A new study focusing on the best games for female gamers has just been published by Frontier, and Animal Crossing comes out on top.
Unfortunately, female gamers are likely to contend with a number of issues that their male counterparts simply do not, particularly online. Toxicity and abuse, while present almost everywhere online, are directed towards women more often. However, a new study by Frontier examines the best games for female gamers, suggesting not all communities are equal.
Now before we get to the list of games that are best for female gamers we should clear a few things up. Firstly, there are no ‘boy games’ or ‘girl games’. This study doesn’t pass any sort of value judgement regarding feminine or masculine traits; rather it reports how female gamers feel about a number of popular games and their online communities.
Female gamers were asked to rate games in terms of how friendly and inclusive their online communities are, as well as how positively the game itself depicts women. Each category was scored out of 5 and then combined to create an overall rating; with a higher rating denoting a better overall experience for women gamers.
To participate in the study individuals had to “play video games for at least 30 minutes per day at a minimum of one day per week, on average.” All of the participants were located in the United States of America and had to identify as female.
The big winners
Animal Crossing proved to be the best game for female gamers according to this particular study. It ranked highest across all categories. Although that isn’t to say its online community is entirely innocent.
PUBG: Battlegrounds came in at second overall, and was by far the highest ranked shooter/battle royale game.
Roblox and Minecraft came in at three and four respectively, suggesting that games with younger playerbases are possibly less discriminatory.
Finally, Final Fantasy XIV Online was the highest ranked MMO, coming in well above Blizzard’s monstrously popular World of Warcraft.
For the full study and its results be sure to click through here.
