Study finds 17% of active gamers are LGBTQ

GLAAD today released its first State of LGBTQ Inclusion in Video Games report, building around the results of a Nielsen survey that found 17% of active gamers identify as LGBTQ.

Nielsen's survey covered 1,452 active PC and console gamers between June and August of last year.

The percentage of LGBTQ gamers increases in younger demographics, the survey found, with 23-28% of those under 35 identifying as LGBTQ.

GLAAD contrasted that significant LGBTQ player base with the relative paucity of games featuring LGBTQ characters and content, finding that fewer than 2% of games on Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Steam's platforms have such representation in them.

As for LGBTQ players' habits, they aren't terribly different from their non-LGBTQ counterparts. LGBTQ gamers spent money on games in roughly similar patterns to non-LGBTQ players, within 2 percentage points of each other up or down for every spending bracket.

For example, 8% of LGBTQ players spend more than $60 a month on games, compared to 10% of non-LGBTQ players. And 23% of LGBTQ players spend $11 to $20 a month on gaming compared to 21% of non-LGBTQ players.

One area with more significant differences was in the types of games preferred.

LGBTQ respondents were more likely than non-LGBTQ gamers to play single player games (52% to 43%) and cooperative multiplayer games (32% to 26%), but less likely to play competitive multiplayer titles (28% to 34%).

That may have something to do with the amount of harassment they expect to receive. 52% of LGBTQ players reported having been on the receiving end of harassment in games, compared to 28% of non-LGBTQ players.

Additionally, 42% of LGBTQ players said they had avoided a game because they expected to be harassed in it, and 27% have quit playing a game because of the harassment they received in it.

The full report has more.