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[Loud Whispers]

"You're a fucking white whale." Said Captain Ahab.
"Are you kidding me?" Replied the white whale.

[Reelya]

Hmmm, supporting the idea of a gender-skew on the PC platform, I was just looking up research about the gender of Steam users, after seeing a comment that suggested there was a gender gap. But on getting the actual data I thought that can't possibly be true. I came across a claim that only 4% of regular visitors to Steam's website are women. I was expecting e.g. 65% male users, it's more like 95%.

That's based on SteamSpy, and users who were logged into their google profile while browsing Steam: there was a 25:1 male skew. It's sort of an interesting metric, because it was based on logged in google accounts, and I can't see much reason people would lie on their gmail account about their gender while being logged into Steam.

Steam Spy only covers Steam and that’s a very specific subset of gamers — 95% of them are male (vs roughly 50% of general audience)

20:1 male/female on steam?!? That makes the stated gender gap here seem pretty small. Maybe there is some solid evidence that PC digital download gaming has a big gender skew? After all, I can't see many people who lack a Steam account whatsoever downloading and installing obscure PC games.

[ChairmanPoo]

[Teneb]

That ratio ignores all the however many (possibly way more) users that do not use steam while logged into their google accounts. So it doesn't tell us much except the stats for this very specific group (steam users who use steam while logged to google).

Not saying there isn't a gender skew, mind. Just that this doesn't tell us much outside these particular circumstances. Do we have any idea how many people fit into that group, and how many use steam in general?

[Loud Whispers]

Does GRRRM make you wtf in general?

[Reelya]

That ratio ignores all the however many (possibly way more) users that do not use steam while logged into their google accounts. So it doesn't tell us much except the stats for this very specific group (steam users who use steam while logged to google).

Not saying there isn't a gender skew, mind. Just that this doesn't tell us much outside these particular circumstances. Do we have any idea how many people fit into that group, and how many use steam in general?

Well we know that ~48% of Steam users were not logged into a google account. 2% were women logged into google, 50% were men logged into google. I think it's pretty convincing unless we can show that there would be some particular reason why women are more likely to not be logged into their gmail/youtube while browsing steam than men are.

[Orange Wizard]

I'm mostly just confused as to why people are surprised that female gamers are significantly less common than male in the first place.

Does GRRRM make you wtf in general?

We all do, LW.

[Teneb]

I'm mostly just confused as to why people are surprised that female gamers are significantly less common than male in the first place.

Because I guess aside from general preconceptions and possibly cultural stuff, we should be seeing an increase in number?

[Reelya]

An increase in number doesn't necessarily mean an increase in any particular subgenre. It's not like "female gamers" is some global multiplier applied to all genres, or that women entering the game market "fill up" all available niches at some set rate.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm mostly just confused as to why people are surprised that female gamers are significantly less common than male in the first place.

Because I guess aside from general preconceptions and possibly cultural stuff, we should be seeing an increase in number?

Why?

[smjjames]

Haven't we gone through this discussion about male gamers vs female gamers before? Last time I remember, it didn't end well, forget WHY though, possibly a derail into feminism.

[Teneb]

I'm mostly just confused as to why people are surprised that female gamers are significantly less common than male in the first place.

Because I guess aside from general preconceptions and possibly cultural stuff, we should be seeing an increase in number?

Why?

Tried to find statistics I thought I'd seen, can't find them. So I suppose it was just a guess from my part, considering gender equality and all.

Haven't we gone through this discussion about male gamers vs female gamers before? Last time I remember, it didn't end well, forget WHY though, possibly a derail into feminism.

Then all we need to do is not derail into feminism, sticking to gamer statistics.

[BlackHeartKabal]

fwoom

Why is this so significant? What does it even mean that you feel the need to tell us, other than knowledge for knowledge's sake?

[Loud Whispers]

Does GRRRM make you wtf in general?

We all do, LW.

Sounds like you're not PRAISING THE GRMMMM

FOR YOUR TRANSGRESSION

Spoiler: HE SHALL WRITE MORE DANY CHAPTERS (click to show/hide)

[Orange Wizard]

What does it even mean that you feel the need to tell us, other than knowledge for knowledge's sake?

Exactly that. Knowledge is interesting, and being better informed is always good. Honestly I really appreciate it when people go to the trouble of collecting relevant information for whatever we're discussing at the time, and I'd prefer more irrelevant information than less relevant information.

Spoiler: HE SHALL WRITE MORE DANY CHAPTERS (click to show/hide)

Ye gods, I don't remember reading that, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if I just missed it