Are Girls Bigger Hardcore Gamers than Men?

For as long as there has been gaming, there has been “hardcore” gaming. No, this doesn’t refer to triple-X titles, but rather to those who devote a lot of time to a particular game, or genre, or gaming in general, and at the same time, being quite skilled overall. The fact that a lot of time is devoted pretty much lends to natural improvement, though, so it’s hard to have one without the other.

Are you hardcore? Well, you might be if you’re a female, if a recent sample group is to be believed. In total, 7,000 Everquest II players were questioned about their play habits, and though it might sound a bit hard to believe, females averaged 29 hours of playtime per week, while males averaged 25 hours. Likewise, the more hardcore of the hardcore saw girls playing an average of 57 hours per week, and males, 51 hours per week.

I have a couple issues with this group survey, primarily because I don’t consider MMO’s to be that “hardcore”, in the sense that chess isn’t hardcore, and also in that this focused around a single game, which might actually appeal more to female players for whatever reason. But, it’s an interesting result regardless. So often, women aren’t considered to be gamers, and the common stereotype is that it’s men who spend long hours fragging away.

My gut feeling tells me that for FPS games, the results would be quite a bit different, and it’d be nice to see a similar poll done with one of the top games, such as Counter-Strike: Source, or Left 4 Dead. On the casual gaming side, it’d also be interesting to see the results, although today, thanks to games found on popular social networking sites, it seems like everyone takes part in some casual game (not me, and proud of it!).

And female gamers spent, on average, far more hours than their male counterparts. Top female players logged 57 hours a week, while top male players only logged 51 hours a week. And on average, girls logged 29 hours a week versus 25 hours for males. Age isn’t the only thing women tend to lie about, according to the survey. More women than men responded that they lied to their friends and loved ones about how much time they played.