A surprising new study from the Consumer Electronics Association says there are many more women 25-34 who play game than men of the same demographic. Chock this one up to the enormously popular casual
games market, which includes "light" puzzle and card games like solitaire and Tetris. The CEA study says 65 percent of women 25-34 play video games compared with just 35 percent of men. This is an
astonishing statistic considering that games industry coverage and focus skews heavily towards men around the age of 30, which we are repeatedly told is the average age of gamers these days. True, men
still comprise the majority of console game players, but women far outnumber them in visits to online gaming destinations like Yahoo Games, AOL Games, PopCap Games, and EA's Pogo.com. Why do women
love these casual games? They're diverting, they don't require a lot of time, and they're also nonviolent, analysts said. Gaming is thought of as more of a social activity for women, whereas online
play for males tends to be heavily competitive. Console makers are starting to realize the potential casual games represent; XBox Live arcade now offers a variety of simpler, casual titles to download
to the XBox 360 for as little as $5.
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