Women and video games

Demographics of female players

Data collection

Survey data

Historical prevalence

• The author of Pac-Man, Toru Iwatani, attempted to appeal to a wider audience—beyond the typical demographics of young boys and teenagers. His intention was to attract girls to arcades because he found there were very few games that were played by women at the time. Electronic Games reported in 1982 that it was "the first commercial videogame to involve large numbers of women"; the simple gameplay and lack of violence attracted many new players. Of the nine arcade games that How to Win Video Games discussed, Pac-Man was the only one with women as a majority of players. In response, the sequel Ms. Pac-Man, launched in 1981, featured a female protagonist.
• *The success of Pac-Man led to more women pursuing video game development.
• In May 1982, sociologist Sidney J. Kaplan reported the composition of arcade video game players to be roughly 80% male and 20% female.
• In a 1982 survey conducted by Electronic Games, the demographics of female arcade players were broadly similar to their male counterparts. The median age for female arcade players was 26, with a quarter under 16, a quarter between 16–25, 42% between 26–40 and 8% over 40.
• How to Win Video Games estimated that men were 95% of Defender and 90% of Omega Race players, while women were half the players of Centipede, Donkey Kong, and three other games.
• In 1983, researcher John W. Trinkaus published findings that there were 8 male players to every 3 female players in video game arcades.
• In 1983, a Coleco executive stated at the Boston Computer Society that the target audience for the new Adam home computer, based on its ColecoVision console, was "boys age 8 to 16 and their fathers. We believe those are the two groups that really fuel computer purchases". When audience members booed, he added that the marketing strategy was based on consumer research.
• In 1983, the first computer game specifically written for young girls, Jenny of the Prairie was released.
• In 1985, a study of a University of Illinois dormitory found that although more women students than men used newly installed microcomputers, only 1% of women's computer use was for games, compared to 16% for men.
• In 1988, Epyx CEO Dave Morse stated that California Games was the first game from his company to appeal equally to boys and girls during playtesting.
• In 1988, Playthings reported that among primary video game users, women represented 21% of all gamers.
• In 1988, a study by Nintendo reported that 27% of NES players in the United States were female.
• A 1993 self-reported survey by Computer Gaming World found that 7% of its readers were female.
• In 1994, a survey by Electronic Games reported that, among American women gamers, the Sega Genesis was most popular, with 75% ownership, followed by the SNES with 58.3% ownership, the Game Boy with 58%, and MS-DOS with 50%.
• In 1996, Mattel, Inc. released Barbie Fashion Designer, selling over 600,000 copies. The game was considered an important step in advancing an interest in the design of games for women.
• In 1998, The Boston Globe stated that the video game market for young girls was "exploding" with titles such as The American Girls Premiere.
• In 2006, Nintendo reported that 44% of Nintendo DS owners were female, with the majority of Nintendogs owners being female.