NPD: "Hardcore" Gaming Audiance Still Largely Composed of Men

Gaming is an increasingly diverse culture.  And that just eats some people up.

While we’re not the kind of site that generally talks about controversies like #gamergate and the such, if you’re any kind of ‘politically aware’ gamer then you’ve probably picked up on the fact that there are some people who resent the fact that video games aren’t a boys club anymore… as if it ever was an exclusively boys club.  And it’s been the common argument against their claims that more and more women are playing video games ANYWAY, and if we want them to stay we need to take steps to make them feel both included and represented.  Oh, and that we should be more accepting to women in the first place because misogyny in general’s just not cool.

Well, in regards to the gender politics in video games, I have good news for the people of the “boys club” mentality: according to new poll by the NPD Group, the Y chromosome you cherish so dearly is, in fact, the most present chromosome in gaming…

…”core” gaming, at least.

The poll was conducted online, and looked at 6,225 people 9 years old and older, looking for trends in PC gaming.  Of those 6,225, only 2,312 “qualified” as PC gamers for the sake of this study, the only requirement for which was that the participants currently play some form of PC game.   The qualifying participants were then asked questions as to their gaming habits and were split into three groups—heavy “core” and light “core” gamers (who play  Action/Adventure, Fighting, Flight, MMO, Racing, RTS, Role-Playing, FPS, or Sport games—the “heavy” and “light” depending on if they played more or less than five hours a week), and then the “casual” PC gamers who play non “core” games.

Of the 2,312 questioned, the vast majority were casual gamers, at 56%.  Light “core” gamers made up 24%, while heavy “core” rounded it out at 20% of those surveyed.   The study found that while heavy core gamers made up 1/5^th of the PC gaming market, they spend twice as much money on games as the casuals.



But, as the start of this article hinted at, there’s a gender divide in this as well.   51 percent of all those who qualified were male, meaning the gender divide is pretty much even—except that the heavy “core” and light “core” divisions were composed primarily of male, but “casual “ gamers are overwhelmingly female.   At least, when it comes to PC gaming.

So rejoice, those of you who care—for the time being, PC gaming is still a boys club.

A little disheartening for liberal-minded guys like myself who was happy with the increased diversity in video games, but it’s still not surprising. and certainly not the way it strictly has to be in the future.  But it’s worth paying attention too, easily—I can guarantee these findings will be cited both publically and privately by developers and journalists in the weeks to come, so best to stay on top of things!