Reach3 Insights, in collaboration with Lenovo has announced the findings to understand the experience of women players in the gaming industry and how companies can create a more inclusive space for women gamers.

The research reveals the following statistics in the gaming industry:

• Women are playing the same games as men. 88per cent of women gamers surveyed are playing competition-style games, 75per cent said they are playing action/survival-style games and 66per cent play shooters.
• 77per cent of women responded dealing with at least some sort of frustration when gaming because of their gender. Judgements of skills, (70per cent), gatekeeping (65per cent) and patronising comments (50per cent) were the most reported types of comments women gamers said they received while gaming online. In addition, 44per cent of women gamer respondents have received unsolicited relationship asks while gaming.
• 59per cent of women surveyed use either a non-gendered or male identity when playing games online to avoid conflict
• 71per cent of participants said that companies can foster more inclusive behaviors in gaming by having a greater presence of different groups in gaming ads

The research engaged 900 women across China, Germany and the United States and 98 men in the United States, to capture robust quantitative and qualitative data (including video selfies) to get a deep understanding of the experience of women gamers.

The Rival platform lets insight professionals run robust market research studies, leveraging videos, images, emojis, GIFs and observational approaches to add authentic culture and context to consumers’ responses.

Lenovo senior customer insights manager for intelligent devices group Emily Hoppes,“Reach3’s unique mobile insights tool helped us capture candid feedback from women gamers to better understand the important topic of diversity and inclusion in gaming, which will help Lenovo and the industry together to build a more inclusive culture and safer space for women in gaming.”

Reach3 Insights senior vice president Leigh Admirand shared, “Despite still being mostly associated with men, gaming is on the rise with women.We were thrilled to work with Lenovo on this study as we hope it will help companies create a more inclusive gaming environment for women gamers and lead to long-term change in the industry.”