A couple of weeks ago I was at a Color Comm event. The topic of the night was the gaming industry, ? which was new to me.
Here is the tea ☕ on women in gaming:
- The global gaming industry is a $135 billion industry– yes, BILLION
- 48% of women in the USA report having played a video game
- Black women are among the least represented demographic in gaming
- Only 1% of gaming industry professionals identify as African or African American
- Women make up only 27% of the industry
Things are changing though. With the recognition that almost an equal number of women and men are playing video games, the gaming world is slowly realizing it’s got to change.
Recently, Intel pledged $300 million towards a program called Diversity in Technology. Plus, support groups have sprung up across the gaming community, offering a network for women working in the industry.
With more women working behind the scenes in creating games, more diverse women represented in games, and more women playing games and hosting gaming channels, more and more girls are being encouraged to get into gaming.
Many new games, like Mirror’s Edge, even feature a female lead character who even male gamers have to play the game as!
