‘Made my life hell’: More than 60 percent of female gamers experience online harassment

Toxicity in online gaming is sadly common and only seems to be getting worse, especially among female gamers. Reports show that over two-thirds of female gamers are still being harassed online.

There’s nothing scarier in the online gaming world these days than being identified as a woman. According to Sky News, two-thirds of women in gaming have experienced online harassment, and 12 percent of women have said they’ve been threatened with rape.

Over the past five years, Bryter Global, a global research firm, has been conducting surveys on the online gaming experience for women, and the reports of toxicity have become increasingly alarming, with a whopping 65 percent of women experiencing toxicity in gaming, the report found. So it’s no surprise that 19 percent of women who game online say this toxicity has affected their mental health.

One of the most famous hate campaigns against women in gaming was GamerGate, where game designers and developers Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu were targeted both online and offline. The latter even stated that they had “made her life hell” because she had received rape and death threats. They also tried to destroy her studio and even hacked her bank account.

The worst part is that it’s not just streamers, creators, and women in public like Quinn and Wu who experience this kind of toxicity. Women in general are afraid of gaming online. From rape threats, sexual harassment, receiving unwanted and inappropriate content, being subjected to verbal abuse, and even being aggressively interrogated about their experiences, online gaming is not a safe place, especially in genres where toxicity is on the rise. Some of these genres include sports, shooters, and Call of dutyMOBAs and strategy games.

Mickey Carroll, the Sky News journalist who originally reported on the issue of women in games, wrote that she experienced this herself. Immediately after joining a Discord server where her profile picture was displayed, she was bombarded by players calling her a “dirty fucking bitch” and a “fucking whore.” The rest of the same video she shared is nothing short of horrific and clearly shows how awful it is to be a female gamer.

The sad reality is that nearly half of female gamers surveyed believe there are no adequate processes in place to deal with harassment and toxicity, making reporting these online crimes even harder. And even if they do, one in five women fear their perpetrator will find out. While the numbers are still dismal, reports of harassment actually fell by seven percent between 2022 and 2023. Whether this is because harassment against women has actually fallen or because crimes are going underreported is unclear. But it will be interesting to see whether this number continues to fall or rises again in the 2024 Women Gamers Report.

Regardless, this industry still has a long way to go before women feel safe in online multiplayer games.