The gaming realm, mostly led by men, has been a tough cookie to crack for female gamers. But in the industry’s current day and age, it’s no longer just a man’s world. Women now have a dominant presence in the gaming space, which can easily be acknowledged by the majority of female gamers fast climbing the ladder to success on online gaming scoreboards. Don’t believe us? Look at the stats below!
Surprisingly enough, the majority of female casino players are over the age of 35 and according to Big Fish Games make up for 41% of gamers. Most online casinos cater for female gamers with a wide selection of titles catering for this demographic. For example, 32Red offers a gaming platform by providing games of interest to women, not to say that guts and gore aren’t amongst some of the ladies’ favourite themed games. This is proven by a 32Red female casino player, who back in 2007 sat in front of her PC and played King Cashalot winning the slots jackpot prize of $1,987,698. She became an instant millionaire by spending less than $4.00 and hanging out at home playing the video slots game she most favoured for the 32nd time, fittingly. CoolCat Casino and Circus Casino games also accommodate female iGaming enthusiasts and encourage both men and women to sign up and play, proving that women too have a place in the realm.
As it stands, online casinos, video games, and online gaming sites cater to a wider target audience, creating more web traffic derived from women looking to game. Based on data since 2006, each passing year gives insight that shows how female gamers are on the rise and now in 2017, almost half the gamers in America are women. Most games are directed to a male audience, but that hasn’t stopped female competitors from joining an action-packed video games market. In fact, some of the world’s leading gamers are hardcore, relentless and challenging women.
Let’s take a look at Stephanie Harvey for example. She is an avid gamer as well as a video game developer that is most commonly known by her gamer alias, “missharvey”. She’s got the looks, she’s got the brains but most importantly, she has five world championships under her belt. Best known for winning five awards at the world biggest all women’s Counter-Strike tournament, Harvey was a video game designer for Ubisoft Montreal and now has an all-female Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team known as UBINITED. This leaves a solid footprint in the FPS gaming arena, promoting all female players especially given the fact that first-person shooters fall within a male-dominated scene. Knowing how tough it is out there for female gamers, she has a strong opinion about gender discrimination, making her a role model amongst rising gaming enthusiasts.
Another eSports gaming icon is China’s young Li Wei. At the tender age of 22, this “Warrior Princess”, as she has been so aptly dubbed, has broken the internet by being the first female competitor to take part in the annual World Cyber Arena eSports tournament. Overcoming all odds of being kept out of the tournament, she fought tooth and nail proving that there are no rules against female participants. As a result, she was able to play, surprising the entire audience with the outcome. Li Wei led her team to numerous victories and walked away as a winner for her team.
Women who drive the gaming industry haven’t had it handed to them. On the contrary, they have worked hard and driven themselves to success and throughout this grueling process. In fact, they have succeeded in making a name for themselves as top leading gamers. Industry stats show that the majority of today’s gamers are female, with a staggering 52% of the market.
This is proven by a study that took place over three years ago, and even then, the comments were challenging for women to hear. But times have since changed with more woman entering the boys club leaving lasting impressions that create opportunities for more females to confidently indulge. Given the current stats, it is still a tough industry for female gamers, but not impossible anymore.
Hopefully, given more time and less criticism, all players around the world will come to realize what the internet has been recording throughout the past decade; that female gamers are not just another statistic, they are the competition.
Beauty and Lace is an online magazine for women. We hope you enjoyed this article!