In 2025, What Issues Are Impacting Female Gamers and the Industry Itself? 

In the era of Aloy, Helinoe, and Kena, we’re taking a look at where female players are still excluded from games and how we can help to create more inclusive experiences during game development and playtesting.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we sat down with Ula Karpinska and Chloe Jian—two of our fantastic Researchers here at Player Research—to talk about key issues impacting female gamers, representation in games, and how we ensure our games research is inclusive for everyone, every day of the year.

Firstly, tell us a little bit about how you came to work in UX?

Ula told us “all my previous roles in gaming had the same thing in common—from Community Management, through Player Support and Live Ops—I was always close to the players. I wanted a role where I could make player feedback more meaningful. I knew I wanted to work in the computing space, but I had studied human behaviour and culture, not programming. UX was the perfect intersection between the two.””

Chloe shared a similar sentiment, telling us, “the journey was unexpected. Like many in the UX field, I tried many things before discovering it was an option to work this closely with players and their experiences. It turned out to be the role I had always been waiting for.”

How does our research show that the gaming experience differs according to gender?

At Player Research, we always advocate for diverse playtesting groups to ensure we tell the real story. For example, even if a game is primarily “aimed at men”, we’ll typically find in a mixed testing group that women enjoy playing that game just as much. This helps us spot when the marketing focus is misaligned with the true potential audience, where the strategy might exclude players and could also impact success. There are more stereotypes about the gender split in gaming than there is actual evidence for it. Great player research can halt the perpetuation of gender stereotypes when defining player audiences.

Within the player community itself, although around 45% of gamers worldwide are female, we find that sexism still affects women’s experiences. “Many of our female playtesters use male or gender-neutral sounding usernames to avoid being treated differently in multiplayer games,” Ula explained, “and many women have told us they avoid multiplayer games altogether.”

A recent “Women Gamers Survey” conducted by Bryter across the US and UK revealed that 59% of female players had experienced toxicity from male players, with 29% sharing that they are treated this way regularly within games.

We know that deliberately including female gamers during a game’s development is not only beneficial, but critical. For us, that means sharing the voices of female players, advocating for their involvement in playtesting, and creating safe and inclusive experiences during our playtesting sessions too.

How do we make research inclusive and why is it important to do so?

We’re proud to be a majority female company and to have a diverse team of Researchers. Our whole playtesting process has been designed with inclusion in mind —when playtesters can find common ground with the Researcher interviewing them, they become much more open to sharing their truths and personal experiences.

This is especially important when ensuring women are accurately represented in our data. Often women who enjoy gaming don’t feel confident enough to label themselves as “gamers”. Female playtesters tend to be more reserved about speaking up in a mixed group, and our Researchers must work hard to steer the conversation and ensure every playtester feels heard and valued. “Sometimes people feel they need to put their ‘game development hat’ on to provide valuable feedback.”, said Chloe. “We try to emphasise that we are looking for each person’s genuine experience of the game as an individual, no matter their background or game knowledge.”

“Our Participant Coordinators play a huge role in that success”, Ula added. Our in-house Coordinators source our diverse playtesters, week on week, and ensure a positive experience for everyone who comes in. From creating inclusive ads targeted towards different player types, to asking playtesters for pronouns and preferred names during the recruitment stage, they strive to create a warm environment where playtesters feel welcome and respected. “They also ask each person a bit about themselves so that we can recommend any other playtests we think they may be relevant for, helping to make each playtest a completely personalised experience, even when we’re inviting hundreds of playtesters each month”.

It’s important to note that the journey to equality and inclusivity starts with internal culture. Player Research facilitates an understanding culture where everyone is encouraged to speak up, share, and collaborate. “A company where everyone’s voices are heard and valued has a huge impact”, Ula noted, “people think bigger and better because they are empowered share their ideas and experiences”.

When have you felt the importance of representation personally?

“I feel so empowered when I can play as a female character,” Chloe explained. “I feel like I can put myself in her shoes, and if she can overcome so many challenges then I can too.”

“I have always loved Tomb Raider,” Ula told us. “It was the first game I got into as a kid, and I loved that I could play as a strong female character who explores and goes on adventures”. Gone are the days when Lara Croft was the only female character that most people could name, but it’s important that we continue to develop games with a diverse cast so that more young girls and women can be inspired by the strength and accomplishments of their favourite character.

International Women’s Day offers us a pause to reflect on the current state of video games and the industry itself – to celebrate the beloved female characters, the women working across the industry, and the players worldwide. But there’s still a lot of work to do and striving to help create titles, experiences, and environments that are more inclusive to female gamers is paramount. Including the genuine voice of female players is an incredibly important part of that work.

If you would like to speak to the Player Research team about conducting inclusive and diverse research to help level up your game, reach out on [email protected].

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