In 1998, a Michigan State University study showed that only 15% of games had a female protagonist or active character. In 41% of games, there were no female characters at all. And in the remaining games, females were reserved exclusively for the role of victims or sexual objects.
The world has changed a lot since then, and so has gaming.
Data now suggests that in 2020, 23% of main characters within games were male and 18% were female. The remaining number were gender ambiguous or non-binary, or the game had multiple main characters of differing genders.
Despite the disparity between men and women in gaming decreasing, it’s clear that male characters still get preferential treatment. When you look to the world’s biggest games, female characters are often ‘one of the gang’ rather than getting the leading role — the protagonist.
We thought it would be an interesting and fun experiment to redesign the leading characters of some of the most popular game franchises in the world to see what they could look like with a female lead — a real female lead, not a female lead designed for men.
And we’re sure you’ll agree…these ladies look pretty badass.
