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Nicolas Maurer, chief executive of the Team Vitality esports organisation, has said that female representation in esports is in a “terrible state” and requires more audience education to increase participation numbers.
Speaking ahead of the Formula One Esports Pro Series final, due to be held in London on 4th December, Maurer claims that the challenge for “everyone involved in the [esports] ecosystem” is how to create the right structure, not only to help grow female engagement in professional gaming, but to eventually see more women become professional gamers.
“One of the big challenges, and a very interesting area of development for esports, is the number of women being pro, which is close to zero right now – a terrible state, we have to admit,” he told the Reuters news agency.
“There are a lot of women playing video games but they are not climbing because they lack role models. We have a culture where they don’t always feel welcome.”
Asked whether he thinks a female racer will one day participate in Formula One esports, he replied: “We are all waiting for that to happen, but for that to happen we need again to create the right structure.”
Maurer, whose company partners Renault in the Formula One Esports Pro Series, suggests that the underrepresentation of professional female gamers can be linked to the ratio of male and female viewership of esports.
According to a study published earlier this year by market researcher Interpret, female viewership of esports grew from 23 per cent in 2016 to just over 30 per cent in 2018, though viewership around esports championships is made up of far fewer women (20.3 per cent).
According to Maurer, whose company also has teams competing in titles such as League of Legends, Rocket League, Fortnite and Hearthstone, the issue around low female participation in esports can also be traced to video games originally being marketed to boys, though he insists there is evidence that this is changing.
At a competitive level, Interpret’s research also suggests that a slow uptake in female gamers is also represented by the types of games women tend to play.
According to the study, women make up close to 70 per cent of the demographic of casual gamers on mobile. It therefore suggests that, by adopting more mobile-friendly esports titles, the industry could offer a more viable gateway for greater female participation.
However, Maurer believes there is a broader stigma around female participation in esports that needs urgent attention. “When you see women in a mixed team, sometimes if the team is not succeeding people will say ‘Ah, it’s because of the women’,” he said.
“So there is a lot of bias, a lot of things to overcome to make sure women feel welcome in our ecosystem. That’s something we are working on actively. We need to get to the point where we have a lot of women there, 50-50.”
Nicolas Maurer, chief executive of the Team Vitality esports organisation, has said that female representation in esports is in a “terrible state” and requires more audience education to increase participation numbers.
Speaking ahead of the Formula One Esports Pro Series final, due to be held in London on 4th December, Maurer claims that the challenge for “everyone involved in the [esports] ecosystem” is how to create the right structure, not only to help grow female engagement in professional gaming, but to eventually see more women become professional gamers.
“One of the big challenges, and a very interesting area of development for esports, is the number of women being pro, which is close to zero right now – a terrible state, we have to admit,” he told the Reuters news agency.
“There are a lot of women playing video games but they are not climbing because they lack role models. We have a culture where they don’t always feel welcome.”
Asked whether he thinks a female racer will one day participate in Formula One esports, he replied: “We are all waiting for that to happen, but for that to happen we need again to create the right structure.”
Maurer, whose company partners Renault in the Formula One Esports Pro Series, suggests that the underrepresentation of professional female gamers can be linked to the ratio of male and female viewership of esports.
According to a study published earlier this year by market researcher Interpret, female viewership of esports grew from 23 per cent in 2016 to just over 30 per cent in 2018, though viewership around esports championships is made up of far fewer women (20.3 per cent).
According to Maurer, whose company also has teams competing in titles such as League of Legends, Rocket League, Fortnite and Hearthstone, the issue around low female participation in esports can also be traced to video games originally being marketed to boys, though he insists there is evidence that this is changing.
At a competitive level, Interpret’s research also suggests that a slow uptake in competitive female gamers is also represented by the types of games women tend to play.
According to the study, women make up close to 70 per cent of the demographic of casual gamers on mobile. It therefore suggests that, by adopting more mobile-friendly esports titles, the industry could offer a more viable gateway for greater female participation.
However, Maurer believes there is a broader stigma around female participation in esports that needs urgent attention. “When you see women in a mixed team, sometimes if the team is not succeeding people will say ‘Ah, it’s because of the women’,” he said.
“So there is a lot of bias, a lot of things to overcome to make sure women feel welcome in our ecosystem. That’s something we are working on actively. We need to get to the point where we have a lot of women there, 50-50.”
