Ampere Analysis research: Female gamers are a missed growth opportunity – Game News

A new report from Ampere Analysis believes that the gaming industry is missing out on an important growth opportunity by not truly meeting the needs of female gamers.

This research company combines user survey data, market data, and game sales statistics. Each year they collect opinions from 46,000 participants globally, thereby providing analysis of gaming industry trends.

According to Ampere, there are still ways to attract more women to gaming, if developers and publishers adjust the way they design content and build communities.

According to Ampere data, women currently account for 48% of all gamers in 21 major markets, equivalent to about 922 million players.

However, there still exists a certain gap compared to men. According to senior analyst Katie Holt, this 4% difference equates to 93 million fewer female gamers than men.

Ampere believes that this is a significant market gap, which can become a huge opportunity to increase revenue and player engagement if exploited properly.

The report also shows that women generally prefer story-based and single-player experiences over competitive multiplayer games.

For example, among those surveyed, 18% of female gamers reported playing The Sims 4 within the last three months.

When given a list of 52 console and PC games, only three titles had more female players than male players, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons, The Sims 4 and Roblox.

Meanwhile, with a list of 50 mobile games, there are 13 games with more female players than male players.

This shows that female gamers are more common on smartphones and tablets, while their numbers on PC and consoles are still significantly lower.

When asked why they don’t play games, women tend to choose answers like “Toh don’t like the gaming culture or community” or “It’s hard to find a game that suits your needsMeanwhile, they rarely choose reasons such as lack of time or the game is too expensive.

According to Ampere, this shows that the main barrier is not finances or time, but the lack of games with suitable themes and a community environment that is more attractive to women.

Holt believes that there still exists a group of women who are interested in games but don’t know where to start, or don’t know that suitable content exists for them.

Creating content that is more accessible to newcomers, while promoting it effectively, can help significantly increase the number of female gamers.

Ampere also referenced data from their television and film research, which showed that women typically favor genres such as romance, drama, and lifestyle (cooking, travel, fashion).

By combining these themes with popular game genres such as puzzle, simulation or light adventure, developers can open up significant commercial opportunities with female gamers.

The report also highlights that women are not avoiding online competitive games. Many people still play games like Call of Duty and Fortnite.

However, due to concerns about toxic communities, many female gamers choose not to use voice chat when playing online.

This unintentionally creates the misunderstanding that women rarely play multiplayer games, even though that is not the case.

According to Holt, one factor that female gamers appreciate more than men is the ability to customize characters. Games like Fortnite are considered to do this well thanks to their diverse skin system and many collaborations with pop culture artists and brands.

Holt cited the example that when singer Sabrina Carpenter’s skin was added to the game, many players gathered in groups to dance together instead of fighting.

To improve the gaming environment for women, Ampere believes that publishers need to prioritize controlling toxic behavior in the community. With the rapid development of AI technology, automatically detecting and handling negative behavior may become more effective and cheaper in the future.

Some games are also testing new solutions like Marvel Rivals and Arc Raiders. These games have introduced voice change features, helping players avoid being identified and limit harassment when communicating online.

Summing up the report, Ampere said that understanding the content preferences and needs of female players not only helps attract new gamers but also helps developers expand the community in existing games.

With nearly half of global gamers being women, making good use of this demographic could become one of the gaming industry’s biggest growth drivers in the future.