Female gamers are fast taking the lead in Esports globally

Female gamers across the globe are proving their mettle by turning up in larger numbers signaling the beginning of a paradigm shift in gaming trends

Off the field and on to your high-tech consoles! That’s what the scenario has become after the COVID-19 spread. And this paradigm shift in gaming towards online options has seen a rise in the ratio of female gamers taking the mantle in various fields like competitive gaming, streaming, casting and more..

Gamer profiles undergo a major transition

The typical gamer in Asia looks a lot different than just five years ago. As widespread internet and affordable smartphones have connected millions of people to the world of gaming. The number of genres has exploded, storylines have become more inclusive, and an even wider, more diverse audience is getting in on the action.

Asia’s booming gaming market presents a huge opportunity for marketers and developers to connect with millions of passionate, engaged users – but there’s one audience, in particular, that’s taken the gaming universe by storm — a space that had largely been dominated by male gamers for decades, and that’s the fairer gender.

Today, female gamers are giving tough competition to men when it comes to gaming space infiltration. It is widely known in the gaming world that 27-year-old Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn, is the highest female gamer in the world, with cumulative earnings of almost $300,000! She is one of the numerous gamers who has dominated the gaming arena with near-perfect playing records.

Ladies are breaking all the bastions of male domination and have proved to the world that the gaming industry is not merely a man’s world anymore. From top casters to esports analysts like Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere and Jorien ‘Sheever’ van der Heijdenand, female talents are making the right noise for the world to see.

Female gamers are increasing by the day

Women today account for 46% of all game enthusiasts. There are more than one billion female game enthusiasts in the world.

While some outsiders may still be surprised by the popularity of gaming among girls and women, many others have embraced it. Over the past decade, gaming has evolved into all-round entertainment that includes viewing, playing, as well as enjoying the latest innovations in hardware. This has given way to more diversity in how individuals, male and female, enjoy games.

Asia has long been a global leader in the gaming industry. By the end of 2019, the region accounted for nearly half (48%) of the world’s total gaming revenue. To put this into perspective, three years ago, there were 346 million female gamers in Asia: less than one-third of the total gaming population. By the end of 2019, females accounted for 38% of all gamers across platforms at 500 million strong, and the numbers are continuing to rise.

In fact, the number of female gamers in Asia is growing at a faster pace than male gamers. Asia’s user base of female gamers grew 18.8% in 2019 and is forecasted to grow by 14.8% in 2020 — significantly outpacing the single-digit growth of total gamers, projected to be 7.8% in 2020.

YouTube data supplements this fact that both men and women are spending more time per video with gaming than in any other content area. Women, however, are spending slightly more time watching each gaming video than men are. And to further shatter social stereotypes, millennial females actively comment on, like, and share more gaming content than they discuss cooking or recipe content.

A potential market awaits

In the next few years, a female gamers’ influence on market winds and impact on total business revenues will be definitive and significant, to say the least. And, considering how much more female gamers are playing and spending on games during the COVID-19 pandemic, we could potentially see even higher levels of engagement once the world starts returning to a new normal.

What’s even more exciting is that female gamers have more influence on global trends, purchase patterns and buying decisions. It’s time that more gaming developers start rethinking their strategies and consider new ways to appeal to a diverse user base.

A wider avenue for developers

As we talk of an ever-expanding gamer base, can India be far behind? Indian female gamers hold a massive potential to spark growth in Asia’s current gaming market. Presenting a huge potential market right now, the country has the lowest overall percentage of female gamers in Asia at 18%.

This means developers can surely have their hands full of opportunities in the near future to connect with an entirely new audience of female gamers. A rapidly evolving customer exchange phenomenon between countries spills demand over borders in a matter of no time. Soon, tech-savvy females will demand access to the latest and the snazziest gaming content — developers should have their product baskets ready!