作者：Nick Yee

你可能听过关于一半的电子游戏玩家是女性的数据报告，即说明现在游戏的主流玩家既有男性也有女性。这一发现是来自年度ESA报告，过去十年里该数值一直在38%至48%之间波动着，而在2016年的报告中该数值为41%。

让人奇怪的是该数据拥有完全相反的预期效果。即有些玩家认为这一研究并不能代表“真正的”PC/主机玩家。或者明显的性别平等意味着游戏设计中不再有性别歧视。但是最近我们所接触的游戏开发者却提到她所共事的游戏设计师仍表示只有5%的女性是硬核玩家，报告所说的41%女性主要是指休闲玩家。

结合不同平台和游戏类型，这41%的数据并不能代表不同游戏类型中的女性玩家比例或者其中的差异。所以在Quantic Foundry我们使用了来自27万名玩家的数据并整合了我们基于这些玩家喜欢玩的特定游戏中的女性玩家比例而发现的一些情况。

来自Gamer Motivation Profile的数据

Gamer Motivation Profile让玩家可以通过5分钟调查去获得有关自己游戏动机的报告，并去和其他玩家进行比较。世界上有超过27万名玩家参与了这一调查。我们结合了游戏动机的数据去分析去明确我们模型中所衡量的12种动机。

除了游戏动机外，我们也会收集目标用户群体变量。在我们的完整样本中，女性玩家占18.5%。我们同样也让玩家去列出自己最喜欢的特定游戏/授权内容（最多列出9款）。通过从玩家提到的特定游戏中取样，我们将能生成最吸引玩家的游戏样本。需要注意的是我们所拥有的数据仅限于玩家所列出的最喜欢的游戏—-他们可能玩的不只是列出的这些游戏，不管是男性或女性来说，这一局限性是针对于我们数据中的所有被调查者。

我们分析的类型

游戏类型总是很混乱。它们会不断重叠并混杂在一起。在很多已建立的类型中，子类型是非常常见的。这便意味着让玩家回答类型标签将会生成许多混乱的数据。

所以我们便决定基于特定游戏去落实行动。在我们的分析中，我们会选择受欢迎的游戏样本去创造类型分组。对于每一款游戏，我们会计算女性玩家的比例。然后我们会计算类型群组的平均数。例如当我们提到主流奇幻MMO时，我们指的是那些喜欢玩《魔兽世界》，《时空列横》，《指环王OL》，《无尽的任务II》和《上古卷轴OL》等游戏的玩家们。

