the reasons they used for avoiding Nintendo systems when it came to their AAA games.

Hell even NeoGaf (the nexus of gaming) has a weekly thread on how Nintendo targets women/"casuals", kids, others instead of "hardcore" and core gamers with their systems every generation.

Is Western half of the gaming industry outright sexist? Definitely.
Eastern half is hit and miss.
Though Nintendo is one of the few developers who actively targets women.

@Utena-mobile "But I don't see how not wanting to be part of an online community invalidates being able to call myself a 'gamer'."
I don't see how you're responding to my post, but I like how you try to stay in line with @Ryu_Niiyama. You can call yourself a gamer as much as you like, but I don't call myself one. Anyways what I'm saying is. Girls play girl games but not as much as guys play guy games. You ever hear of the eighty twent rule? Eighty percent of profit comes from 20% of customers. I'd say men make up 14% of that 20 at the least, and I think you're the only car. If you think there are a lot of cars that like to be part of a video game community you're even more naive than some of the other things here.

@Fee I don't think "girl" games or "guy" games exist. I think games lean towards being marketed with socially-constructed traits, such as this game is more "feminine" or this game is more "masculine" but a game is a game. "Girls play girl games... guys play guy games." No, we just play games. I have both Animal Crossing: New Leaf AND Demon's Souls. I don't consider Animal Crossing inherently "girly" and I don't consider Demon's Souls inherently "manly". They're just different genres.

and fyi,I'm no stranger to sarcasm but for the record I'm not really a car. It's a reference to "Revolutionary Girl Utena: Adolescence of Utena."
say whaaaaaa?!?
へ(゜∇、°)へ

@Fee
Actually 15-35 year old males who I have mentioned repeatedly make up 80% - 95%+ profits for EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Epic, Xbox, Playstation, Bethesda and Take Two.
These 3rd parties and even Playstation prior to 3, offered more varied content that appealed to a wide arrange of people. Their profits reflected this.

Then Call of Duty: MW happened on Xbox 360... It sold 20M+ copies and turned Activision from a struggling 3rd party on the verge of bankruptcy into a company that made over a billion in profits on one game in part due to the DLC.
Each Call of Duty until the last one sold more than previous.
This is why Activision is the most profitable gaming company (unless you count Microsoft as a whole).

Management with pressure from shareholders at the other major 3rd parties decided to focus on hitting the Call of Duty profits with each game.
This meant development and marketing costs went through the roof to hit that profit on each game.
This also meant that any game that wasn't capable of selling AAA blockbuster Call of Duty numbers was dropped.
Flops now generate $100M+ in losses.

If you hit the AAA Blockbuster Call of Duty style sales, it meant you could make more money that you did on PS2.
It also meant, if you lost money, you would lose more money than ever before.

But most 3rd parties figured it was worth pursuing.

They were no longer interested in making games that sold and made decent to small profits.

The saying is called "GO BIG OR GO HOME!"

This single handedly put most 3rd parties out of business last gen and also lead to those who survived merging and consolidating.

That's what killed the diversity in 3rd party games.

@Utena-mobile Yeah, and girls like girl genres. Guys like guy genres. I'm being blunt on purpose, but I obviously have Animal Crossing myself. I still know it's mostly girls playing it. Why would you having Demon Souls make me stop believing(knowing) it's the type of game mostly men play? Socially-constructed though? Hahahaha. I suppose the female spider eats the male because of how it was brought up in spider school then? It's natural for men and women to behave differently and like different things.

@Xenocity Bro just stop. I'm not even paying attention.

@Damo

Don't be facetious! Little boys don't like being called sexist neckbeards and basement dwelling virgins for the games (and content therein) they enjoy. The exact games the encroaching neon haired hipsters and grief merchants take exception with, and are trying to stamp out.

Unless you've got another junk poll that says 85% of men don't want women in gaming, don't even try to make that claim.

Nice clickbait, by the way. Just like @Fee, I could tell this was one of your specials a mile away.

