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Women outnumber men in online games, survey finds
Teala
Member RarePosts: 7,627
Women outnumber men in online games, survey finds
While male video gamers still outnumber women 2 to 1, women have the edge in online games, a survey has found.
Of the 117 million active gamers in the U.S., 56 percent play games online. Sixty-four percent of those online gamers are female, according to results of the survey, released by Nielsen Entertainment on Thursday.
The survey defined active gamers as those who are 13 years or older, own at least one game device, and play at least one hour of video games a week. Game devices include game consoles, personal computers and handhelds. Nielsen surveyed 2,200 active gamers online in July.
"The expansion of next-generation hardware and technology in the marketplace is simultaneously delivering new ecosystems of social exchange, interactive entertainment, media experiences and advertising models," Emily Della Maggiora, a senior vice president of Nielsen Interactive Entertainment, said in a statement.
The survey found that while the casual game segment is growing, casual gamers tend to jump from one free demo to another with little sense of brand loyalty. While banner advertising provides a good revenue stream for the online game providers, gaining brand loyalty and getting people to spend money for subscriptions or downloads will be the key to growing the market, Nielsen researchers found.
Currently, casual gamers spend $9 a month on games. Those playing multiplayer online role-playing games spend an average of $26 a month, while Microsoft Xbox 360 gamers spend $35 a month, the survey found.
Among game console owners, the majority own more than one device or platform--including PCs--for playing video games. Fifty-nine percent own a Sony PlayStation 2. Microsoft was next, with 33 percent owning an Xbox. (Fifteen percent of all active gamers own an Xbox 360, while about 8 percent of active gamers own both an Xbox and an Xbox 360.) Nintendo's GameCube came in third at 30 percent.
Active gamers played an average of 14 hours a week on game consoles and 17 hours on handheld devices like the PlayStation Portable, according to the survey.
Twenty-four percent of active gamers also played on cell phones. Personal computers, however, dominated as the platform of choice.
Sixty-four percent of those who regularly played video games, played on PC-based systems. Just two years ago, according to the Nielsen report, many game industry analysts wondered whether computers would be able to compete with game consoles and handhelds.
Playing video games is also becoming more of a contact sport--sort of. The average gamer spends five hours a week playing games with other people online, while teen gamers spend up to seven hours a week.
SO THERE! 
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Then again, looking at some of the crap that games companies call entertainment I don't suppose I should be suprised
If you count Slingo and Online Poker, this is true.
If you count female 'avatars' this is also true. But the fact of the matter is, in your average MMO, males are still the majority.
Notice it said 'online games' which can include any friggin' game you play online, not just MMOs.
What sucks, is that reports like this are incorrectly portraying what KIND of games they're playing.
I'm sorry, but if they're counting the women who're playing stuff from Pogo.com or Yahoo Games, then nah, that's an amount of folks that shouldn't be counted.
So unless I read the info incorrectly, it should never INCLUDE folks who don't play subscription based games (i.e. EQ1-WoW-ect) but games that aren't the normal "Vegas Poker" or "Word Search" or "Keno" games. Because if they did include those numbers in their critera, then OF COURSE it's going to be a significantly higher number.
Don't get me wrong, I play WoW and there's a serious amount of female gamers in there. Far more than most Western Online Games on average, which is a great thing. I just hate reports that're trying to skew the readers opinion a certain why by distorting the facts.
D.
So many games, so little time!
When a survey includes 2,200 people out of 117 million, I tend to think that the results may be slightly skewed. Most female gamers are introduced to MMOs by their boyfriends, women are notoriously bad at getting into new things on their own; that kinda ensures that there are always more male gamers, except if a game breaks fully into mainstream.
117 million is a whole lot of players btw, considering the following:
"On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 7:46 a.m. (EDT), the estimated population of the United States reached 300 million." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States)
Setting the somewhat amusing idea of giving an exact time and date to an estimated number aside, this means more than 1/3 of the US population are active gamers? That's kinda good, I guess the rest are "inactive gamers" then.
