One in 10 women is suicidal because of abuse while gaming.
New research from Sky Broadband reveals that 49% of the 4,000 female gamers surveyed have experienced abuse or harassment while playing or streaming online – a percentage of gamers aged 18 to 24 rose to 75%.
The level of harassment is so high that 25% of the women surveyed admitted to feeling frustrated, 40% felt threatened by online abuse, and 27% feared being attacked in real life after being threatened on a gaming platform .
Renata Miranda Antelo, who races every day, told Sky News the toxic culture is relentless.
Renata Miranda Antelo Says Toxic Culture Is Heartless
“I think one of the most annoying things is when they ask you where you live, where you’re from, what’s your Instagram, how old are you, if you want to visit them in their home country,” she said.
“It’s just a constant cycle of what’s your Instagram, what’s your Instagram? Sometimes you don’t want to talk back, so you don’t say anything, and that’s what I hear a lot from people — they’re like, ‘Oh, Mute them, or respond to nothing’.”
“But it just keeps building up to the point where they start swearing at you and then start being abusive because they don’t get the reaction they want from you.”
Steffy Evans, a streamer, used TikTok to highlight the misogyny she faced online, posting videos of men swearing and threatening her.
She said she hopes to help others by exposing the realities women face when they play games.
Ms Evans told Sky News: “What I’m doing with all this is I’m bringing light to it and hyping it up and empowering women to keep playing the game, keep the mics on and even talk back to these people.” .
“Obviously, if I could take it on a bigger scale than permanently ban them or face the consequences in real life.”
“But there’s only so much I can do, and that’s clarify what’s going on in the game, [encouraging other women to] Be confident and speak up. “
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Also taking action is the Guild — an esports team backed by David Beckham — that competes with other teams online.
It launched an immersive campaign to highlight the abuse female players face.
Guild Esports chief executive Jasmine Skee explained: “The reality is that if this happened in football, you’d have a referee wanting to blow the whistle and send someone off.”
“We can’t keep watching these numbers keep happening, and these women keep having that experience.”
“It’s all about looking after their mental health and making sure women feel like they can have fun and do what they love and feel very included.”
Gambling is big business and is expected to be worth over £279bn by 2026.
But while the industry continues to grow, progress appears to be much slower and real change is needed to stop being a man’s world.