我们所分析的每种类型都包含了3至5款游戏。每款游戏的中等样本大小为1184，而每个类型的中等样本大小则为4657。

行动冒险游戏：《神秘海域》（系列），《声名狼藉》（系列），《合金装备：原爆点》，《古墓丽影：崛起》。

行动RPG：《暗黑破坏神3》，《黑暗之魂3》，《火炬之光》（系列）。

探索游戏：《旅程》，《ABZU》，《到家》，《亲爱的艾斯特》，

休闲益智游戏：《愤怒的小鸟》，《2048》，《割绳子》。

城市建造游戏：《城市：天际线》，《模拟城市》（系列），《海岛大亨》（系列）。

第一人称射击游戏：《使命召唤：黑色行动III》，《占地4》，《光晕5：守护者》，《反恐精英：全球攻势》，《军团要塞》。

战略游戏：《欧陆风云IV》，《十字军之王II》，《群星》。

互动戏剧：《行尸走肉》（系列），《与狼同行》，《无主之地传说》。

日本RPG：《火焰纹章》，《勇气默示录》（系列），《情热传说》，《Pokemon Sun and Moon》。

家庭/农场模拟游戏：《模拟人生》（系列），《牧场物语》（系列），《动物之森》（系列），《季节物语》，《星露谷》。

三消游戏：《Candy Crush Saga》，《宝石迷阵》（系列），《农场英雄传奇》。

MMO（主流奇幻）：《魔兽世界》，《时空裂痕》，《指环王OL》，《无尽的任务II》，《上古卷轴OL》。

MMO（科幻）：《星际迷航OL》，《星战前夜OL》，《星际大战：旧共和国》。

MOBA：《英雄联盟》，《风暴英雄》，《魔兽争霸2》，《星际争霸II》。

开放世界游戏：《刺客信条：辛迪加》，《看门狗》，《孤岛惊魂4》，《侠盗猎车手V》，《蝙蝠侠：阿卡姆骑士》。

平台游戏：《奥日和黑暗森林》，《雷曼传奇》，《超级马里奥》（系列）。

赛车游戏：《极速快感》（系列），《GT赛车》（系列），《飞驰竞速》（系列）。

沙盒游戏：《我的世界》，《泰拉瑞亚》，《矮人要塞》。

体育游戏：《FIFA》（系列），《NAB 2K》（系列），《疯狂橄榄球》（系列）。

生存rogue游戏：《暗黑地牢》，《超越光速》，《饥荒》。

战术射击游戏：《行动小组》，《武装突袭3》，《彩虹六号：围攻》。

回合制策略游戏：《文明V》，《幽浮2》，《无尽传奇》。

西方RPG：《质量效应3》，《龙腾世纪：审判》，《巫师3：狂猎》，《辐射4》，《上古卷轴：天际》。

不同类型游戏的女性玩家平均数量是在2%至70%之间。

这是以递减方式呈现的所有类型群组的平均数图表。这里所列出的百分比是每个类型中女性玩家数量的百分比。例如三消游戏的69%代表的是那些在数据中提到这类型游戏的玩家，69%便是女性玩家比例。不过这里的69%并不是指有69%的女性玩了三消游戏。

它能指代大多数玩了不同类型游戏的玩家，但是表格中的较高参者比例并非指代只玩某一类型的玩家（不管是男性还是女性）。

1）三消游戏和家庭/农场模拟游戏拥有最多女性玩家。

实际上，从女性玩家百分比来看这两种类型游戏远超于其它类型游戏。

2）战术射击游戏和体育游戏拥有最少女性玩家。

体育游戏（女性玩家平均数量为2%）是我们所分析的所有类型中拥有最少女性玩家的游戏。尽管在两种射击游戏中女性玩家的百分比都不高，但比起第一人称射击游戏，战术射击游戏的女性玩家数量更少。（分别是4.3%和7.2%）。

3）不同游戏类型间的女性玩家百分比具有较大差异。

女性玩家在不同类型游戏的平均数量在2%至70%之间。这里有35种不同类型，所以关于所有玩家的整体数据将会出现一些误差。

4）在主流奇幻MMO中《魔兽世界》是特别的。

23%的《魔兽世界》玩家是女性玩家。这远低于该群组的女性玩家平均值（36%）。很多游戏研究者（也包括我和Nic）都将《魔兽世界》作为在线游戏样本，但是从市场成功角度以及从相对于该类型其它游戏的目标用户群组来看，这款游戏都是特别的。

5）主流奇幻MMO>科幻MMO

当我们在研究最初的MMO类型时，我们发现主流MMO和科幻MMO具有很大的区别，所以我们便决定将其区分开来。基于纯粹的主题元素的吸引力，它们也具有不同的性别吸引力。就像主流MMO拥有比科幻MMO多出2倍的女性玩家数量（分别是36%和16%）。

6）《星际大战：旧共和国》创造了该类型游戏新高。

《星际大战：旧共和国》的女性玩家百分比是该类型女性玩家百分比的将近两倍（29%和16%）。如果没有这款游戏，该类型的平均值将被拉到11.3%，如此主流MMO的女性玩家平均值将会是科幻MMO的3倍多。

7）《刺客信条》和《龙腾世纪》都是非常典型的例外。

在开放世界游戏中，《刺客信条：辛迪加》的女性玩家平均值显著高于该类型的平均值（27%和14%）。而在西方RPG中，《龙腾世纪：审判》也拥有远高于该类型女性玩家平均值的百分比（48%和26%）。

8）类型调查结果与主要动机差别相一致。

在之前的博文中我们曾比较了男性玩家和女性玩家的主要动机差别。而大多数这些差别都融入了这次的类型调查中。例如拥有更多女性玩家的类型都强调了完成与科幻（游戏邦注：这便是女性玩家玩游戏的前两大动机）。男性玩家则更注重完成与破坏。

