Video game heroines of the last decade - female characters are still in the subnumber

There are you - female main characters in video games of the last decade. Women and girls like Aloy, Lara Croft, Ellie and Senua are courageous, tough and multifaceted. Nevertheless, between 2010 and 2019, you are still rather the exception. We have taken a loupe for you, what has happened and where there is still catching up.

Best selling games of the decade

Before we devote ourselves to the question of how women have been presented in the last decade of video games, we take a look at a few very sobering numbers.

That female video game heroes are strong in the lower-mentioned, one reads so often that it sounds like a worn outlet. Why the statement is hit so often, however, it becomes clear if we look at the quotas within the best selling, which shown in developer and publisher video showcases and watch the best rated games of recent years.

Best selling games of the last decade of USA (data from Venturebeat.com)

GTA V

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Call of Duty Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Red Dead Redemption 2

8th

Call of Duty WWII

Call of Duty: Black Ops IV

Minecraft

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Mario Kart 8

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Battlefield 1

Battlefield 4

Destiny

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Star Wars Battlefront 2015

If we look at the ranking of the industry research company NPD (Venturebeat.com) of the 20 best-selling games in the US between 2010 and 2019, so under these titles is not a single playback game with dedicated female main person.

Particularly represented is the Call of Duty series, where the trend has enforced that at least in the multiplayer female characters are standard.

However, the list is led by GTA V, which holds three male main characters and renounces female protagonists. Onstations 7 and 19 we find two more games, in which only male protagonists are playable in the individual playing campaign: Red Dead Redemption 2 and Breath of the Wild, and after all, the multiplayer mode Red Dead online (also available separately) just like GTA online female options offers.

Odds of the last five years

Let us take a look at the gender representation in the showcases of large publishers and developers in the years 2015 to 2020, between the 11th of June and 10th September, we also see the strong trend to titles where the gender is selectable or there is a mixed person lineup. The share is between 46% and 66%.

Male main characters were even more represented at the beginning of the period : 2015 at 32% and 2016 with 41%. In the following three years, their share is between 21% and 26%.

Female main characters, on the other hand, are constant up to and including 2019 at less than 10% , with a low point at only 2% in 2016. Only in 2020 - so after the end of the decade - make a jump to 18%. Male characters are not so clear at 23% for the first time in the majority.

Incidentally, from 2018, games with non-binary main characters appear in the lineup. Examples of games with non-binary main character are Journey or Ori and The Blind Forest. However, the percentage is at most 5.

Of course, the statements made can not be applied one to one of all published games of these years. Due to the skier amount across all platforms, it is also almost impossible to make a statement about all publications. However, the numbers used here provide a good alternative because they show a cross-section of the AAA title - the area in which the largest budgets are available and the greatest attention is achieved at players.

MetaScore

Let us turn to our views of sales and presentations on the best rated from criticism. **** We take the top ten of Metascores for the following consoles: Xbox One, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U. We only consider titles appeared between 2010 and 2019 and no extensions.

Again, games with male headperson and mixed ensemble or editor are strong. The cut of games with purely male main persons is over 4 titles per platform (ie over 40%). The number of female main characters is in section only at just over 1 (or 10%).

only no risk?

When we look at the numbers, we could come to the conclusion that studios will take a high risk when they publish games with female protagonists because they sell themselves worse and get rare top reviews. But it is not that easy.

When it comes to sales figures, complex operations must be observed. In 2012, Ben Kuchera has published a report at Penny Arcade, which deals with the topic. For this he has evaluated data from Eedar, a market research company, and spoken with its former Chief Operating Officer Geoffrey Zatkin.

Kuchera has set itself on games from the areas of action, shooter and RPG and found that "almost no games with exclusively female heroes" existed. Those who took a cup of loupe were actually sold worse than those with male protagonists, but there is one to be observed: Kuchera found: "Games with only female heroes only get half as much marketing budget as games with Male heroes. "

Kuchera asks why it is a self-filling prophecy that games with female heroes sell worse and Zatkin answers: "I think that could be. [...]" Although marketing is a complex topics that we are Not able to deepen here, we wanted to point out this findings of Cuchers.

We do not know if a GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 or Breath of the Wild would have sold worse or possibly as strong or even better if the protagonists would have been female but would have been the same marketing budget.

Black Ops-Freelancer Nina Kiel also emphasizes in the manual GamesCulture as important representation is. Anyone who often finds itself in media productions has easier to view themselves as an accepted and normal part of society and also psychologin Jolina Bering has the topic of Gampro In your article the psychology behind representation: Why diversity in video games important is prepared for us.

Around half of all gamers in Germany is female. A study by Tiktok from 2020 even comes to 62%. A study by Bitkom found in 2019 that 49% of gamers and also 38% of gamers want more strong female figures. The need for a stronger representation is there.

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