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Women Dominate the PC Scene

Rob Crossley's picture

By Rob Crossley

April 8, 2009

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Females aged between 25 and 54 make up the largest group of PC gamers.

That was one of the many conclusions found in a new report from media analysis group Nielsen.

In December last year, females in the 25-54 age bracket accounted for around 29 percent of all PC players, while males in the same age category accounted for just over twenty percent.

By installing usage-tracking software onto the personal computers of some 184,000 survey participants, Nielsen has constructed a comprehensive sample of videogame consumers in North America.

Nielsen can also measure how frequently each of its participants play PC games, and how many minutes of game time each person accumulates. In doing so, the group has discovered that females aged over 55 play PC games, on average, for longer than both men and women in the 25-54 category.

The report added that its results incorporated hours spent playing the card games that are bundled with Microsoft Windows operating systems. Because of this, Nielsen states that the most played game on the PC is Solitaire.

The report did not measure PC usage outside of America, meaning a whole host of cultural and economic factors prevent this from being a truly global analysis.

More data can be found in Nielsen’s report [pdf].

Image: Professional game group; The Frag Dolls.

flowmastah's picture
On April 10th flowmastah said:

Only if you classify The Sims as a game.

Abner's picture
On April 10th Abner said:

I feel there's a lot of prejudice concerning female gamers. For myself I had to think again after I meet loads of girls who really rock playing for example Lineage 2, WoW, the Guitar Hero series and other. Of course most of them don't feel any keen pleasure at blowing one's head in a FPS but just because of that it doesn't mean they aren't games. I've been beaten twice by a friend girlfriend in World of Goo :)

Of course in this research we all agree that these women often play card games, but if they were presented with other kinds of casual games they would surely give it a try. I first played Atari's Enduro before I kicked arses in GRID
:)

rickdias's picture
On April 8th rickdias said:

The PR stunt frag dolls are the representatives for female gamers age 25-54? I didn't realize Windows came with a solitaire deathmatch game...

bluecat's picture
On April 8th bluecat said:

What kind of games are they playing though?
I wonder how many are just playing free cell and cards, but being counted as gamers.