Streaming isn’t just for the boys: Why girls are starting to dominate the industry

In recent years, gaming has become a booming job industry — not just a fun past-time. In 2020, the number of women within the gaming industry jumped to 41% in the United States.

Recent studies found that motivations for each gender differ within the gaming universe. In the US, female gamers are starting to increase their reasoning for the gaming due to the motivation for achievement and turning it into a social experience. Popular female gamers are also making sure they are engaging with their fans and continuously maintaining those relationships with their viewers.

The study “Measuring Female Gaming: Gamer Profile, Predictors, Prevalence, and Characteristics From Psychological and Gender Perspectives,” found that female gamers are playing all types of games with different devices and platforms.

Female representation is scarce within the gaming world between the representation within the actual video games and within gaming agencies (streamer clients and employees). For female characters within video games, representation lacks with only 5% of video games showcasing a or any female protagonist.

When there is representation, unfortunately, those female characters are often objectified, sexualized, or in the need of love and rescue from a male character. By showing this “damsel in distress” character, game makers are taking away the ability to showcase female empowerment. However, recent games such as Horizon Zero Dawn have showcased strong female leads.

As for within the workforce, currently, the top 84% of the global gaming companies’ executive positions are held by men, and outside of those ranks, only 24% of employees are females. With the number of female gamers increasing, these women want to make sure they’re seeking full equality of opportunity, treatment, and conditions within the games and making sure the industry is correctly structured for these female streamers. One activist organization, Women in Games, is advocating for the re-imagining of the gaming industry, gender discrimination, culture from the workplace, and product and player community perspectives.

As women continue to break into the industry, Powerspike seeks to help our clients celebrate these women. Our role as a leader in influencer marketing allows us to show brands how they can pivot their marketing strategies to be more inclusive.

Opportunities to capture viewers and bring attention to female tent-pole events such as Women’s History Month, Mother’s day, Business Women’s Day, Women’s Equality Day, exist for marketers. Capitalizing in this space, Powerspike can help brands align with powerful female gamers. A few key names include Imane “Pokimane” Anys, Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa, Maria “Chica” Lopez.

While the gaming industry still skews heavily towards men, today’s numbers for female audiences keep improving and will eventually become a higher percentage than most brands realize.