Gaming has been a popular pastime for decades and has gained traction especially in the last 20 years due to technological advancements. This year, there are 2.8 billion gamers worldwide, but with the many restrictions imposed during the various lockdowns forcing people to stay home, the number of gamers, and therefore the gaming industry, has only continued to grow.
But what does the gaming landscape look like today when it comes to gender equality?
CasinoOnline.de conducted a study to find out how strongly women are represented in the online gaming industry. It analysed the gender distribution of characters in the 20 most popular video games in Europe, as well as the number of female teams in the iconic and widely played sports game Fifa 20/21. In addition, the analysis captures the proportion of women among the top 20 Twitch and YouTube streamers and how their average salaries compare to those of men.
Only three of the top 20 video games have more female than male characters
In the top 20 video games in Europe, there are only three games where female characters outnumber male characters (The Last of Us Part 2, Ring Fit Adventure and Just Dance 2020). The remaining 17 games, however, are dominated by the male gender.
Of the top 20 games, NBA 2k20 has the lowest proportion of female characters at a shocking 1%, which equates to only four out of 479 characters.
In 2020, the release of Just Dance had a major impact on female representation in video games. It has the highest female share among the most popular games in gaming industry, with an impressive 66% female characters.
The number of female FIFA 20/21 teams compared to male teams is disappointingly low: there are only 16 teams compared to 700 male teams. That’s just 2% of all teams in total!
1 in 40 of the top Twitch and YouTube streamers are female
With over 2.1 billion users per month, Twitch and YouTube have become the most popular places on the internet to watch other gamers play video games.
The study shows that the share of women among the top 20 streamers on Twitch and YouTube is vanishingly small. Only one woman is among the most successful Twitch streamers, while among YouTubers there is not a single woman in the top 20.
Pokimane, the only female streamer in the top 20 Twitch gaming industry streamers, ranks 6th overall with 7,767,845 followers. This is less than 50% of the followers of the number 1 streamer Ninja, who has 16,605,076 followers.
| Twitch streamer | Gender | Game | Followers |
| Ninja | Male | League of Legends | 16.605.096 |
| Tfue | Male | Call of Duty: Warzone | 10.284.231 |
| shroud | Male | VALORANT | 9.094.773 |
| Rubius | Male | Grand Theft Auto V | 9.020.780 |
| auronplay | Male | Grand Theft Auto V | 8.543.910 |
| pokimane | Male | Variety | 7.867.845 |
| TheGrefg | Male | Fortnite | 7.305.560 |
| Myth | Male | VALORANT | 7.211.688 |
| TimTheTatman | Male | Call of Duty: Warzone | 6.573.192 |
| ibai | Male | Just Chatting | 5.981.453 |
| summit1g | Male | DayZ | 5.900.185 |
| NICKMERCS | Male | Call of Duty: Warzone | 5.697.626 |
| xQcOW | Male | Grand Theft Auto V | 5.686.850 |
| tommyinnit | Male | Minecraft | 5.296.209 |
| alanzoka | Male | Variety | 4.788.359 |
| dakotaz | Male | Variety | 4.690.012 |
| SypherPK | Male | Fortnite | 4.658.435 |
| DrDisrespect | Male | Call of Duty: Warzone | 4.459.936 |
| Mongraal | Männlich | Fortnite | 4.450.679 |
| DrLupo | Männlich | Apex Legends | 4.434.819 |
How much do women earn in the gaming industry?
Online gaming industry has become a way for some to make a fortune with the right passion and skills. Many achieve fame and money by sitting at home and doing what they enjoy most.
However, there is a startling difference between the earnings of the most successful female gamers and male gamers. When analysing the top 10 male streamers in Europe, Germany and the US, it was found that the average earnings of a male is €12,914,574.29. However, the average earnings of a female streamer in these countries is only 233,893.90 euros.
Although the United States has the highest paid streamers, it also has the lowest percentage of female streamers.
| Region | Proportion of male Gamers in 2020 (%) | Proportion of female Gamers in 2020 (%) | Earnings of the top 10 male Gamers (€) | Earnings of the top 10 female Gamers (€) |
| USA | 59 | 41 | 16.235.391,93 € | 539.491,26 € |
| Europa | 53 | 47 | 14.941.248,05 € | 128.407,20 € |
| Deutschland | 52 | 48 | 7.389.053,50 € | 29.993,25 € |
These figures show that there is still a lot to be done to increase the proportion of women in the gaming industry. What does the future of gaming industry look like for women?