9）探索和家庭/农场模拟游戏中拥有最高非二元性别玩家百分比。

在所有样本中非二元性别的基本比例是1.1%。在当前的分析中，拥有最多非二元性别玩家的游戏类型是探索游戏（3.8%），家庭/农场模拟游戏（3.2%），休闲益智游戏（2.7%）和沙盒游戏（2.3%）。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Beyond 50/50: Breaking Down The Percentage of Female Gamers by Genre

by Nick Yee

You’ve probably heard the often-quoted statistic that about half of video gamers are women, illustrating how gaming is now a mainstream activity enjoyed by both men and women. This finding comes from the yearly ESA report, and has fluctuated between 38% and 48% in the past decade—currently estimated at 41% in the 2016 report.

Oddly, this statistic can have the exact opposite intended effect. Some gamers argue that the study bundles gamers across platforms and genres, and is thus unrepresentative of the “real” PC/console gamers. Or that the apparent gender parity means there are no longer gender biases in game design. A game dev we recently chatted with mentioned that some designers she works with still assume that only 5% of core gamers are women, and that the quoted 41% of women are primarily casual gamers.

By bundling across platforms and genres, this 41% statistic doesn’t surface how the percentage of female gamers does or does not vary across genres, or how large that variance is. Using the data we’ve from over 270,000 gamers at Quantic Foundry, we’ve put together some findings on the percentage of female gamers across game genres based on the specific game titles they enjoy playing..

Data from the Gamer Motivation Profile

The Gamer Motivation Profile allows gamers to take a 5-minute survey to get a personalized report of their gaming motivations, and see how they compare with other gamers. Over 270,000 gamers worldwide have taken this survey. The 12 motivations that are measured in our model were identified via statistical analysis of how gaming motivations cluster together.

Alongside gaming motivations, we also collect data on demographic variables. In our full sample, 18.5% are female gamers. We also ask gamers to list specific game titles/franchises that they enjoy playing (up to 9). By sampling gamers who mention a specific game title/franchise, we can generate a profile of that game’s engaged audience. Note the data we have is limited to the favorite games listed by a gamer–they are likely playing more games than they are able to list, but this constraint holds true for all respondents in our data, whether male or female.

The Genres We Analyzed

Game genres are incredibly messy things. They evolve and overlap and hybridize over time. In many well-established genres, subgenres are common. This means that asking gamers to respond to genre labels yields messy data.

We decided to take an approach based on specific game titles. In our analysis, we manually picked popular game exemplars to create genre groupings. For each game, we calculated the proportion of its gamers that are female. And then we calculated the genre group average. So for example, when we say High Fantasy MMOs, we specifically mean the group average of gamers who enjoy playing World of Warcraft, Rift, Lord of the Rings Online, EverQuest II, and The Elder Scrolls Online.

Each genre we analyzed contained between 3-5 game titles. The median sample size for each game title was 1,184. And the median sample size for each genre was 4,657.

Action Adventure: Uncharted (series), Infamous (series), Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Action RPG: Diablo III, Dark Souls III, Torchlight (series).

Atmospheric Exploration: Journey, ABZU, Gone Home, Dear Esther.

Casual Puzzle: Angry Birds, 2048, Cut The Rope.
City Building: Cities:Skylines, SimCity (series), Tropico (series).

First-Person Shooter: Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Battlefield 4, Halo 5: Guardians, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2.

Grand Strategy: Europa Universalis IV, Crusader Kings II, Stellaris.

Interactive Drama: The Walking Dead (series), The Wolf Among Us, Tales From the Borderlands.

Japanese RPG: Fire Emblem Fates, Bravely Default (series), Tales of Zestiria, Pokemon Sun and Moon.

Family/Farm Sim: The Sims (series), Harvest Moon (series), Animal Crossing (series), Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley.

Match 3: Candy Crush Saga, Bejeweled (series), Farm Heroes Saga.

MMOs (High Fantasy): World of Warcraft, Rift, Lord of the Rings Online, EverQuest II, The Elder Scrolls Online.

