Are women actually worse at esports – or is it just the money?

Ladies make up virtually half of the world’s gaming inhabitants, but they maintain solely about 5% of aggressive {and professional} roles in esports. The hole turns into much more jarring on the higher echelons, when the highest-earning women in esports don’t even crack the highest 600 all-time earners checklist.

Whereas female-only tournaments have grown considerably, boasting mixed prize swimming pools of over $3 million, they nonetheless solely signify a fraction of what the broader esports scene pays out. So what’s the rationale behind this hole? Is it merely a distinction in ability, or do alternative, funding, and visibility additionally play a task?

On this article, we take a more in-depth have a look at what current research and esports knowledge can inform us about efficiency, prize cash, and viewership – and whether or not ability alone can realistically clarify the big hole between female and male esports gamers.

Let’s begin with cash, because it’s essentially the most seen measure. As of Aug. 14, 2026, Esports Earnings knowledge present that the highest 40 highest-paid males have pulled in a mixed $168.27 million in event winnings, in contrast with about $4.11 million for the comparable group of prime feminine gamers.

That works out to roughly $4.21 million in prize cash per male participant versus about $100,188 per feminine participant – a niche of greater than 42 instances. Nonetheless, an particularly fascinating statistic could be discovered additional down the rankings.

Canadian StarCraft II participant Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn, the highest-earning girl with $472,111 in lifetime earnings, at present sits at #651 total. Now, this rating doesn’t make Scarlett’s profession much less spectacular. What it as a substitute highlights is simply how concentrated the most important prize swimming pools have been amongst male rivals.

The earnings hole makes much more sense after contemplating that female-only esports signify a a lot smaller share of the esports calendar.

In 2024, Esports Charts recorded greater than 6,700 esports tournaments, however women-only occasions accounted for simply 3% of the whole ecosystem. Solely 15 esports titles hosted ladies’s tournaments in any respect, and in most of these titles, they represented slightly below 5% of the aggressive calendar.

In our 2025 report on women in esports, we appeared extra intently on the three video games with arguably essentially the most established ladies’s scenes. Even there, the disparity was hanging.

VALORANT was comfortably the strongest instance: women-only competitions represented 23.9% of its tournaments and 13.8% of its whole prize pool. In Cellular Legends: Bang Bang, these figures fell to 11.7% and 9.1%, whereas Counter-Strike accounted for simply 5.3% of tournaments and a couple of.7% of prize cash.

Observe: These statistics are derived from Esports Charts and replicate tournaments particularly reserved for ladies, slightly than mixed-gender competitions.

The disparity turns into much more pronounced after we have a look at viewership.

Regardless of VALORANT having essentially the most developed ladies’s esports scene, its women-only tournaments accounted for under 5.6% of whole watch time in 2024. That quantity dropped to 1.3% for MLBB and solely 0.2% for Counter-Strike. Throughout the whole women’s esports ecosystem, viewership fell by 26% that yr.

This issues as a result of prize cash doesn’t exist in isolation.

Bigger audiences make tournaments extra commercially worthwhile to publishers, sponsors, and organizers, thereby supporting extra profitable prize swimming pools and extra occasions. Alternatively, smaller audiences can go away ladies’s competitions preventing for funding even when aggressive constructions exist already.

In fact, event winnings aren’t the identical as salaries, so these figures don’t essentially show that female and male gamers are being paid otherwise for doing the identical job. Prize earnings are formed by the video games gamers compete in, the tournaments out there to them, qualification techniques, prize swimming pools, and the way lengthy they continue to be on the prime.

Nonetheless, the numbers reveal one thing a lot broader than a easy earnings hole. Feminine gamers usually have fewer tournaments to enter, a smaller share of the out there prize cash, and considerably smaller audiences at these competitions.

That naturally raises a a lot more durable query: can variations in participant efficiency actually clarify disparities of this dimension?

A 2026 study printed in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications appeared on the relationship between gender, efficiency, viewership, and prize cash in Counter-Strike.

The researchers in contrast participant knowledge from the ESL Impact League, an elite women-only Counter-Strike league, with that of a comparable males’s league. They used HLTV match data and Twitch viewership knowledge throughout 40 tournaments and over 3,000 particular person participant performances.

One measure utilized by the researchers was kill-to-death ratio, or KD. The common male KD was 1.02, in contrast with 0.97 for females, reflecting a small however statistically significant distinction within the dataset.

Importantly, female and male gamers competed in separate leagues towards completely different opponents, so these averages don’t point out that males have been merely “5% higher” at Counter-Strike. It’s because KD measures relative efficiency, not absolute ability, throughout fully separate aggressive constructions.

What turns into extra fascinating, although, is what lies behind these efficiency numbers.

After statistically accounting for efficiency, the researchers discovered that ladies’s matches obtained about 4.7 million fewer common views per match than males’s. Furthermore, taking part in properly didn’t repay the identical approach for each teams: stronger efficiency translated into extra views and extra prize cash for males much more reliably than it did for ladies.

This means that even when ladies carry out properly, their efficiency doesn’t generate the identical business reward because it does within the males’s ecosystem.

Think about two gamers producing equally spectacular performances throughout a event. One performs in entrance of thousands and thousands of viewers, whereas the opposite performs in entrance of a fraction of that viewers. The primary participant is of course extra seen to followers, organizations, and sponsors, making their competitors a extra commercially worthwhile product.

