Nearly half the gamers sitting in front of screens with a controller in their hands are women.
Female gamers made up about 48 percent of the game-playing public in the U.S. this year, according to a recent report published by the Entertainment Software Assocation, a U.S. gaming industry trade group. ESA based its findings on a study of 2,200 U.S. households.
"We see a big and fast increase in female players, over all genres," Fredrik Rundqvist, a games producer at Ubisoft SA's Massive Entertainment studio, told The Wall Street Journal.
The number of women playing video games has increased by 8 percent since 2010. Women over 18 years old also make up a larger portion of gamers than boys under 18.
A Nielsen study found female gamers tend to play on personal computers, mobile devices and Nintendo's Wii console. Women are more likely to use the Wii than men, and equally as likely to play on Apple products.
Female fans and those working in the industry also attribute the rise in women gamers to more female protagonists in the games.
"In a lot of ways, it was the perfect storm for change," Jessica Chobot, a writer for the Zombie Studios game "Daylight," told CNN. "The gaming industry's awareness of having to appeal to a wider audience - one that included women - has been reflected with the addition of stronger female characters."
Other growing trends, like casual mobile gaming and couples play, have spurred female gaming. The former includes games like King Digital's "Candy Crush Saga" and the new "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" game developed by Glu Mobile.
Couples play is a development that Ubisoft executive Alain Corre has seen in recent studies, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"We've done some studies on this and, interestingly, we notice that many couples seem to be playing games like 'Assassin's Creed' together," Corre said. "So while a game like Ubisoft's' Assassin's Creed' is predominantly purchased by males, it isn't necessarily played [just] by guys."
"Assassin's Creed" came under fire from female users earlier this year when it scrapped the option to play as a female character in a new game due out this fall, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company said it would take too much production work to introduce the female character, but it did add the non-playing Templar warrior Elise to the game.
Ubisoft has told media it will feature more diverse lead characters in future games, but did not provide specifics.
