No. Girls don’t have it easy on Twitch.
One common and stereotypical saying in the gaming community is that “girls have it easy.” on Twitch. Many of such discussions define “have it easy” merely with viewership growth of an individual or a small group of the female streamer, while the reality is much complex. Unfortunately, initial viewership growth is not the only obstacle in women’s streaming career. This summer, many female streamers stood up and revealed the long-existing sexism in the industry. They spoke of harassment from viewers, fellow male streamers, and management. This time, their voice is being heard. Twitch is responding with action. However, the struggle between gender identity and streaming career roots deep in the industry and may remain to be a shadow over many female streamer’s paths.
The hidden gender
With the above discussion in mind, let’s also take a look at the reality of female streamers in numbers. Aayush Mishra provided an open dataset containing top 1000 streamers who streamed in the year of 2019 on Twitch. While the dataset provides detailed information regarding viewerships, followers, growth, stream time and other aspects of the top 1000 streamer channels, it contains no information on the gender of the streamer. Meanwhile, gender is also absent in Twitch API and other Twitch monitoring websites. It seems that gender is invisible in most of the available sources. Therefore the gender information used here is hand-coded by the author. As a result of this time-consuming coding process, this article only focuses on the top 485 English speaking channels.
Gender difference in viewer, follower and income.
Among the top 485 English speaking streaming channels, 382 of which are male streamers, 72 are streamer groups or organisations, and only 26 are female streamers. Even though “Game is not just for boys”, there are not many female streamers who made it to the top in 2019. The male streamer is still the dominating group in Twitch streaming industry.
But how well do these 26 female streamers perform in terms of the average amount of viewers over the year 2019? From the provided data, it is clear that female streamers have the least viewers on average. The streamer groups and e-sport tournament organisations attract the most attention on Twitch. Ranked the 3rd, male streamers still have relatively higher average viewers in comparison with that of the female.
The interesting fact is that female streamer has the most followers on average. However, this high number of followers doesn’t transform into viewership as women have the least amount of average viewers. More importantly, though the follower number looks good, it doesn’t necessarily transform into income.
The income of Twitch streamer comes from subscribers, advertisement, sponsorship, merchandises, and donations. And the number of viewers is closely related to revenue from donations, sponsorship and advertisement. On the other hand, the number of followers doesn’t directly bring income to the channel. Following is different from subscribing. It is completely free. Therefore, even though women seem to attract more followers, it does not bring them profits. Regarding the income of streamers, PayPal’s gaming insight report of 2018 suggests a huge pay gap between man and women in the industry: 47% of women don’t get paid for the content while the number for men is 24%.
“However, despite the explosion of viewership and customers’ willingness to spend, almost half of women content creators (43% globally, 47% in the U.S.) don’t get paid for what they create. The U.S. had the largest gender pay gap of the countries surveyed: almost half as many men (24%) do not get paid for content they create.” (Reported by PayPal 2018 Gaming Insights)
Difference in number of viewers: Is it because women stream less?
Many factors could affect the number of viewers. The gender of the streamer is not the only one. For example, how long do these streamers stream? And how many followers do they have (as followers will receive a streaming notification)?
The important question to ask here is, would man and women have the same amount of viewership if they have the same amount of followers and stream time?
With a regression model, we can see how much the streamer’s gender affects the number of viewers while holding followers and stream time constant. The result of such an analysis shows that male streamer would have 31% more average viewers compared to the female streamer. Therefore, the difference in viewership is not simply because women don’t stream enough for their followers.
The difference in the number of viewers: Is it because woman and man play different games?
The game content is another deciding factor that could influence the number of viewers. Therefore, let’s take a closer look at what game content the most popular three female streamers and three male streamers played on Twitch. In 2019, the top 3 female streamers are Pokimane, Lilypichu, and 39daph, with an average viewership of 9399. The top 3 male streamers are Asmongold, Keemstar, and Shroud, with an average viewership of 35786.
The Twitch monitoring website SullyGnome provided an overlook of all the games they have streamed in the past year. From the table below, we can see great similarity in the common streamed games between man and women. They all streamed the most popular games in the past year, such as Fall Guys, Minecraft, and Among Us.
Though with great similarity, man and woman do stream a bit differently. The top 3 female streamers stream more diversely. They streamed 104 different games while the top 3 male streamers streamed only 48 in the past year. Also, a “stereotypical” gender difference shows up in the gaming content. The female streamers all streamed Just Chatting, while the male streamers all streamed the classic shooting game, Call of Duty.
Being a female streamer in the male-dominated gaming industry is tough. It is difficult for women to make it to the top. Not only do women have to deal with the long-existing sexism, but also the difficulty to transform their large follower base to actual viewership. The reasons behind such difficulty need further discussion. But it appears that both the streaming time and the game content are not the key issue.
Note:
- The idea for further analysis. First, it would be more interesting and valid if one could take a look at the game contents in higher aggregated levels. Second, interviews with female streamers will definitely provide more information to the story.
- Limitation. First, the datasets are all collected by third parties through the Twitch API. The data collection process in unknown to me and there might be inaccuracies. Second, I hand-coded the top 485 English speaking streamers. I tried my best to be accurate and have double-checked. But there may be mistakes.
- Intended outlet and audience. Magazines, newspapers or online platforms that discuss gender equality, technology, and the gaming community.