"I've never seen women play any games except all these games I've seen them play, but that doesn't count because reasons"
Bonus points for transphobia and ableism.
Fuck people who think like this. TIL that only men play lots of genres of games, which is news to me because the majority of my male friends only play shooters and one plays nothing but... wait for it... RPGs.
G*mers are a mistake.
It's not that there weren't any women playing videogames, but there definitely weren't as many before because they were heavily marketed to boys. But in recent years there's definitely been a lot more women.
from experience this isn't true and they are still marketed primarily to men.
This shows with some fluctuations that after 2010 there was a marked increase: https://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/#:~:text=The%20statistic%20shows%20the%20gender,increase%20over%20the%20previous%20year.&text=The%20global%20gaming%20industry%20has,fast%20pace%20in%20recent%20years.
Of course the issue with this statistic is that it seems to only take into account the people who have played some video game, whereas some other statistics seem to imply there is a much more significant gap in people who identify as gamers, which is shrinking too. But yeah, the divide before 2010 was greater in general, not that it was as big a deal as they pretend anyways.
idk. i dont think the difference is that big and a lot can be explained by more people playing games in general. i've been playing games since i was old enough to hold a controller and i've always encountered plenty of other women playing because i typically did not hide that i was a woman unless it was a space i could tell was unfriendly to women for sure.
They are still marketed primarily to men (which is partly why there still is a shrinking gap) but the market is shifting regardless.