@doll
Your response is neither here nor there. Individual cases say absolutely nothing about overall trends.
I'm a man who likes reading Jane Austen novels. It doesn't change the fact that most people who read them are women.

@Airola Yeah I was wondering the same thing. XD
So much butthurt in these comments, just wow. 'Oh noez, girls like videogames? Can't be true! My masculinity is at stake!'

@Dezzy a) i used myself as an example, one of many women console owners/gaming enthusiasts
b) as a counter-example to the speculation that women might own consoles primarily to amuse their romantic partners
c) because i felt like it. ultimately, i speak only for myself. i'm not sure why my passing comment requires any particular argument. it really was what it appeared to be.
"hello, i'm a woman gaming enthusiast and quite invested. i don't like sellers who assume i don't warrant the same consideration as male consumers."

gaming is diverse enough now that devs, sellers, and etc would be foolish to conclude ignoring approximately half the population makes good business sense.

Some of these comments. I thought NintendoLife's community was smarter than this >_<

Anyway I'm in the UK and 80% of the women I know both own and frequently play games consoles or a gaming PC, especially those in my generation or below. They play all sorts from Animal Crossing to Fallout to Dota, there is no category of 'female games'.

I also know that most of them don't use an obviously female alias because the communities for certain games can be somewhat toxic and a bit of a "no girls allowed" mentality. Which is sad but I have witnessed it myself playing online with them as other players have said the most repulsive things. And people tend to carry their username across all the systems, so it may just be a case that you simply don't realise that half your team online are actually women.

On Nintendo it's different though. My Wara Wara Plaza is generally a fairly even split, but then it could be programmed that way I guess. Though playing games like Mario Maker it seems a similar ratio and on Miiverse the 'Yeahs' and replies I get to my posts are probably more female than male.

People are people. Gender simply means what you've got between your legs, it determines nothing else.

That's because real men play on PC.

Whenever one of these studies comes up to see what percent of gamers are women, usually the results are the same. Whether it's trying to see how many women play lots of video games, or trying to see how many women own a console, the answer is usually slightly more than men. So why is it so hard for you to believe that 50 percent of gamers are women?

Strong suspicion that single mothers are skewing this greatly.

@Yorumi I don't think there are phantom groups here. People do discriminate on certain factors and they often do so disproportionately which contributes to stereotypes. I think it is scary when someone attempts to generalize issues into a it happens to everyone mentality.

Discrimination totally happens to everyone..but its how it happens and to whom and WHY that needs to be discussed. And you are correct that men's issues need to be discussed. I want to have those discussions. However it becomes disjointed when a person begins to speak and then they are dismissed or over ridden. When a person goes well it can happen to anyone instead of lets offer solutions and then I have something I would like to discuss the conversation is lost and becomes a shouting match. Case in point: this thread.

@utena-mobile and @Fee

What in the world did I miss while I was away? Um since I just got to work and can't be bothered to read EVERYTHING that has gone on in the back and forth I'm just going to respond to the posts that featured me. @Fee If you want to be very general about it a gamer is anyone that plays games. So that includes the grandmother that loves the heck out of wii sports and that is all that she plays. That also includes the football nut that just buys Madden every year and that's it (There are a bunch of them in my area...I've worked enough midnight launches to know).

However marketing and textbook term aside many people only take on labels personally if they identify with it. I consider a gamer to be a gaming enthusiast. Period. Someone that identifies with and actively participates in the gamer community...someone that considers gaming a major part of their personal identity. As I stated I own a lot of consoles, I own and play a LOT of games, I wear gaming shirts and have gaming merchandise on my desk(s), I read forums about games and subscribe to magazines. I am a gamer. I have plenty of friends of both genders that may own a console but if you ask them if they identify as a gamer? Nope, not at all. My mother however does identify as a gamer even though she doesn't really buy games or systems anymore because she has other priorities (and its easier to borrow from me).

