This story is part of What Happens Next, our complete guide to understanding the future. Read more predictions about the Future of Gaming.
When I discuss diversity in video games, I ask the audience to pull out their phones and Google the word gamer. “What do you see?” I ask them. “How many people look like me?”
Often times, the answer is “none.”
The story that has been told about who plays video games is wrong. The perception of gamers being headphone-wearing white kids with bad t-shirts and plaid button-ups is as fantastical as the worlds they play in.
Research shows that most people think the average gamer is a white, heterosexual man. But in reality, many video-game players don’t look like that at all. And the statistics show that in less than 10 years, it’s women and people of color who will be climbing the leaderboards.
Diversity of game players
Several studies indicate that African Americans, Latinx (the gender-neutral term for Latinos and Latinas), and Asians are more active in the gaming community than their white counterparts. For starters, black folks play more video games overall: 83% of African American teens report playing video games compared to 71% of white teens.
People of color also play for longer: A study found that youth of color between 8 and 18 play games roughly 30 minutes more per day than white youth of the same age. Latinx youth have been found to spend more time than black or white youth playing console games, and the same study found that black children start playing at an earlier age, and they’re twice as likely to have a video-game console in their bedroom.
The data on women are just as telling. The US has seen a 9% increase in female gamers since 2006, and this year 45% of video game players are women. In fact, they’re the reason for the economic spike that gaming is currently experiencing.
In 2014, the global games market was worth $70.4 billion. Today, $70.3 billion dollars comes in from mobile games alone. And—wouldn’t you know it—49% of mobile gamers are women, and 65% of women aged 10 to 65 in the US play mobile games. It’s therefore not the men who are growing the market: It’s the women. (My sisters say “You’re welcome.”)
Diversity of game-makers
Like many other sectors of society, this diversity in race and gender is not reflected in the hiring processes of video game employees. Besides the obvious ethical reason why we need more diversity in the video game industry—and culturally writ large—diverse teams also increase ROI and make it easier for companies to relate to their customers.
According the latest Independent Game Developers Association (IGDA) Satisfaction Survey, people who identify as white, Caucasian, or European make up 68% of the video game industry. By contrast, African Americans, Latinx, Pacific Islanders, Indigenous people, and Arabian and West Asian folks collectively make up just 13% of game-industry employees (despite six times more than that being game players).
When it comes to the male/female ratio, only 27.8% of the gaming industry identify as female, transgender, or another gender. When you look at this breakdown, it becomes clear why there are so many terribly sexist representations of female characters, shocking stories of sexual harassment, and poor representation of people of color. As USC researcher Dmitri Williams noted in a panel discussion on representation in games, “You make games that look like you. So it’s really just a reflection of the industry.”
And what do those games look like? The first comprehensive survey of video game characters found that more than 80% of them were white and male. Only 10% of playable characters were female, fewer than 3% were recognizably Latinx, and Native Americans, children, and the elderly were all underrepresented. The number of black game characters was pretty good—but they were mostly portrayed as gangsters and athletes. If the teams developing these characters looked more like the people playing, we’d see less stereotypes and more representation.
On the come-up
The white, male-dominated video game industry is currently catering to a shrinking demographic in the US, and a stagnating demographic worldwide. The demographic shift from white to people of color and men to women will change video games’ reputation to one of the most inclusive art forms of the 21st century.
According to the US Census Bureau, people of color will outnumber white youth under 18 by 2020. For those ages 18 to 29—the younger labor force and voting-age population—the tipping point will occur in 2027. If we compare this with video game players today by age, youth under 18 make up 28% of video game players and players between 18 and 35 make up 29%. When you do the math, this means that roughly 57% of video game players in the US between the ages of 6 and 29 will be people of color in less than 10 years.
If that isn’t convincing enough, consider that Akamai—one of the largest cloud media platforms in the world—reports that improved internet speeds in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Kenya, Nigeria, and India will lead the way to the next billion players.
“I’ve been going to game conferences for 12 years,” said Nelson Rodriguez, Akamai’s global director of media industry strategy at White Nights Conference. “We never talk about Africa. We never talk about Latin America. Very little do we talk about South East Asia…In five years, don’t be surprised when that becomes a sizable market, and if you ignore it—you only have yourself to blame.”
For an industry that’s estimated to be worth $90 billion in the US and $143.5 billion worldwide by 2020, the market is screaming for interactive content created by and for women and people of color. If the gaming industry doesn’t take things to the next level soon, it’ll risk being left behind, both culturally and economically. While the lack of diversity is certainly a missed sales opportunity, Williams also believes if marginalized players don’t have an opportunity to play themselves, they are less likely to become video game makers themselves, which only perpetuates the white-dominated cycle.
The future of gaming
There is therefore an exciting opportunity for a more equitable and inclusive games industry.
Think of the possibilities: Video games could reflect the diverse movie and television content we’re finally seeing today with Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians. If more diverse game developers create content for players that look like them, we should see more diversity in executive leadership positions—not to mention new gameplay styles and approaches to game design.
However, we could just as easily squander this opportunity. Studios could continue doing exactly what they’re doing now: allowing players to create characters in their own image in an attempt to offer choice, versus exposing players to other worlds by creating truly diverse stories. Though this personalization aspect could initially be viewed as a positive, it means that many players will continue to self-select the same biases into gaming culture.
Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation is a great example of diversity done well. You play as a half-African, half-French assassin in the Antebellum South. The core gameplay is centered around how you occupy public space as a biracial woman. The player has to navigate white society as an aristocrat, spy on their enemies by dressing as a slave, and eliminate them dressed as an assassin. If you can change your character in this world to a white male, it’s a completely different game.
As business continues to boom in the coming decades, the video game industry will have to think about international markets it has never had to consider. It also has to begin seriously thinking about gender, ethnicity, and how that is expressed in the games it produces.
However, rather than this challenge being thought of as a dungeon boss that needs to be slayed, we can see it as a chance to hit reset. People should be excited about the opportunities for traditionally underrepresented people creating communities of budding digital creatives, whose incredible imaginations are just waiting to explode into the digital space.
Implicit in this idea of diversity and inclusion is what can and will be created once this truly happens. And that is a space that I am very excited to play in.
This story is part of What Happens Next, our complete guide to understanding the future. Read more predictions about the Future of Gaming.