Girls and Boys in GamingGaming is a popular activity these days. In this article we will be discussing the differences between boys and girls in gaming. People give stereotypes to girls, for example, ‘grills’ and ‘gamer girls’ but both genders have similar habits in gaming. We have a big interest in gaming so we decided to find out more information on the subject. We asked Year 9 a selection of gaming related questions and the answers will be unveiled later in the article.

On several websites we collected some statistics. Between 2.2 and 2.6 billion people game worldwide. The global software market has been estimated to grow from $116 billion to $146 billion by the end of 2020. In the UK alone there are 2175 active gaming companies creating games, software and accessories. The UK is the 5th largest base for gaming as 49% of the population are gamers. Since 2011 the amount of girl gamers grew by 70% to 30.3 million whilst male gamers have gone up 45% to 43 million people.

In the build up to this article, we surveyed (insert number of students surveyed), of which 48% boys and 52% girls, about gaming which highlighted the differences between girls and boys.

The questions were:1. How many hours of gaming do you play

a day?2. What platform do you play games on? 3. Can you name a professional gamer?4. What's your favourite game genre?

The first major difference is the hours spent playing games. The majority of girls said that they played 1-2 hours a day of gaming on their phones. We thought it would be slightly higher than this. In comparison, the majority of the boys said that they played 5-7 hours a day on a console. We also asked the boys and girls if they could name a professional gamer. Only 9% of the girls could name a professional gamer whilst 92% of the boys could name a professional gamer.In our opinion, we think gaming is a male dominated sport and lacks female influence in all areas of gaming whether it be on mobile, PC or console. Girls need a leader, a motivator to show them how easy it is to go and become the next big thing in gaming.

In conclusion, girls are not as prominent in the gaming community as boys are, but they are making a rise in the part of gaming. In the near future there may be a balanced ratio between men and women in gaming.By Peter, Joseph and Jasper.