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
so all along we thought it was guys playing female toons...
when in fact its women/girls playing male toons.. interesting
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
why not ?
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
basically, if you want to hook up, you better go gay. Now I
realise why they say some things are better not to know; if everyone
knew this, we would have everyone and his dog going gay, and we can't
have that can we.
why not ?
Because people won't be able to reproduce. And we'd need more proctologists.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
LOL, These are the comments that get me, it's absolutely amazing!
You know, a hundred different companies could come out with a hundred different surveys saying the same thing and guys will still say this, it's unreal.
In the American Association for Entertainment Sales 2003/2004s game sales survey they showed that 52% of sales went to female gamers between the ages of 15 and 30. That's actual boxes bought people!
In 2005 Routers/AP released a 500k person survey that clearly stated that 42% of the "Paying!" MMO market was going to females gamers, we were also the fastest growing demographic.
The all time best selling pc game, The Sims and it's exp. packs, it's total sales went to 60% female customers.
At the end of 2005 winter, the ESRB released a report that was presented to Congress which stated 40% of all consoles games were being sold to female buyers of an average income between $35k and 50k Annualy and again, that we were the fastest growing market.
But of course, thats all BS right. We're not really playing the same "Games" guys do. Nope, we're all off playing online Cribbage and Nintendogs because heaven forbid, FEAR is just way to advanced for my poor little brain to comprehend.
Woops, sorry, was that sarscam? I'll scratch that, shuffle back off to the kitchen and make my man some diner like a good little girl.
As a side note, I wonder how fast I'd get a warning/ban from the mods if I started saying the only games guys play are Online Poker and when they do manage to play a real mmo, the only way the can do it is by buying gold. Hmmm... probably pretty fast.... not that I'd actually ever say that, of course.
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Even if they showed me a 1 minute clip of every single women in the U.S playing video games (with a counter to the side..), i still wouldn't believe them :P
In my last job I worked on a game that was being developed for www.pogo.com. and their target audience was like 40 year old women and young kids... lol.
But I beleive MMORPGS's are anywhere from 80-20 to 90-10 in favour of males... Just look at your clans in whatever games you play... out of like 200 people we have like 10 girls or something and I assume its simular for your clan aswell.
When they ask about ONLINE GAMES... they include sites like pogo, yahoo ect who are primarily female. I bet if they asked a another question like how often do you play the online game... the women would have responded oooh 1-2 hours a week... and the men would have responded 3-4 hours a day... lol.
I don't buy this one bit. I honnestly can't name ONE game where I can clearly notice females outnumber males.
There are female mmo gamers alright, but more female mmo gamers then male's? My experience with MMO's tell me otherwise.
Taht being said there is no way this is true for MMORPGs. Maybe all online games I dunno, but not MMORPGs
Sure, plenty of girl MMO players (until they get on TeamSpeak).
Must be a Feminine Newspaper lol...
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Maybe online games that include poker, games on pogo.com ect.
But in MMOs, there is no way in hell females outnumber males. Just female toons and youngers with squeaky voices.
http://www.TheGamersAssociation.com
Originally posted by shae
So are you saying that we're smarter because we don't break the law, or just that we make more money and thus don't need too? Either way, I agree.
Neither of those things is true, so no. But if 2 guys buy the game, 2 girls buy the game, and 8 more guys just pirate the game, that's still 5 times more guys playing overall.
I certainly did, the all time best selling game that. Oh wait, I see, you don't consider "The Sims" to be a game.
Nope, but if most girls are flocking to play The Sims, you can't actually say that they are playing the same games as guys are.
Don't get too excited there bucko, I said man... Doubtfull you apply.
The only thing I'm doubting is whether you actually have any men knocking at your door anyway. Most guys can live without being bitched at for no reason.