A major new report from Women in Games has revealed an imbalance at the heart of the global games industry: while women now make up around half of all players, they remain significantly underrepresented in leadership, ownership and investment opportunities.
The report, The Drop-Off: Women in Games from Players to Power and Capital – Funding and Investment Data Gaps in the Games Industry, explores how women’s representation steadily declines as influence, decision-making power and access to funding increase.
It also highlights a critical lack of gender-specific investment data, making it difficult to accurately measure and address inequality across the sector.
Written by Women in Games CEO Dr Marie-Claire Isaaman, the report examines available industry data alongside broader UK and international investment research. Its findings suggest that the challenges facing women in games mirror those seen across the wider technology and venture capital landscape.
From Players to Power: Where Are the Women?
The report identifies three key issues:
- Women’s representation decreases significantly at senior leadership, ownership and investment levels.
- Women continue to receive a disproportionately small share of investment and funding.
- The games industry lacks consistent gender-disaggregated reporting, creating major blind spots around who receives capital and who benefits from growth opportunities.
While progress has been made in increasing women’s participation in gaming itself, as well as the games workforce, Women in Games argues that access to power, funding and strategic influence has not kept pace.
The Investment Gap
Research referenced in the report highlights a pattern. Data from organisations including the British Business Bank and PitchBook shows that all-female founding teams receive approximately 2% of UK equity investment. Even among investors actively working to improve diversity outcomes, this figure rises to only around 5%.
Women in Games notes that there is currently no evidence suggesting the games industry performs differently from these broader investment trends. However, because the sector does not routinely collect or publish gender-based investment data, the true scale of the disparity remains unclear.
According to the report, this lack of transparency represents more than a reporting issue. It has implications for innovation, talent retention, business growth and the long-term sustainability of the industry.
Why Transparency Matters
The publication comes at a time of increasing discussion around games industry investment, including the UK Government’s recently announced £30 million Games Growth Package.
Women in Games argues that as governments, investors and regulators take a greater interest in the sector, improving transparency around funding and ownership will become increasingly important. Better data would not only support fairness and accountability but also help strengthen trust, credibility and resilience across the industry.
Dr Marie-Claire Isaaman said: “The industry does not lack evidence of inequality – it lacks visibility on who controls and receives funding and investment. Without that transparency, progress is limited.
“We can measure players. We can partially measure workforce participation. But when we look at who receives investment, who scales businesses, and who gains access to funding and capital, visibility drops away almost entirely.”
She added that innovation and economic growth depend on the industry’s ability to draw on the widest possible pool of talent, warning that continued reliance on established funding pathways risks limiting the sector’s future potential.
To address these challenges, Women in Games is calling for industry-wide action, including:
- Transparent reporting of funding and investment by gender
- Standardised data collection across the games industry
- Greater accountability in capital allocation
- Independent monitoring and benchmarking of investment outcomes
The organisation believes that improving visibility around funding and investment is a necessary step towards creating a more equitable and sustainable games industry.
The full report, The Drop-Off: Women in Games from Players to Power and Capital, is available here.
