Men are driven by the urge to destroy, and women tend to disappear into fantasy worlds – a study reveals what men and women play and why. Surprisingly, although WoW is a fantasy MMORPG, statistically fewer women play it than other games in the genre.
It is one of the universal truths on the web. One of them: There are no women on the internet. Or are there?
A few days ago, Nick Yee, co-founder of Quantic Foundry, published a new report. Quantic Foundry analyzes video games. The report details which games are preferred by women and how the gender distribution looks across different genres.
For the study, a total of 270,000 players were surveyed about their gaming habits to obtain a representative picture. Unsurprisingly, women mostly play mobile games such as Family/Farm simulations and “Match 3” games – the classic browser or Facebook games.
Here, 69% of the players are female. Puzzle games reach 42% and “Atmospheric Exploration Games” have a female proportion of 41%. For interactive dramas like “Beyond: Two Souls” or visual novels, the share is 37%.
The statistics may also have been influenced by the fact that the 270,000 players mostly completed the survey via Facebook.
World of Warcraft pulls the average down, SWTOR brings it up
But what about MMORPGs? The genders seem to diverge on the setting and background of the games. Women apparently prefer fantasy over science fiction.
World of Warcraft is an exception. Although it belongs to the genre of High Fantasy MMORPGs, only about 23% of the players are female – in other similar MMOs, the percentage is 36%. Azeroth has a shortage of women.
Also surprising is Star Wars: The Old Republic. 29% of the player base here is female, while the percentage in the SciFi MMO genre is a mere 16%. If one were to completely exclude SWTOR from the calculation, the percentage would only be 11.3%. Science fiction is a male-dominated field.
MOBAs need a female quota – in sports games, women are even considered exotic
In MOBAs like League of Legends, SMITE, or Heroes of the Storm, the female ratio is even lower – only one in ten players is female.
Lastly, a (not entirely unexpected) shock for all FIFA fans. In sports games, only 2% of players are women. This corresponds to the stereotype that “women don’t know anything about soccer” – but it could simply mean that they are simply not interested.
Women build and dream, men prefer to destroy
Yee explains in his study the differing motivations between the genders, meaning what players expect from the gaming experience.
While women tend to value completion (achievements, gear) and fantasy (immersive game worlds) (“Completion and Fantasy”), men focus more on competition (PvP, performance comparisons) and destruction (weapons, chaos) (“Competition and Destruction”).
You can find the complete report in our sources.
Cortyn says: Exciting results that reflect at least the broad masses. Especially with World of Warcraft, however, I was surprised by the numbers. I somehow still remember that a few years ago it was said that the genders were “roughly equal” represented. This has either changed massively in recent years, or the information was incorrect.
In general, the study aligns – broadly speaking – with my own experiences. The more fantasy and atmosphere there is, the more women you meet. The more blood, explosions, and competition, the more men feel attracted to the game.