Another example I am a Taikoka, I play regularly, I have a collection of clothes to perform in and multiple bachi and I go to Taiko concerts. However I'm not a drummer. I don't care about drum music theory, if you sit me in front of a snare drum set that isn't rock band I will look at you like you are insane. Even though the taiko beats can easily translate to regular drumming. I can't even name two drummers. Yet many others would generalize and say "she's a drummer". There is a difference between an enthusiast and someone who isn't. A big part of that is how they see themselves. So like I said, lots of women play games however way less identify themselves as gamers.

Wow, whacked a hornet's nest with this one!

Did that survey seriously list the Sega Nomad as an example of a portable game console, though?

Yeah, this study is worthless, the sample size is only 2,000 people. Try again when you have a sample size of at least 2,000,000 people. (That will never happen...) That's the thing about these studies, they lose out on so many different variables because the sample size is too small, and the parameters too blanketed. Studies like this are just a waste of money, possibly even taxpayer money.

The resources could have been spent on some more important issue, or at least a more comprehensive study on the effect gaming has on people's lives. I don't expect much out of Pew though, they're so full of themselves in their ivory towers. I wouldn't be surprised if someone commissioned Pew to conduct the study in a way that makes the results into some kind of "educational advertisement" of sorts.

@Everyone who called out this BS study Yeah, exactly, these Pew research studies are completely idiotic. They even made some half-assed attempt to lump in everyone who's not of European descent against those who are, just because of a European descended majority (that's changing), which is probably at least slightly racist, as well.

I would argue 2,000 people is way too small to be considered "broad data", though. The results of this study would be completely different if it were conducted in West Virginia compared to California, or New Orleans compared to Houston, or Washington DC compared to Middle of Nowhere, Wyoming. The sample size is way too damn small to be significant, making this sorry excuse for a study just as much so anecdotal as all of the opinions in this comment section.

Ffs. It's like watching a train wreck. Ssdd.

2000 people is more than enough for a sample size for a national survey. I looked over their methods section and it seems legit. At this point, the only things one could reasonably be suspicious about are the questions asked and the way they were asked.

Having grown up around female gamers, I have to admit, the hostility here is a little weird to me.

@Sample_Text Yeah, that just proves their methodology is complete BS. Only 2,000 practically handpicked people across all 50 states, a focus on those in poverty and those who are wealthy, a focus on those who are well educated, and a focus on smart phones instead of gaming consoles.

One of their headlines sums it up: "Smartphone users more likely to be younger, more affluent, and more well educated"... Which is complete BS, since they're becoming so ubiquitous that it seems like practically everyone is on their way to having one, even those without much money or education. (Which applies to me.) And who is actually buying the things, and paying for the plans? Not mostly young people, that's for sure.

@Ralizah It depends on what the study is about. For this type of topic, a larger sample size is absolutely necessary. Even if the survey is national, it can too easily be manipulated to cherry pick certain populations.

They would probably get more accurate results from 2,000 or more completely randomly chosen people in each and every state, coming to 100,000 people in all, in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. They cannot get an accurate picture by honing in on predetermined demographics, at least not with such a small sample size. (Except for choosing a 50/50 sample ratio of male and female, and 33/33/33 city, suburb, and rural of course.) Maybe that's just the limitation of their 501(c)3 status, but it's a waste of resources to try and draw such a broad conclusion based on extremely limited data. They must have been commissioned by someone with a vested interest in seeing the results be publicized in this way.

Not to mention, their conclusions, especially relating to smart phones, are cringeworthy. It's like they've never walked into a mall to see who exactly is buying the things and paying for the plans in the first place... It's sure as hell not who this study concludes they are!

@Damo Why did you respond to @edhe but not me? I'm your biggest fan but you hate me? ;_;

@doll : They're not ignoring you. You already like the games so you buy them. You don't have to be catered to to get sales from you. They already have it. It's the average woman that isn't interested in most games. You're already sold. Or am I wrong and you don't like games?

@Fee Because edhe was being a jackass, so he replied with his iconic sarcastic wit! He didn't reply to you, because he loves you.

