Female gamers are often chastised for not being ‘real’ gamers, whatever that means. However, statistics have proven otherwise, and there are a lot more women in the gamer population than most guys think.

According to Newzoo, there are over one billion female gamers in the world, making up a whopping 46 percent of all game enthusiasts.

That’s almost half of the entire global gaming population, but Newzoo has segmented that even further by categorizing them into eight different breeds of gamers. This can be justified because being a gamer doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to play certain games. The definition is much broader now.

Here are the eight breeds of gamers according to Newzoo:

What’s The Difference Between The Male and Female Members of The Gaming Population?

Male and female gamers are still very different from each other. The largest demographic of female gamers belong to the Time Filler, Cloud Gamer, and Popcorn Gamer breeds. This indicates that most female gamers are casual gamers, playing it primarily for social reasons and occasional personal enjoyment.

Meanwhile, the largest demographic of male gamers belong to the Cloud Gamer, Time Filler, and Ultimate Gamer. This suggests that while a lot of men are still casual gamers, there are more hardcore male gamers (15%) in comparison to female gamers (9%).

The other breeds of gamers are similar in terms of size share amongst male and female members. Male gamers tend to be more active gamers compared to female gamers, but many from both genders also like to watch other people playing games instead of playing it themselves.

Contrary to popular belief, those who belong to the Ultimate Gamer category are men between the ages of 21 to 35 and not teenagers. This is likely due to the fact that older men are more likely to be working adults and thus can afford more gaming hardware/software.

While male gamers still make up a majority of the gaming population, female gamers are quickly closing the gap. Currently, women are still facing prejudice and ridicule for being female gamers.

Hopefully, that will all change in the near future, as female gamers increase in number.