Riot: 97% of female League of Legends players only play female champions

In a game played by millions around the world daily, Riot Games' League of Legends title is bound to feature a player base from all walks of life.

[SurgicalMenace]

Imagine that. Why is this even news?

[moomoo319]

Pretty interesting engagement metrics. Shows the importance of actually having female characters in your game if you want to expand your audience. I would guess OW and LoL are top of the list female engagement wise and both feature female characters predominately.

"in fact, it's something like 97% of female players only play female champions. Male players are evenly split between male and female champions, so Male players play 50/50 between male and female champions."

[LG_Fox_Brazil]

Yes, that is exactly why having diversity in games is a no brainer. More people 'seeing themselves' in games means more people playing games and I would love to have VGs becoming something even bigger than it already is

[SurgicalMenace]

That's what's up. Women choosing themselves over male characters and men exploring both evenly sounds about right. Still can't see why this is news.

[Bladesfist]

The people above you just explained why it is news, it's the first time we've seen statistics like these that I can think of and it makes an obvious case for including female playable characters in games if you want to capture that audience.

[SurgicalMenace]

Okay, so where are all the properly represents black leads or options to create them cosmetically? The "women choose themselves as leading representatives" narrative is seen through so many mediums across the board, from relationships to gaming now. I play well over 200+ games yearly and there is no shortage of female options but the lack of ethnic ones goes unchecked. To make these metrics seem so ground breaking when we are in a society of women who believe "my money is my money and your money is our money" is a blatant refusal to acknowledge that it's been here.

Now we're supposed to celebrate that they've entered into gaming? Hell, play what you want, be who you are, male or female, but don't attempt to celebrate "diversity" when they're just arriving. This issue of excluding blacks across the entire spectrum of mediums is a metric more impactful than how many women choose themselves in gaming.

Here are some metrics for you:

"African Americans made up 14 percent of the population in 2018, according to Nielsen, which measures audience analytics. But 73 percent of African Americans ages 13 and older identified as gamers, compared with 66 percent of the total population, the company said."

“The absence of Black characters in games is a very serious problem,” Dr. Starks said. “Black kids aren’t seeing themselves as the heroes, they aren’t seeing themselves solving the problems and wearing the capes. We deserve to feel that these gaming worlds were made for us to be in, too, and that we belong there.”

Imagine your race being misrepresented over the entire history of gaming, while supporting it, and then you start hearing how important it is to be inclusive to homosexuals, transgenders, lesbians, women, and anything else that's not you. That's what I mean, why is this even news? There are also metrics that show how much more African American men spend over all races of women in gaming, but you're seeing an elevation in female protagonists over African American male ones.

Some of the larger gaps were observed for gaming consoles, owned by two-thirds (66%) of African-American households, compared to half (51%) of the total population. In fact, 73% of African-Americans ages 13 and older are gamers, and 55% of them prefer to play on a console, a higher rate than the gamer population at-large (49%). The report notes, though, that “despite the large number of African American gamers, there is a lack of diversity and diverse stories within the games themselves and within gaming developers in the industry.”

There is no celebration for one without the other, for me. I've often salivated over having girl gamers but my proper representation or lack there of has taken priority.

Source:
https://www.marketingcharts...

[moomoo319]

@SurgicalMenace

Mate - we constantly complain about woke politics and unnecessarily diverse characters being shoehorned into video games. When an article has data showing these characters actually lead to higher engagement from that minority group, its noteworthy. It has nothing to do with what you wrote and this isnt the oppression olympics, blackness isnt worth more than being a female or vice versa my dude.

Appreciate your citations though. Another discussion altogether.

[SurgicalMenace]

Exactly my point; allow African protagonists, that aren't stereotyped, so that there can be proper representation in that sector. You advocate for one metric and deflect another. Imagine paying more into an industry only to have everything but your contribution celebrated and sought after.

They're allowing female leads to, at least, generate the metrics.

[blacktiger]

it's on the news to create division. They do this for everything including race and gender

[mmofanatic]

Indeed. The women I know who play do use female champions!

[onisama]

Weebs