2026 statistics, it's 53/46 male/female gamers in the U.S.

https://www.statista.com/...

Women are gaming. They are probably just not in voice channels as much as men because who wants to deal with unmoderated sexist abuse while trying to enjoy a leisure hobby?

We're not.

48% of gamers are women, probably more if they were honest. The stereotype is a lie.

Women tend to stay off chat and under the radar on team games because low skilled males are arseholes

Last week my good Judy was playing Wardogs with us and she used the voice comms to coordinate. Within minutes she was harassed, called a dumb bitch, then team killed.

Then twenty minutes later a teammate threatened to find her address and rape her.

I probably would stay off the voice chat too if I was her.

you never hear feminine folks on voice chat.

Because a lot of the time when you have a female[-presenting] voice, you get either pigeon-holed into certain roles ("we need you to be the healer!"), patronized for skills that would be unremarkable in a male [-sounding] player, griefed by your sex when you make a mistake ("stupid fucking cunt!"), get white knighted sometimes ("oh, here, you take this! tiny shy giggle), sent explicit messages in group chat or PM, etc, etc. Even if you disguise your voice or stay off chat, you still need to have a certain level of tolerance for the misogyny, sexism and racism that crops up.

The one and only time i did a multiplayer game with voice chat with strangers, they were sexist assholes. Never again.

Now, any multiplayer games I play are with friends only, or are games that don't need chat.

I play almost exclusively single player games.

I disagree with the premise that women aren't gaming as a hobby. You would never know how many women play single player games, and in multiplayer games not being in voice isn't much of an indicator.

I think this is very much a game dependent thing. When I commanded open world events in Guild Wars 2 I didn't have any trouble, but when I played Overwatch, I would get judgement and snide comments and extra scrutiny. Most of the time I didn't have any trouble from teammates but that <10% was bad enough that I don't blame any woman from staying quiet.

I think each game attracts certain people and encourages certain behaviors, and those people will create their own subculture around the game. See Helldivers for example. Guild Wars 2 has done an admirable job creating an online space with less toxicity than most. Overwatch not so much. I think it's extremely common for people to form gaming clans and carve out their own enclave away from the random population, so they can play even games with highly toxic hostile cultures in relative peace. I think if you found yourself in a larger gaming clan that explicitly made toxicity unacceptable, you would find yourself surrounded by women on voice with you.

I play games a few hours a day. I just reserve my vocal communication to known individuals due to harassment being a near guarantee.

It shouldn’t be a “male’s” hobby. I refuse to allow fascists to deny us another thing, I saw them complaining about the The Last of US 2 for culture war reasons, they have no right to set the rules.

It might depend on the game somewhat.

When I was active on guild wars 2 the last couple years, there were a few women in each guild I interacted with. But ya, not all of them were comfy on voice chat.

I wonder if the situation is better with MMORPG's in general.

I play an online game mindustry, and there are many women who play on public servers. This game is quite popular amongst queer folk, so many trans and gay people. That if i play on english speaking servers.

Joining a server from my country, everyone just assumes i am a men. I used a feminine pronoun for me while writing random message in chat, and people were like: "WTF, WOMEN?!?" "Are you really a girl?", and other misogynistic stuff, which felt like those people thought that women are a fictional creatures, and not a normal people who play games.

About voice chat, i dont know, because i dont use discord.

I have been gaming probably longer than you have been alive. My first PC was a 386.

I only join women only or LGBTQ guilds and go in voice chat with them because like Vanth said, its not a very enjoyable hobby if I am bombarded with sexist comments and assholes who are more concerned about what is in my pants thousands of miles away than the game right in front of them.

Woman here.

Original Demon's Souls was the best game ever.

Returnal maybe second.

Bet some incels claim I'm a bot.

I meet tons of other women on simulators/sandbox/shooters, theyre just extremely discerning because you have to be

They aren't, dudes make it creepy though so the real ones stay off chat.

I'm a gamer; we exist, it's not uncommon. Personally I'm just not interested in online games for the most part. And The few online games I've played are without voice comms.

I’m 36. I think there used to be a stigma that games were only for social awkward male basement dwellers. It’s definitely changed with mobile gaming in the 2010s and more story focused rpgs. I knew a few other girls in college that were counting down the days till Skyrim launched in 2011.

I play games nearly exclusively on my phone. Old PlayStation games, assorted PC releases, all kinds of fun stuff, right off my phone, cause I’m on the road a lot. Lately it’s been Silent Hill and Parasite Eve, both ps1 games.