The Drop-Off: Women in Games from Players to Power and Capital
The Drop-Off: Women in Games from Players to Power and Capital
The Drop-Off: Women in Games from Players to Power and Capital – Funding & Investment Data Gaps in the Games Industry
A major new Insight Report published by not-for-profit organisation Women in Games is asking key questions about power, investment and accountability across the global games industry:
Who receives funding and public investment?
Who scales into leadership and ownership?
And how can the industry measure fairness, growth and effectiveness if much of this data is not being collected?
The report, The Drop-Off: Women in Games from Players to Power and Capital – Funding and Investment Data Gaps in the Games Industry, identifies three clear findings:
- Women’s representation steadily declines as influence, leadership and access to capital increase.
- Women remain significantly underrepresented in company ownership, executive leadership and investment allocation.
- The industry lacks consistent gender-disaggregated funding and investment data, making inequality difficult to properly measure, evaluate or address.
- While women now make up around half of all players and a growing proportion of the games workforce, the report argues that they remain largely excluded from the structures that shape ownership, funding and strategic decision-making within the sector.
The report was developed in response to growing discussion around games industry investment and public funding, including the UK Government’s recently announced £30 million Games Growth Package. However, the findings point to a broader international issue extending far beyond the UK alone.
Drawing on all currently available games industry data, the analysis also references wider UK and global funding and investment evidence due to the absence of consistent gender-disaggregated reporting across the sector – revealing a clear and persistent pattern of inequality.
According to data from the British Business Bank, PitchBook and other major investment trackers:
- All-female founder teams receive approximately 2% of UK equity investment
- Even among organisations actively working to improve outcomes, this rises only to around 5%
- Similar patterns are consistently seen across global venture capital and technology investment markets
Women in Games says there is currently no evidence suggesting the games industry performs differently from these wider investment trends – but because the sector does not consistently report or track gender investment data, the true scale of the disparity remains largely invisible.
Women in Games argues that the absence of transparent data is not simply a reporting gap, but a structural issue with implications for innovation, talent retention, investment efficiency and long-term industry growth.
And as governments and regulators take increasing interest in the sector, greater visibility around funding, investment and ownership will be important not only for fairness, but for building industry credibility, trust and long-term resilience. Women in Games argues that proactive transparency and accountability offer a stronger path forward than reactive regulation.
The report calls for urgent industry-wide action, including:
- Transparent reporting of funding and investment by gender
- Standardised data collection across the games industry
- Greater accountability in how capital is distributed
- Independent monitoring and benchmarking of investment outcomes