Nearly one in five gamers are LGBTQ+.
According to the first GLAAD Gaming Report – the organization that champions sexual orientation inclusivity in entertainment media – around 17 percent of gamers are members of the LGBTQ+ community, with the majority being under the age of 35.
“We believe that LGBTQ inclusion benefits both the video game industry and community,” the associate director of gaming at GLAAD Blair Durkee said in a statement.
”As this report shows, the presence of LGBTQ characters or storylines doesn’t meaningfully deter non-LGBTQ people from buying or playing games, but it makes a huge difference to LGBTQ gamers.
“Despite the significant progress we’ve seen, gaming remains woefully behind other forms of entertainment media when it comes to representation.”
The report also found that only two percent of titles on Xbox and PlayStation included characters that were part of the LGBTQ+ community, and 2.5 percent on Steam, dropping to just 1.7 percent once adult-only games are excluded.
According to the report, roughly 72 percent of LGBTQ+ gamers said that seeing a character that matched their sexual orientation or gender identity boosted their self-confidence, with a further 68 percent wishing there were more prominent LGBTQ+ storylines in the games they played, like “The Last of Us Part II” and “Baldur’s Gate 3.”
