Almost one in five people who play video games belongs to the LGBTQ community. This is confirmed by the latest report published by GLAAD, an organization founded in 1985 to defend the rights of homosexual, bisexual, trans and – now also – queer people.
The specific data is that 17% of the people who play belong to the LGBTQ community. There is a growth of 7% compared to a study published three years ago, which placed the figure at around 10%. This contrasts with the representation that people from the group have within video games: 2% in the Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch catalog and 2.5% in Steam.
It should be noted that this estimate of the representation of the LGBTQ community in video games has been made through search filters in the stores of both platforms, so the total figures could be a little higher. Despite this, there remains a significant gap between representation and the proportion of LGBTQ people who play.
72% of people who play and belong to the LGBTQ community consider it very important to be able to play with characters that match their gender and/or sexual orientation. It is for this reason that GLAAD demands more representation and inclusion in video games.
This means that 29% of players in the collective feel that large companies do not think about LGBTQ people when they design their games. On the other hand, people in the group feel closer to small independent studios, where they see that there is a greater degree of concern and representation.
Harassment is one of the biggest scourges in the world of video games. According to this latest report from GLAAD together with the consulting firm Nielsen, 38% of non-LGBTQ players have suffered harassment. A figure that rises to 52% in the case of people in the group. Additionally, 61% of LGBTQ people are afraid to use voice chat in online video games.
This means that 38% of LGBTQ people who play regularly have felt at some point that they do not belong to the “gaming community.”
It is for this reason that GLAAD asks studios and publishers to increase the quantity and quality of representation of the group in video games. “The percentage of games with LGBTQ representation should be proportional to the percentage of people who play and are LGBTQ,” they say in the report.
Furthermore, they insist on the quality of this representation. They ask that they be credible stories and characters and that they avoid clichés and stereotypes. For this reason, they also ask companies to seek advice from experts on the subject in order to be able, little by little, to improve the situation.