@PlywoodStick Oh, well that's cool but I wish he'd say so himself sheesh! You gotta acknowledge your supporters too or they'll feel left out.

@Viendra LMAO, didn't you know one of the main demographics that plays Nintendogs are actual dogs?

@Airola
I have a feeling a lot of the guys who get super upset over girls gaming are the ones who have been rejected by women. So they assume they can't get a girlfriend because women just don't understand. It's not that they're asking non gamers, or, gasp, are maybe a douche. It's the women. Which is so weird because I know so many women gamers, like it's not hard to find a woman who enjoys gaming.

But this is also the same community where most female characters are ridiculously scantily clad, and if you cosplay as said character you get harassed and called a slut. If the devs or console company change the outfit, they cry censorship and demand it stay the same. But you're still a slut if you cosplay in an outfit they demanded stay.
The uproar about this poll is really about ethics in gaming polling right? Not to harsh on women who enjoy gaming,right?

I hate to come at you all with anecdotal evidence, but my wife, sister, and mother all own game consoles, which they play. My wife's friends play video games, and most of my female friends play video games. Does this mean that ALL women play games, no?

To get more to the point: do more women play game consoles more than men? Probably not.

The results of this survey are likely skewed by the fact that most of those poled were older (my grandma plays Wii games, but don't even dare suggest it to my grandfather), and also by the fact that, often, women are the ones buying gifts for the children. That doesn't mean that the overall results of the survey aren't correct, though.

If you look at under-35 crowd, I would guess that the split is probably 60/40 in favor of men, but when you take into account the over-40 audience, I don't see it as an impossibility that (at this point in time) women really do game more than men.

The difference amongst younger audiences isn't what it once was, and older men have been slower to get on the bandwagon that grandmas and soccer moms.

Wow, there were some bad typos in there...

Oh dear: another inaccurate research about women gamers being more than male gamers. Please NintendoLife, we don't need another Kotaku.

Do they consider mobile phones a "game console" as well. Sometimes statistics include stupid things like that. If anything, anecdotal evidence points the other way. Either way, statistics like this are often skewed. No polling is unbiased and it's easy to skew the results simply by your sample size or where you did the polling.

Don't get me wrong, I'm quite excited at the prospect that more women are accepting of gaming, but to try to claim that women out number men in that field is complete BS. Anecdotal evidence from a LOT of people can easily break that.

I'm a woman. My wife and I own 4 consoles and 2 handhelds. So maybe this thing isn't so far off

@russellohh I'm a male gamer and I stay out of online forums except for posting every once in a while. Yes, I'm a lurker. I guess it's just my personality since I'm not a big "community" or "fanboy" kind of person. Maybe most women don't feel a need to participate in online discussion in the same way I don't.

@Jayvir If they defined a games console as a device that can be used to play games, then the results would not surprise me as nearly everything can play games nowadays. If they define games consoles as what we think of games consoles then the results are highly suspect.

@russellohh I do love hearing that. I played On Wii Animal Crossing with a group of old Farts from about 8am to 10am every morning trading items and fishing or just help someone get money to pay off loans. We had a blast. Gaming definitely has changed over the years and more women do play but I believe the men still outnumber the women by a lot . I could be wrong but like I said welcome aboard ladies.

@Ryu_Niiyama

My mom used get up early and start playing Gradius, Ms Pac-Man, Contra, Super C, Zelda 1/2, Millipede, Gyruss, Zanac, Life Force, Adventure Island, Blaster Master, etc in the late 80s and early 90s. She started out hardcore (even got me hooked on shmups, just got Mushihimesame on Steam) and now only plays cellphone crap. :/

The average female gamer age is 44 in America according to the ESA 2015 report. So are the women mothers who bought it for their kids?

We see these kind of polls a lot of the time and I don't think they're a real indicator of anything. Moreso it's an indicator that more women are eager to always contribute to these kind of polls than men.

Yeah, right.... this is utter BS.

@Ryu_Niiyama i also love the ltd edition pokemon consoles!