You might need to head to Australia to find them (Brian? Luke?). Or at least, that's where the sure bet is. A story in the Sydney Morning Herald last weekend cites figures showing 41 percent of gamers in Australia are women, and also 38 percent in the United States, both figures representing growth. The Herald also says that if the trend continues, it will be 1:1 guys/girls gaming by 2014.
In Oz, female gamers represent the largest growing sector of the population, although that's to be expected considering boys' long long history with games and the fact so many titles are written with male players in mind.
The story says that this comes mostly on the back of singing/music games, Wii titles, the Sims (EA says 60 percent of players are female) and games where violence and action is either nonexistent or not realistic. But for games there really isn't much that's comparable to the chick-flick segment in film.
Will that change? As the generation of girls who grew up with games gets older, will we see them eventually making the majority of entertainment choices in a relationship, much as they do with movies or rentals?
Game Girls [Sydney Morning Herald]