That may create a self-reinforcing cycle: efficiency brings consideration, consideration creates alternatives, and people alternatives present extra probabilities to carry out. Because of this, the query begins to shift from whether or not there’s a gender ability hole as to if ladies have the identical basis to develop and revenue from ability within the first place.

This sounds apparent, however it adjustments the query. As a substitute of asking solely why there aren’t extra ladies on the prime, it’s price asking what occurs to gamers on the best way there. Analysis on ladies in gaming repeatedly factors to the position of the surroundings.

A 2021 research by Reach3 Insights and Lenovo surveyed 900 ladies avid gamers throughout america, China, and Germany. It discovered that 77% had skilled frustration associated to their gender whereas gaming. Essentially the most generally reported experiences included judgments about ability, gatekeeping, and patronizing feedback.

Maybe essentially the most hanging quantity is that 59% of respondents mentioned they used a non-gendered or male id whereas taking part in on-line to keep away from battle. Think about spending hours training your goal, studying utility lineups, or reviewing VODs, solely to determine that the most secure method to play is to ensure your teammates don’t know you’re a girl.

Now, that doesn’t imply harassment straight causes ladies to give up esports. Nonetheless, it exhibits that the expertise of collaborating in gaming areas can differ considerably by gender. And that distinction issues.

If somebody turns into much less keen to make use of voice chat, take part in aggressive communities, or spend hours grinding ranked video games because of a hostile or toxic esports environment, it’s cheap to ask whether or not these adjustments may have an effect on the pipeline lengthy earlier than anyone really reaches the skilled stage.

By the point we examine skilled gamers, we could already be trying on the survivors of two very completely different paths.

That is one motive ladies’s esports leagues exist within the first place.

VALORANT Game Changers and the now-defunct ESL Affect weren’t created just because ladies can’t play towards males. As a substitute, these circuits present further aggressive pathways for feminine gamers to compete, construct groups, achieve expertise, and change into extra seen to audiences and organizations.

Higher nonetheless, there’s some proof that this method can really assist.

A 2023 research by Nolla and colleagues discovered that novice ladies avid gamers had higher outcomes in women-only tournaments than in mixed-gender ones. The ladies who competed in these occasions gave extra correct estimates of their very own ability and reported better activity significance.

The researchers prompt that women-only tournaments may due to this fact assist with recruitment and retention, whereas nonetheless present alongside mixed-gender competitors.

Making a aggressive pathway is one problem, however making it financially sustainable is one other. ESL Affect proved simply how tough that may be.

After three years of working a structured ladies’s Counter-Strike circuit, ESL announced that it would suspend the league, citing an unsustainable financial mannequin. Nonetheless, that was not as a result of there have been no audiences for ladies’s esports.

Esports Charts recorded a 7.9% decline in whole watch time in 2025, whereas the variety of ladies’s occasions fell by a a lot bigger 52%. Regardless of there being significantly fewer tournaments, common concurrent viewership really elevated.

VALORANT Sport Changers pulled in 6.3 million hours watched, round 45 instances greater than ESL Affect. In the meantime, the MLBB women’s tournament on the 2023 SEA Video games stays the only most-watched ladies’s esports occasion ever recorded, reaching 1.3 million peak viewers.

The issue, then, just isn’t merely whether or not folks will watch ladies’s esports. The harder query is whether or not these audiences can change into giant and constant sufficient to help leagues, groups, gamers, and event organizers yr after yr.

That’s particularly essential as a result of as soon as these competitions disappear, the results lengthen past the event itself. Fewer leagues imply fewer roster spots, fewer alternatives for upcoming gamers, and fewer probabilities for these gamers to change into seen sufficient to succeed in the following stage.

General, the analysis doesn’t give us a easy reply as to if ladies are inherently higher or worse at esports.

The 2026 Counter-Strike research discovered a small however statistically vital distinction in common KD. However as a result of these gamers competed in separate leagues towards completely different opposition, there are clear limits to what that KD distinction can inform us about relative ability. What we will examine extra clearly is the size of the ecosystems surrounding these gamers.

Within the research, males’s matches attracted roughly 31 instances as many common views, whereas common event prize cash was virtually 5 instances greater. These variations remained substantial even after the researchers statistically accounted for participant efficiency.

That also doesn’t show gender explains each distinction in esports, although. Expertise, competitors depth, recreation choice, event constructions, viewers dimension, and entry to alternatives can all affect the numbers. However it makes one conclusion tough to disregard: ability alone can’t clarify a niche this huge.

For a participant attempting to succeed in the highest, being “good” is barely the start. They want tournaments to enter, groups keen to signal them, robust competitors to enhance towards, audiences to look at, and organizations keen to maintain investing.

Ladies-only leagues may help construct that pathway, however in addition they want ample business help to outlive. In the end, the query will not be whether or not ladies are ok for esports. It might be whether or not sufficient of them are ever given the identical alternative to search out out.

Editorial be aware: This text interprets peer-reviewed analysis for a common esports viewers. Each effort has been made to signify the research precisely, however the findings ought to be learn inside the limitations of the unique analysis, together with small samples, differing strategies, and restricted proof.