Sexism is alive and nicely within the gaming industry inside the form of gender pay inequality, in line with a brand new document that famous the top 400 girls in eSports simplest earn barely 1/2 of what one male player makes from online game competitions. According to a record from eGaming Desk, the use of facts compiled from eSports Earnings, the expert gaming industry isn’t any distinct from any other enterprise wherein ladies look like paid significantly much less than their male opposite numbers. The maximum-paid expert male gamer is Johan “N0tail” Sunstein, a 25-12 months-antique Dota 2 player who has raked in a hefty sum of $6,889,591.Seventy-nine from gaming tournaments. However, as it seems the cumulative sum of the top 400 ladies in eSports’ earnings handiest provides as much as $3,030,000 – more than a few that is less than half of Sundstein’s total profits.
Can We Stop Being Weird About Gender in Video Games?
To compare, the best-paid expert girl gamer is Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn, a 25-12 months-antique StarCraft II participant who has won $333,456 thru competitions. Scarlett presently ranks at 329 in the listing of eSports experts. She is the simplest lady in the pinnacle 500 earners. The second-maximum earning girl gamer is Katherine “Mystik” Gunn, a 31-12 months-vintage Halo: Reach participant who has gained $122,000 from tournaments. Though these numbers are big sums, they are nothing in comparison to Sundsteins’ seven-figure earnings.
Even bleaker than this gender pay gap is the fact that Hostyn and Gunn are the most effective girl gamers presently earning over $one hundred,000 in video games; their fellow woman colleagues earn much less than six figures from aggressive gaming. In contrast, the pinnacle eighty maximum paid gamers – all male-identifying – earn seven-figure sums, much like Sunstein. Though there are extra factors at play contributing to this pay gap – Dota 2 tournaments frequently boast the very best prizes in eSports whilst StarCraft II’s winnings are humbler in contrast – the fact is still extremely discomforting and irritating. The information is specifically scary, for the reason that the latest reports monitor that lady gamers make up 45% of all U.S. Gamers and that 33% of the U.S. Gaming industry is produced from adult ladies. While it, sadly, doesn’t seem this information will change every time soon, bringing mild to this inequality can hopefully start a conversation about the gender pay inequality in the eSports industry.