More women are watching Esports than ever before

Research estimates 30.4% of those who watch Esports are women currently.

In Interpret's recent online survey of 9,000 US residents, they discovered that 30.4% of Esports watchers on PC or console are female, which is a huge improvement from the 23.9% from their fourth-quarter survey of 2016. This comes alongside other statistics that show that females account for 35% of people who play esports games, showing a growing number of women getting the hands on these competitive games.

Interpret VP of research for the EMEA Tia Christianson said the following: "Progress of this size always takes time; however, a 6% gain in gender share over a two-year period is a trend in the right direction. If two years from now, the female audience grabs an additional 6% in share, eSports viewership will be in gender parity with what we consider standard among traditional console and PC games."

Despite this growth, Interpret noted a low level of female involvement in some popular esports titles. For example, Hearthstone and Overwatch has 26%, CS:GO has 24%, Rainbow Six: Siege has 23% and DOTA 2 has 20%.

Christianson also said the following: "As an industry, more progress will be made as females' role in traditional eSports titles continue to grow, given the efforts from some of the industry leaders, more likely than not, a lot of that growth may come in non-traditional eSport genres, and especially games tailored to mobile and tablet devices."

What's your experience when it comes to Esports audiences?

The International is perhaps the most prestigious of Esports events, but it has a relatively low percentage of female viewers. // Photo: Valve