Secondary Research

Women gamers now outnumber men who play games- and they're not sticking to just games of the "female centric" casual and social variety.

A 2011 study by market research firm Interpret LLC, showed that console use amoung female gamers had increased "significantly" in the previous two years. Some 21% of women gamers had used an Xbox 360 and 16% had used a PS3. A surprising, 44% preferred genres other than casual, excercise and music/rhythm.

Marketers aiming at women gamers should understand that they exhibit different attitudes than men do. Courtney Johnson, Interpret analyst, said in a statement, “They are much more likely to prefer to play solo than men, and play games for less competitive and more narrative- and character-driven reasons.”

Women came out ahead in a comScore Media Metrix study of who plays online games. The study, which included browser-based online games but not social games, demonstrated that about 48 million females vs. about 47 million males played them.

While males tend to represent a larger percentage of unique visitors to gaming sites among younger age groups, once people hit 35, the percentage skews toward females.

While women’s interest in games is diversifying, their enjoyment of social games is still high. As PopCap Games results from September 2011 showed, more women indulge their love of FarmVille and Diner Dash than do men.