The introduction of playable female characters into genres/franchises that historically only had playable male characters often elicits arguments in gamer forums around the low prevalence of female gamers in that particular genre/franchise and how adding female characters is pandering to a demographic that hardly plays the game to begin with. Apart from the “is-ought” fallacy, this line of argumentation assumes that only women want playable female characters. But what about the men?

In this article, we’ll take a look at the prevalence of players who prefer to play characters of a different gender.  In the survey, we also included non-binary gender options (for both player and character gender), so we’ll explore that as well.

The Gamer Motivation Profile

The Gamer Motivation Profile is a 5-minute survey that allows gamers to get a personalized report of their gaming motivations, and see how they compare with other gamers. Over 500,000 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. You can get a more detailed description of our gamer sample here.

See how you compare with other gamers. Take a 5-minute survey and get your Gamer Motivation Profile along with personalized game recommendations.

The Survey Data

Alongside the Gamer Motivation Profile, we run a series of optional surveys that gamers can take. In a survey we ran between March 2020 and December 2020, we focused on in-game decisions collected responses from 2,956 gamers (69% male, 27% female, 4% non-binary). The median age was 24 (mean = 25.9, SD = 8.15).

Overall, players are most likely to prefer playable characters of the same gender.

This is true for players who identify as male, female, and non-binary. Notably, female players have the strongest preference for playing a character of the same gender (76%), whereas non-binary gender players—while still most likely to prefer non-binary gender characters—prefer non-binary gender characters only slightly more than female characters (38% vs. 33%).

Almost one out of three male players prefer playing female characters.

29% of men prefer playing female characters, whereas only 9% of women prefer playing male characters. This implies that even in game genres with predominantly male players, players would nevertheless have a moderately-strong interest in having a playable female character.

For example, in a simplified game example with 74% male / 23% female / 3% non-binary players.

  • 76% of the 23% of female players would prefer a female character = 17%
  • 29% of the 74% of male players would prefer a female character = 21%
  • 33% of the 3% of non-binary players would prefer a female character = 1%

Thus, 39% of the players in the game would prefer a playable female character.

In a typical core PC/console game, about 60% of the female avatars you meet are played by a male player.

Across core PC/console game genres, the gender proportion roughly averages out to 74% male / 23% female / 3% non-binary gender. So in a simplified example with a hypothetical game that only offers male and female character options:

  • There would be 740 male players—355 prefer male characters, 215 prefer female characters, and the remaining 163 have no preference, so we’ll divide them equally (82 prefer male characters and 82 prefer female characters).
  • There would be 230 female players—175 prefer female characters, 21 prefer male characters, and the remaining 25 have no preference, so we’ll divide them equally (13 prefer male characters and 13 prefer female characters).
  • There would be 30 non-binary gender players—3 prefer male characters, 10 prefer female characters, and we’ll split the remaining 17 equally (9 prefer male characters and 9 prefer female characters).
  • In terms of characters, there would be a total of 483 male characters and 504 female characters, reaching essentially (in-game) gender parity.
  • Of the 483 male characters, 34 (or 7%) are played by female players while 12 (or 2%) are played by non-binary gender players.
  • Of the 504 female characters, 297 (or 59%) are played by male players while 19 (4%) are played by non-binary gender players.

Older men are more likely to prefer playing female characters.

There are two interesting age differences in terms of playing characters of a different gender. Men who prefer playing female characters tend to be older, whereas for women, there’s no age difference between those who prefer playing male or female characters.

And then for both men and women, those who prefer a non-binary gender character are younger than those who prefer a female character.

All the patterns we’ve mentioned so far are consistent with data from MMOs from about 20 years ago.

For example, back in 2001, I found that among EverQuest players, men are about 4-6 times more likely to play a female character than female players are to play a male character. And in 2003, with a broader MMO sample, I found that it’s older men who are more likely to play female characters in MMOs. In 2005, specifically with a sample of WoW players, I estimated that 55% of female avatars in WoW are played by a male player.

With the MMO surveys, it was never clear if these patterns were unique or idiosyncratic to MMOs. The broader cross-genre data here shows that these patterns are likely consistent across many genres and have been remarkably stable for at least 2 decades.

Men who prefer female characters score higher on Design. Women who prefer male characters score higher on Destruction.

When we compared the gaming motivations of men and women based on their character gender preference, we found differences that aligned with gender stereotypes. Men who prefer female characters score higher on Design (expressing individuality, customization), while women who prefer male characters score higher on Destruction (chaos, mayhem, blowing things up).

There were no statistically significant differences among non-binary gender players or with the other character gender choices, so they are not included in the chart.

Because both the gaming motivation and character gender preference questions were about general gaming preferences, this suggests that character gender preference might be (at least partly) a way for players to align/reconcile gameplay preferences with gender stereotypes—e.g., it makes more sense to dress up a female character or it makes more sense for a male character to be blowing things up. Or they’re both driven by an unmeasured variable—e.g., men who are X are more likely to enjoy Design and playing female characters.

But why are men so much more likely to prefer playing female characters?

Researchers have proposed many (sociological, psychological, game-based) reasons for this:

  • Society is harsher on men who transgress gender norms than women who do so. Thus, men are more likely to explore gender identity in safer digital environments where they are anonymous.
  • Men playing female characters (typically designed for the male gaze) is another way for men to objectify and control women’s bodies.
  • Female avatars are treated better than male avatars in online games and more likely to get “freebies” and invited to groups.
  • Female avatars are psychologically perceived to be weaker and less skilled and this can give a player a psychological edge against opponents.

It’s worth noting that none of these theories explains why older men are more likely to play a female character.

When male gamers are directly asked this question in blog posts and message boards, by far the most common provided response is along the lines of: “If I have to stare at a butt all day, I would rather it be a female butt.” Whether this is the actual reason or simply the most socially acceptable explanation that can be stated is unclear.

But I wonder if we’re asking the wrong question. Given that gaming is often framed as an escape from reality, perhaps the better question is “Why do women have such a strong preference for only playing female characters?”.

Ironically, it’s games that are played predominantly by women that have much less need to provide playable male characters than the other way around.

We started with the topic of introducing playable female characters into games that are predominantly played by men. The data shows that even in the absence of any women playing those games, roughly one-third of the male player base would prefer having a playable female character.

Ironically, it’s among games that are predominantly played by women where we can make a much stronger business case that it’s unnecessary to spend resources to create playable male characters. In the most extreme example of a game that is only played by women, only 9% of that player base would want a playable male character.

Do you prefer playing characters of a different gender?

Why do you prefer playing characters of a different gender, and do you have any interesting stories/experiences from your gameplay? Tell us in the comments below.

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