Play like a girl: engage one of Asia’s fastest growing gaming audiences

A demographic released by Google showcases something clear: the profile “typical gamer” in Asia has totally transformed in the past five years. With an increasing number of genres and more inclusive storylines, more female gamers are finding the joys in games too. In partnership with Niko Partners, this is an insight into Asia’s gaming market, to understand the evolving landscape and uncover new ways to engage the growing audience of female gamers.

Asia on its own has been a leader in regards to video game fandom, driving almost half (48%) of the world’s total gaming revenue in 2019: $69 billion of an overall total of $145B. Total number of gamers have also grown by 18% (1.13B in 2017 to 1.33B in 2019) with female gamers increasing from 32% to 38%. Gaming technology, internet access have been improving, and more immersive and accessible games means even more potential players. The number of female gamers have been growing faster than their male counterparts in Asia.

By region, the percentage of female gamers in Asia:

• India: 18% (54M)
  • Numbers are expected to rise significantly with smartphone penetration and internet access
• China: 45% (308M)
• South Korea: 40% (13.6M)
• Japan: 40% (18.4M)
• Southeast Asia: 40% (100M)

With more widespread mobile access, more gamers can play whenever and wherever they want, and itself has become the most popular platform for female gamers by far. From 500M – numbers do also overlap with users gaming on multiple platforms – 473M play on mobile, a whopping 95%, followed by 201M (40%) on PC and 8.5M (2%) on consoles. As such, females account for 35% of mobile game revenue, forecasted to rise to 39% in 2020.

In China alone,

• $4.4B was spent on PC games
• $6.6B on mobile
• with 60% of female gamers spending on mobile

60% of female gamers spend up to seven hours a week playing, while more than half of all male gamers play more than eight hours a week. Female gamers also tend to prefer intense, hardcore titles with strategic gameplay and diverse character options, which will include genres such as MMORPGs, Anime, Comics and Games, MOBAs and shooters.

Keeping up with their male counterparts, females are also getting increasingly more involved in esports, with teams and leagues of female gamers taking the stage. China specifically sees these female esports fans levelling the playing field.

COVID-19 has impacted the industry as a whole, and has left some effect on gamers overall. The required social distancing meant both male and female gamers have increased game time due to needing to stay isolated. China, being Asia’s biggest gaming market, saw in an April 2020 survey that mosts females did end up gaming at home. With more time spent gaming, the ladies also spent more on their favourite games.

Time spent on platforms:

• 97.9% more on console
• 96.8% on mobile
• 89.9% on PC

Spending:

• 78% on mobile
• 69.2% console
• 63.8% PC

Clearly, mobile looks to be the way to go if developers and publishers wish to engage in their female demographic. It’s likely easy to want to come up with a free to play title, with gacha elements to encourage spending which can work for both male and female gamers. Of course, it isn’t enough to just put together a free title: the storylines, character options and other unique elements are important as well, and an improved overall product won’t simply attract only female gamers, after all. A quality product will be able to attract all demographics.

Esports is still a growing market, and there’s plenty of space for female teams and leagues to grow. The possibilities of mixed leagues may be of interest to organizers, if not female-only leagues. Last but not least is needing a diverse team of developers and designers to know what appeals to female gamers if they wish to solely focus on them.

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