I’m sure many in the gaming community will agree with me on is the fact that for any years, the video game industry was largely populated with a majority male presence. As times have changed, so has the community, and in doing so has changed the norms throughout the industry. In a recent Essential Facts report done by Entertainment Software Association, it was found that out of the most frequent game purchases, 37% was done so by women.

To start off the report, the ESA revealed, what I found to be a strange number, that the average age of gamers is 35 with woman over the age of 18 “represent[ing] a significantly greater portion of the game playing population than boys under 18”. If you separate out the average ages for gamers by gender, women are at 37 while men are at 33.

These numbers could be inherently contributed to by the fact that in gaming today, female protagonists are far more common than in previous years. Games such as Tomb Raider and more recently Horizon Zero Dawn are extremely popular and include a strong female lead. By doing this, women who may otherwise not be interested could potentially be brought in due to the inclusiveness of the community and the current acceptance of anyone who wishes to dive into the realm of video games.

By offering something as simple as a female option in certain games, developers are bringing in more people who may otherwise never be interested in gaming. The report doesn’t just focus on this one topic; it breaks down the years worth of statistics from what genres sold the most to who gamers are playing with. Have a read here to see all that it entails.