Even split
What the public may not realize, is that in today’s gaming market, there are almost as many female gamers as male gamers. Although recently, the population of female gamers is in a slight decline, they still take up almost half of the gaming market with a solid 40%.
The taboo of female gamers is slowly disappearing with the market growing more mature and varied every year. With games and platforms being available to a wide audience, it seems female gamers have been increasing steadily in the past few years.
Even though female gamers are now no longer a taboo, they still face varying challenges in the industry, especially in eSports.
There are many professional female gamers currently out there.
The way to the top is not easy
The eSports market is still largely male-dominated, with over 80% of all eSports players being male, its a tough challenge for females to be accepted into eSports at this point. As most eSports players are still male, female professional gamers tend to receive some discrimination in the competitions because of their gender.
Earnings from eSports also have a huge gender gap, with female professional gamers having earning only about 5% of the total E sports prize pool that is worth ~$46 million yearly.
A lot of them also suffer harassment, but as many point out, it’s a part of online gaming nowadays. However, this has lead to many competitions being female-only in the hopes of lowering volatility between players.
CS:GO - Team Karma vs. CLG Red [Inferno] - Intel Challenge Katowice 2016 - Semifinal Map 1
A clip from one female eSports competition of CS:GO.
Female gamers are here to stay
But regardless if they are professional or just casual players, female gamers are here to stay and many of them are doing what they can to promote female gamer role-models through their own websites and social media.
As trends evolve even further and the taboo of the female gamer disappears completely, female gamers might find themselves fighting side by side with male gamers in competitions as they already do with their male friends at home.
And as more and more female gamers appear on the scene, especially on the eSports front, they will hopefully start receiving the recognition and sponsorship that they deserve without the stigma that becomes attached to being a female gamer.
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