Reach3 Insights’ New Research Reveals 59% of Women Surveyed Use a Non-Gendered/Male Identity to Avoid Harassment While Gaming

Despite rising popularity, chat-based survey reveals that women struggle to find a safe place to play online

VANCOUVER, British Columbia & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Reach3 Insights, in collaboration with global technology leader Lenovo™, today announced the findings from its research study that sought to understand the experience of women players in the gaming industry and how companies can create a more inclusive space for women gamers.

The research reveals the following trends in the gaming industry:

• Women are playing the same games as men. 88% of women gamers surveyed are playing competition-style games, 75% said they are playing action/survival-style games and 66% play shooters.
• 77% of women responded dealing with at least some sort of frustration when gaming because of their gender. Judgements of skills, (70%), gatekeeping (65%) and patronizing comments (50%) were the most reported types of comments women gamers said they received while gaming online. In addition, 44% of women gamer respondents have received unsolicited relationship asks while gaming.
• 59% of women surveyed use either a non-gendered or male identity when playing games online to avoid conflict
• 71% of participants said that companies can foster more inclusive behaviors in gaming by having a greater presence of different groups in gaming ads

Reach3 and Lenovo worked with Rival Technologies, a mobile-first conversational insights platform, to better connect with gamers in a way that’s more natural and authentic than traditional surveys. The research engaged 900 women across China, Germany and the United States and 98 men in the United States, capturing robust quantitative and qualitative data (including video selfies) to get a deep understanding of the experience of women gamers.

The Rival platform lets insight professionals run robust market research studies, leveraging videos, images, emojis, GIFs and observational approaches to add authentic culture and context to consumers’ responses.

“At Lenovo, customer feedback and user insights drive the smarter technology and gaming experiences that we create. That’s why we continually engage with our Lenovo Legion™ gaming community and other players for feedback,” said Emily Hoppes, Senior Customer Insights Manager for Intelligent Devices Group at Lenovo. “Reach3’s unique mobile insights tool helped us capture candid feedback from women gamers to better understand the important topic of diversity and inclusion in gaming, which will help Lenovo and the industry together to build a more inclusive culture and safer space for women in gaming.”

“Despite still being mostly associated with men, gaming is on the rise with women,” said Leigh Admirand, Senior Vice President at Reach3 Insights. “We were thrilled to work with Lenovo on this study as we hope it will help companies create a more inclusive gaming environment for women gamers and lead to long-term change in the industry.”

About Reach3 Insights

Reach3 Insights powered by Rival Technologies is a full-service research consultancy that develops scalable, conversational insight solutions for today’s modern, agile enterprise. Led by CEO Matt Kleinschmit, the company uses immersive, in-the-moment research designs and dynamic digital storytelling to deliver deep experiential insights that inspire action. Reach3 is part of Reid Campbell Group and a sister company to Rival Technologies, a tech company developing chat, voice and video solutions that integrate into messaging platforms and technologies that people actively use on a daily basis. For more information, visit reach3insights.com.

About Rival Technologies

Rival Technologies is the company behind the world’s first enterprise mobile messaging-based market research platform. The company’s solutions enable industry-leading brands Pepsico, Diageo and REVOLT MEDIA & TV to engage the modern mass consumers in the moment that matter most. By leveraging the smartphone’s chat, video and voice technologies, the Rival platform enables marketers and researchers from global brands to capture robust quantitative and rich qualitative feedback and unlock the fast, iterative and ongoing insights they need to improve business outcomes. Rival is part of the Reid Campbell Group and a sister company to Reach3 Insights, a full-service consultancy that uses immersive and in-the-moment research and dynamic digital storytelling to deliver deep experiential insights that inspire action. For more information, visit rivaltech.com.

LENOVO and LENOVO LEGION are trademarks of Lenovo.