State of Play: Female Gamers Around the World

Since the 1990s, female video gamers have widely been considered a minority compared to men. And while this largely remains the case among PC and console gamers, the female gamer community is growing in many countries around the world.

Data from a Statista Consumer Insights survey shows that PC and desktop gaming is particularly popular among women in countries such as India, China and Brazil. Meanwhile, in the United States and the United Kingdom, gaming on consoles was the more popular platform choice. Of the 21 countries polled in this survey, an average of 28 percent of female respondents said they regularly played on PCs while an average of 22 percent said the same for game consoles.

Mobile gaming bucks the gender trend in the United States, where 64 percent of women said they regularly play games on smartphones, compared to 58 percent of men. In terms of favorite genres, there are also differences. The top three genres for women in 2024 were casual (39 percent of U.S. female respondents said they played this genre in general), followed by strategy (34 percent) and action (31 percent). For U.S. men the top three were action (48 percent), action-adventure (45 percent) and shooters (38 percent).

Looking at the total populations of the 21 polled economies, Brazil was the biggest PC gaming nation overall, with 46 percent of all respondents saying they regularly played games on desktops. Meanwhile, Mexico was the biggest console gaming nation, with 40 percent of all respondents selecting the option.