Celebrating and empowering women in mobile gaming with CHANGE THE GAME

Together, Android and Google Play bring millions of games to more than one billion people in 190 countries, making games accessible to almost everyone. As we continue to create entertainment experiences that cater to each individual person; and with more people gaming on mobile devices than ever before, there’s an opportunity to be even more inclusive—starting with women.

There’s little existing research about women and mobile gaming—so we partnered with Newzoo to learn more about the experiences and perceptions of female mobile players in the U.S. Our study found that 65% of women play mobile games, making-up half of all mobile gamers. In fact, female mobile gamers play more frequently than men with 43% of of them playing more than five days a week compared to just 38% of men.

Despite the fact that women are playing mobile games like never before, only 24.8% of people in the industry identify as women or transgender. This has an impact on women’s behaviors and perceptions of mobile games—for example, we found that the majority of female gamers think that only 30% of those games are actually made for them. Additionally, we found that women are less likely than men to explore multiple genres, talk with friends about mobile games, or identify as a “gamer.”

To tackle this issue, we’re launching CHANGE THE GAME, a new Google Play initiative promoting diversity in games, celebrating all women who play games, and empowering the next generation of game-makers through ongoing research, development programs, and partnerships. The program includes:

• An interactive experience shining light on the relationship between women and mobile games in the U.S. 
  
• A short film celebrating the diversity of women who play mobile games and inviting all women to be part of the game
  
• A collection highlighting games with great female protagonists on Google Play’s Indie corner 

This builds on our work to inspire teen girls with the power of games through Wonder Woman, our support of Girls Make Games and the launch of a mobile game development program for emerging game designers. While moving the needle won’t be easy, we hope our commitments to change the game will influence long-term change for women as both players and creators.