The gaming industry is bigger than ever, with global revenues expected to hit $522.5 billion by 2025. Women gamers now represent 46% of all gamers worldwide driving the growth of the market - a fact that’s still surprisingly under-acknowledged when it comes to how games are made, marketed, and moderated.
Over several years, Bryter’s Women Gamers Study has tracked behaviours and experiences amongst women gamers to help better understand the audience. In this seventh edition, the sample was broadened to include all genders, in order to compare experiences across the entire gamer audience – surveying n=1,965 PC & console gamers aged 16-65 in the UK & US. For the first time, we also collected sexual orientation and ethnicity data to explore how the gaming experience can differ for marginalised groups.
In the report we dig deeper into the lives of women gamers across the US and UK and reveal a community that’s passionate, growing, and diverse – but still navigating a landscape that too often treats them as outsiders.
There’s a long-standing myth that women only play so-called ‘cosy’ or casual games. Whilst women do enjoy these games more than men, the data actually tells a more nuanced story. In 2024, women are more likely to be found regularly playing in action-adventure (56%), shooters (49%) and battle royales (47%), than they are in life sims (40%) and puzzle games (37%). ‘Casual’ is a poor term to describe these gamers, who average 20 hours of gaming per week and often see gaming as a core part of their identity.
What really draws women in isn’t the leaderboard – it’s the world-building. Exploration, immersion, and engaging storytelling are what matter most and as a result, women are more interested in game characters compared to men. Yet in 94% of games, male characters still get more dialogue, even when the protagonist is female [1] – a telling disconnect between what women players value and what they’re given.
Women aren’t just playing more frequently and across more genres – they’re also shaping how gaming is shared. Women gamers are far more likely to play with their kids (28%) or partners (44%) and often use gaming as a way to spend quality time with loved ones. Family-friendly platforms like the Nintendo Switch – and co-op hits like Split Fiction and Overcooked – are flourishing as a result.
Mobile gaming is another major space where women are leading the charge, averaging nearly 8 hours a week, compared to men’s 6.5 hours. Of course, console is still king, with the PS5 the top choice – likely due to its broader library of narrative-heavy titles that appeal to this audience.
Flexible, cross-platform gaming is enabling a wider range of experiences – and women are embracing all of them.
[1] Rennick S, Clinton M, Ioannidou E, Oh L, Clooney C, T. E, Healy E, Roberts SG. 2023 Gender bias in video game dialogue. R. Soc. Open Sci. 10: 221095. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221095
‘Gamer’ should apply to anyone who loves games, but over one in four women still shy away from the label. This may be because of how the community (and industry) still defines a typical gamer (male) or due to the toxic environment gaming spaces can be for women.
On the upside, after years of rising abuse, there are signs of progress: the percentage of women experiencing toxicity from male gamers dropped from a high of 72% in 2022 to 59% in 2024, making 2024 the second year toxicity has decreased since this study’s beginning. The decrease is encouraging, but the fact still remains that most women are dealing with verbal abuse, harassment, exclusion, or worse.
The abuse women experience is not only the common (and uninspired) “get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich” sexist abuse, but also includes the 26% that have been sexually harassed and the 12% who have received truly harrowing rape threats.
“They said they were going to force themselves on my child while I watched.”
Woman gamer | Age 30 | UK
The most marginalised gamers – LGBTQ+ women and women of colour – are even more likely to experience this kind of abuse, and when those identities intersect, the risk of abuse increases dramatically. Over half of LGBTQ+ women of colour (52%) regularly face harassment in gaming spaces from male gamers, including sexual threats, racial abuse, and stalking (vs. 37% of all women). This is despite a good portion of these women (26% of all, 36% LGBTQ+ women) avoiding revealing their gender online.
The result? Many women play only with people they know, avoid using voice chat, or even steer clear of online / multiplayer games entirely. These behaviours directly limit engagement, loyalty, and spend, making this not just a personal loss for these gamers but a commercial one for the industry.
Women gamers are a commercially powerful audience, contributing hundreds of dollars per year through game purchases, subscriptions, and in-game content (per year spend $304 in the US, £277 in the UK). They’re just as likely as men to spend on DLCs and expansions, and actually outspend men on cosmetic items.
Their approach to buying is more selective – they rely heavily on recommendations, gameplay footage, and brand familiarity rather than traditional ads. But when a game resonates, they invest deeply. The key takeaway: when women feel represented and safe, they’re loyal, high-value customers.
There’s a growing demand for platforms to step up: only a third of women feel current processes are effective. Without better moderation, reporting tools, and community support, this audience won’t reach its full potential – and neither will the games industry.
Despite all the challenges, the outlook isn’t bleak. Women gamers are more engaged than ever, their numbers and spending power are rising, and they are helping shape what’s next for the medium.
But the industry still needs to meet them halfway. That means more inclusive storytelling, better character representation, safer communities, and marketing strategies that reflect how women really play.
Get the latest insights in the Women Gamers 2024 report or visit our dedicated Women Gamers page for insights across the years.