5 Myths About Women In Gaming

5. Men Are The Only Gamers

Do me a favour. Google Image search "video gamer" real quick and see what the results are. If your results are anything like mine, most of the pictures that come up are of males aggressively holding game controllers or intensely staring at a computer monitor. If you look up stereotypes of video gamers, you'll find some of the most common ones (some of which really need to stop) are that gamers are all young, immature, socially-inept neckbeards.

And it's okay to be honest and admit that, while even as gamers ourselves, most of us believe that neckbeards are the wretched demigods of the gaming community. But the truth is that there is so much more to the community than neckbeards.

A 2014 UK study performed by the Internet Advertising Bureau showed that 52% of self-proclaimed gamers (in the UK) are women. Now unless my math skills are poor - and that's highly possible - that means that women account for slightly more than half of gaming community. In 2011, the same study showed that 49% of gamers were women, so these numbers aren't abnormal flukes - they are showing a steady pattern.

Need more? A study by the Pew Research Center published October 2015 showed that 42% of American females over the age of 18 own gaming consoles, compared to 37% of men. These numbers aren't that much different than when PRC conducted a similar study in 2010.

Colour me unsurprised. These aren't the only studies that suggest these results, either. Other PRC studies and Nielsen studies point to the same trend.