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?