MMOs (Sci-Fi): Star Trek Online, EVE Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

MOBA: League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, DoTA 2, StarCraft II.

Open World: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Watch Dogs, Far Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto V, Batman: Arkham Knight.

Platformer: Ori and the Blind Forest, Rayman Legends, Super Mario (series).

Racing: Need For Speed (series), Gran Turismo (series), Forza (series).

Sandbox: Minecraft, Terraria, Dwarf Fortress.

Sports: FIFA (series), NBA 2K (series), Madden NFL (series).

Survival Roguelike: Darkest Dungeon, FTL: Faster Than Light, Don’t Starve.

Tactical Shooter: Squad, ARMA 3, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Seige.

Turn-Based Strategy: Civilization V, XCOM 2, Endless Legend.

Western RPG: Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

Genre Averages of Female Gamers Range From 2% to Almost 70%

Here’s a chart of all the genre group averages in descending order. The percentages listed refer to the proportion of gamers within each genre that are female. So for example, the 69% for Match 3 games means that of the gamers who mentioned a Match 3 game in the data, 69% of them were female. The 69% does NOT mean that 69% of women play Match 3 games.

It bears pointing out that most gamers play a variety of games across genres, and a high participation rate in the chart doesn’t mean that gamers (whether male or female) only play that genre.

1) Match 3 Games and Family/Farm Sims Have the Most Female Gamers.

In fact, these two genres are head and shoulders above any other genre in terms of percentage of female gamers. The next highest genre is a full 27 percentage points lower in female gamers.

2) Tactical Shooters and Sports Games Have the Fewest Female Gamers.

Sports Games (with an average 2% of female gamers) have the fewest female gamers of all the genres we analyzed. Although the percentage of women in both Shooter categories is low, there are noticeably fewer women in Tactical Shooters compared with First-Person Shooters (4.3% vs. 7.2%).

3) The Variance in Female Gamer Percentage Across Genres is Large.

The genre averages range from 2% to almost 70%. This is a 35-fold difference, and illustrates why an overall statistic for all gamers (ignoring genre) can be misleading and confusing.

4) World of Warcraft is an Outlier Among High Fantasy MMOs.

23% of World of Warcraft gamers are women. This is substantially lower than the group average (36%). A lot of game researchers (Nic and I included) focused on studying WoW as an exemplar of online gaming, but it looks like WoW was not only an outlier in terms of market success, but also in terms of its demographics relative to other games in the genre.

5) High Fantasy MMO > Sci-Fi MMO

As we assembled the original MMO genre, we noticed a difference between High Fantasy and Sci-Fi MMOs, and decided to split the genre. This highlights the gender disparity in appeal based purely on thematic elements. High Fantasy MMOs have more than twice the percentage of female gamers compared with Sci-Fi gamers (36% vs. 16%).

6) Star Wars: The Old Republic is Skewing the Genre High.

SWTOR has almost double the genre average of female gamers (29% vs. 16%). Without SWTOR, the genre average would be 11.3%, at which point the group average for High Fantasy MMOs would be more than 3 times higher than Sci-Fi MMOs.

7) Assassin’s Creed and Dragon Age are Also Notable Outliers.

Among Open World games, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is noticeably higher than the genre average (27% vs. 14%). And among Western RPGs, Dragon Age: Inquisition is also much higher than the group average (48% vs. 26%).

8) Genre Findings Align with Primary Motivation Differences.

In a previous blog post, we compared the primary motivations of male vs. female gamers. Much of those differences seem to underlie the current genre findings. For example, genres with more women emphasize Completion and Fantasy (the top 2 motivations for women). And genres for men emphasize Competition and Destruction (the top 2 motivations for men).

9) Highest Percentage of Non-Binary Gender Gamers in Exploration and Family/Farm Sims.

The baseline of non-binary gender gamers in our full sample is 1.1%. In the current analysis, the genres that had the most non-binary gender gamers were Atmospheric Exploration (3.8%), Family/Farm Sim (3.2%), Casual Puzzle (2.7%), and Sandbox games (2.3%).（source：gamasutra）