A look at sexism in the video games industry; State of the Game Industry 2023 report: ~23% are women, up from 20% in 2022, 5% are non-binary, and 70% are men
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times : X: @dannygroner X: Danny Groner / @dannygroner : “Mara McGreal, a 25-year-old environmental artist at Radical Forge in north-east England, hosts monthly meetups for people working in the games industry. “A lot of events are heavily drink-based,” she says. “Mine are specifically non-drinking to make it more open.”
Context & Ripple Effects
The workforce figures extend an earlier representation gap: a prior survey found that only 18% of major-studio game announcements featured female protagonists. The new data shifts attention from who appears in games to who is making them.
The reported rise in women’s representation is incremental against a still heavily male workforce. Grassroots formats such as Mara McGreal’s non-drinking meetups at Radical Forge address a practical inclusion barrier alongside the industry-wide numbers.
First-order effects
- The State of the Game Industry 2023 report gives studios, employees and job candidates a clearer benchmark: women account for roughly 23% of the workforce, non-binary people 5%, and men 70%.
- Radical Forge’s recurring non-drinking events create a more accessible networking option for local games workers, rather than relying on alcohol-centered industry socializing.
Second-order effects
- Studios seeking to recruit and retain underrepresented talent face greater pressure to examine whether their hiring, workplace and networking practices match the workforce gap documented by the report.
- The contrast between workforce composition and limited female-protagonist representation in major-studio announcements strengthens the case that staffing diversity and creative representation are connected, even if this dataset does not establish causation.
Third-order effects
- If representation gains remain gradual, inclusion may become a competitive operating issue for game employers: community practices, retention and career access can matter as much as entry-level recruiting.
- The pattern points to a broader capital-and-access imbalance across the sector; later funding data showing a sharp gap between male- and women-founded game startups suggests that workforce diversity alone may not translate into equal ownership or financing.
The trend: Gaming is moving from measuring visible representation toward confronting the workplace, networking and funding structures that shape who can build a durable career in the industry.