Female gamers growing faster than male gamers in Asia

Asia’s female gamers section grew at 18.8% in 2019 and are expected to grow by 14.8% in 2020

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI:

Gaming is no longer a sport associated with men, the female audience has taken the gaming arena by storm according to a new report published by Google and Niko Partners.

The report titled Play like a girl: Keyways to engage one of Asia’s fastest-growing gaming audience reveals that ‘females are transforming Asia’s gaming landscape’. The long-accepted global leader in the gaming industry accounted for nearly half (48 %) of the world’s gaming revenue.

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The main contributing factor to this shift is access to smartphones that have proven beneficial for the gaming industry, making space for millions of more gamers with interests in different genres and titles.

According to the report, the number of female gamers in Asia is growing at a faster rate than male gamers, 346 million three years ago to 500 million by the end of 2019, female gamers make up 38 per cent of all gamers across platforms.

Further, Asia’s female gamers section grew at 18.8% in 2019 and is forecasted to grow by 14.8% in 2020 significantly overtaking the single-digit growth of total gamers, projected to be 7.8% in 2020, reveals the report.

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Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), puzzle, and shooter games, role-playing games (RPGs), and simulation titles with strategic gameplay are popular among female gamers, says the report.

Moreover, according to a study by Quantic Foundry, the user base for Match-3 category games (e.g., tile-matching and stacking games like “Candy Crush Saga” and “Jewel Quest”) and Family/Farm sim games is predominantly female.

Nearly every country around the globe has reported cases of Covid-19 infection, with frantic efforts to contain the disease prompting the near-total shutdown of some of the world's biggest cities.

Online gaming has proved a welcome diversion for many people chafing at movement restrictions, the cancellation of countless public events, and a relentless onslaught of news about the pandemic.

Spending on digital video games hit a record-high $10 billion in March as people stuck at home under coronavirus lockdowns turned to game, market tracker SuperData.