42% of Women and 37% of Men Own Game Consoles. Quick, Pretend To Be Surprised

[Recursion]

http://www.themarysue.com/game-console-demographics/

The gender demographics for gaming console owners in the United States, according to a Pew Research Center study, break down as follows: 42% of women in the USA own consoles, and 37% of men do. That probably shouldn’t seem surprising or weird, but no doubt it will, given that gaming marketers have been trying to convince us all since the ’90s that games are for boys. Somehow, women have prevailed over assumptions about whether or not they “should” play games, and we’re buying consoles anyway. Imagine how much more we’d buy if those products and their associated marketing materials cared about us? Gaming might even start to be perceived as a downright feminine pastime, along with other equally rad pattern-based hobbies like knitting and sewing. Ahhhh. Please, transport me to that alternate universe, post-haste!

Anyway, let’s all look forward to a bunch of guys reacting to this news by claiming that these women aren’t playing real games (whatever those are), and that although they buy consoles they probably don’t really play them (suuure), and that if these statistics included PC gamers then it would show such-and-such sexist justification, because all women prefer to sit around eating bon bons and making their boyfriends play games for them, and (insert any other equally nonsensical argument here).

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. That is kinda surprising

[Recursion]

3. Younger women are richer and better educated and better employed than younger men

So it's not really surprising to me that they engage in a fairly expensive hobby like gaming more.

[Warpy]

4. Not to me

I know too many women of all ages who play WoW as a stress reducer and to get out all the pent up aggression caused by trying to live and work in an unfair country.

Lamer, um, GamerGate amused me no end because those pimple pocked macho twits had absolutely no idea that their asses were getting kicked by little old ladies online.

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. WoW is PC only; it's not on consoles (n/t)

[TlalocW]

2. All I know is video games don't cause real-life violence

And I'll kill anyone who says differently.

TlalocW

[GOLGO 13]

12. I like your rage...we should be friends.

You on xboxlive?

[ileus]

20. 59.99....renewed my son's account two days ago.

[frazzled]

5. Own them or buy them?

Because I can imagine that a lot of women purchase gaming systems not just for themselves (which they do) but for their families. If many families work as mine always did, it's the Moms who buy the stuff their kids want.

And I say this as the mother of a woman who worked in the gaming industry for many years, including for a company that made games exclusively for girls and women (and worked hard to get out of that industry) and who does play a lot of games herself.

But I can bet you they're not playing violent war games very much.

[Recursion]

8. Own, per the survey (nt)

[justiceischeap]

13. As a woman that bought and owns several consoles (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Wii)

I exclusively play violent games--war or otherwise. There's nothing better than having a stressful day than coming home and going on a murderous rampage that actually does no harm to anyone.

I own an Xbox just so I can play Halo--pretty violent first shooter--and am saving up for the Xbox One so I can buy the next Halo installment. I also buy all of the Call of Duty franchise, though my favorite is Call of Duty 2. I'm a huge Borderlands franchise fan, which isn't war based but very violent all the same (but with a great story line).

So your assumptions that women don't play violent war games goes to your definition of war, I guess. Borderlands has tons of female players and the setting is war but in the future on another planet. Heck in BL2, there's a side mission called "Shoot me in the face." The only purpose of the mission is to shoot a guy in the face so you can get experience points, money and weapons.

Woman play all kinds of games, it isn't just casino and match games.

[geomon666]

6. Can such a small sample size be accurate? n/t

[MattBaggins]

7. How many "owners" are parents

Who activated consoles for the kids?

[Kurska]

11. Thats what I was thinking

It's hard to tell what is going on when they use the term household and then owner interchangeably. It is not clear what they are talking about.

[NuttyFluffers]

9. doesn't surprise me. girls and women been in the arcades since the beginning.

i grew up with video games in the 70s, 80s, & 90s, girls and women were always a fixture around video games. from video game character options, PC floppy swaps, home consoles, and arcades. easily one of the most gender integrated hobbies of my Gen X generation.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

14. I actually find that surprising as a woman

I suppose I own a game console... but it is really for my kids (both boys). On a rare occasion I might use it to play Just Dance, but for the most part they are the ones playing it. I don't have much of an interest in it. I work as a programmer analyst, but in my free time I prefer to be doing non-computer related things as much as possible. All my female friends are the same way... just not all that interested in playing video games. I'm in mid 30's so I had different game consoles growing up, but I didn't spend much time on it. No internet back then though. I think the internet and the new 3D style games has really sucked a lot of people into it. For me, the 3D games make me feel dizzy after a while. I mostly like simple stuff like tetris, old Mario Bros, Dig Dug, bejewelled, word twist.

[Atman]

15. My wife bought ours, not me.

We have 18 Pilates and fitness "games," along with heart rate monitors, dance pads, you name it. I bought Shaun White's snowboarding game. That's it.

[Recursion]

16. As a game developer, I urge you to take the quotation marks off of "games" there.

Those are very much games. Some of the best-selling and most-profitable games out there. The Triple-A studio flagship games don't make nearly as much money.

[Blue_Tires]

17. Why would that surprise anyone?

[NobodyHere]

18. I disagree with this statement

"given that gaming marketers have been trying to convince us all since the ’90s that games are for boys"

Publishers have been trying to appeal to both genders. For example Nintendo had gender in mind when it dropped the "Game Boy" line of handhelds. The Nintendo DS was originally going to be called "City Boy" (They even trademarked the name) but changed the name to appeal to both genders.

[Xyzse]

19. Haven't bought the new consoles.

I have the old ones:

Genesis, Dreamcast
SNES, GameCube
PS1, PS2, PS3
Xbox (First Gen), XBox360

All of them are still in working order except the XBoxes. XBoxes are made shoddily, and they are the only consoles that broke under my care.

I barely even used them.

Nowadays though, I don't play games any more. It's been a good 3 years since I gamed in length. Perhaps it has been more.

New games just don't interest me any more.

The only person that keeps asking me to play games has just died, and I bought a few games in memory of him which I still have not opened. It's been a little over month.

I can't justify buying a new console as my PS3 has been made in to a glorified Netflix/Video Streaming device. I bought it years back and I probably played a game on it less than 30 times.

Perhaps I am just getting old.