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There are more than one billion female game enthusiasts in the world. While some outsiders may still be surprised by the popularity of gaming among girls and women, many others have embraced it. Over the past decade, gaming has evolved into all-round entertainment that includes viewing, playing, as well as enjoying the latest innovations in hardware. This has given way to more diversity in how individuals, male and female, enjoy games. This all-encompassing range of personas can be found in our recently launched Gamer Segmentation™. While all eight personas feature men and women, some personas clearly over- and under-index after zooming in on one gender.

Utilizing fresh Consumer Insights from our latest round of primary research in 30 key markets, we will dive deep into some of the most important similarities and differences between men and women’s engagement with games. In this article, we use the segmentation and eight accompanying personas to—for the first time—explain the reality of gender differences and similarities between the new breed of game enthusiasts. In the coming weeks, we will publish deep insights on game enthusiasts in two countries that we have added to our consumer research portfolio: New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.

The Top Personas for Women and Men Paint a Very Different Picture

While there are almost as many female as male game enthusiasts, there are differences between the top personas for each gender. Across all 30 markets researched, the top persona among female game enthusiasts is the Time Filler. These are people who play games, typically on mobile, to pass the time. Over a third of all female game enthusiasts fall within this group. Interestingly, the biggest gender differences can also be found here, with 36% of women fitting this persona vs. just 19% of men. In fact, almost two-thirds of all Time Fillers are women.

The second-most prominent persona among female game enthusiasts is the Cloud Gamer, with 17%. Over a fifth of male gamers are in this group, making it their top persona. These gamers enjoy high-quality game experiences, preferably free-to-play or discounted titles, but only spend on hardware when necessary. The imminent cloud gaming platforms from Microsoft (xCloud) and Google (Stadia), which do not require the consumer to buy expensive hardware, are a potential game changer for this group.

Meanwhile, 14% of female game enthusiasts are Popcorn Gamers, meaning they play a little but enjoy watching gaming content far more. This persona, therefore, might be easier reached through mediums like Twitch and YouTube than with in-game advertising.

The #2 persona for men is Time Filler, followed by the Ultimate Gamer (15%). Ultimate Gamers love all things gaming—playing, owning, and viewing, and dedicate much of their free time and disposable income to the pastime. Male game enthusiasts are far likelier to be Ultimate Gamers than women: 15% vs. 9%, respectively.

Not all personas, however, exhibit clear gender differences. For example, around 6% of both men and women are Backseat Viewers, those who watch plenty of gaming video content/esports on Twitch and YouTube but hardly ever play games.

New Gender Patterns Will Emerge in the Coming Years

One of the benefits of Newzoo’s Gamer Segmentation is that we can use our annual Consumer Insights Research to track the growth or decline of different personas over time. This allows us to highlight, analyze, and profile the fastest-growing personas that brands should be paying attention to. Filtering female game enthusiasts by age already reveals some interesting results.

Women who are Ultimate Gamers are most likely to be between the ages of 26 and 30 (19%), whereas Conventional Players and Time Fillers are most likely to be aged 36-40 and 51-65, respectively. Whether the younger adults will continue their more serious gaming habits as they move into older age brackets is a very interesting question. Will the over-indexing of female Time Fillers decrease as this group gets older? Of course, we will be continuously monitoring the situation over the coming months and years—as always.

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Meet and Greet: Breaking Down Popcorn Gamers and Ultimate Gamers

Finally, to underline some differences and similarities in how men and women currently engage with the games market, we will deep dive into two of the most diverse personas: The Ultimate Gamer and the Popcorn Gamer.

As you can see, Ultimate Gamers are far likelier to be men than women, with men making up just under two-thirds of the group. In addition to all things gaming (playing, owning, and viewing), these consumers are likely to have an interest in computers, electronics, and gadgets and enjoy watching movies in their spare time. Compared to other personas, they are also likelier to live in a household with children.

The largest share of Ultimate Gamers are males aged 21-35, accounting for over a third of this persona. What’s more, 19% of them are aged 26 to 30. Naturally, the stereotype that the most serious game enthusiasts are teenage men is old-fashioned and inaccurate.

While Popcorn Gamers are also more likely to be male than female (54% vs. 46%), the gender spread is far more equal than some of the other personas. Still, the largest share of Popcorn Gamers are men aged 21-35, accounting for 22% of this persona. Typical hobbies of Popcorn Gamers include listening to music, watching movies, and traveling.

The largest share of this persona falls into the 21-25 age group (17%). All in all, Popcorn Gamers skew toward younger demographics. Just under two-thirds of them are aged between 10 and 35. We expect this to change in the coming years, as esports and game-streaming content continue to flourish and become more ingrained in everyday culture.

These two personas alone highlight just how multi-dimensional and fragmented today’s game enthusiasts are. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the insights that Newzoo’s Consumer Insights and Gamer Segmentation offer. Playing alone doesn’t cut it anymore. Viewing and owning behavior are an equally important part of the mix and can no longer be ignored.

Curious about what kind of game enthusiast you are? Find out by taking the quiz below!

Newzoo’s Consumer Insights: Empowering Businesses to Make Strategic Decisions

Clients can now apply Newzoo’s Gamer Segmentation across 30 key markets in our Consumer Insights and analyze these personas in depth. The personas can be profiled on +200 variables, including demographics, media behavior, preferences, devices, spending habits, brand attitude, game streaming behavior, esports awareness, and more.

These Consumer Insights are based on the online audience aged between 10 and 65 (or between 10 and 50 for select markets). The service is already used is by many of the world’s biggest games, media, and hardware companies. And the interactive dashboard lets them slice and dice the data however they like, giving them actionable insights on the consumers that matter most to them. Each subscription also comes with support from an expert Newzoo analyst.

Want to learn how our Consumer Insights can help your business? Contact us at questions@newzoo.com.