88% Of LGBTQ+ Gamers Who Are Out To Their Gaming Communities Are Harassed

Highest-Earning LGBTQ+ Gamers

While determining the LGBTQ+ representation in esports, we discovered sexual orientation diversity is not a common topic of discussion, even though around 10% of gamers identify as LGBTQ+. Only a handful of top-earning gamers are prominently “out” to their communities due to toxicity towards sexual diversity. Sasha Hostyn, who is a top StarCraft II player and is openly transgender, has been subject to transphobia from some in the gaming community, among other LGBTQ+ gamers. 

Among the top 500 earners of 2020, we discovered that our LGBTQ+ gamers earned far less than straight gamers. James Eubanks, also known as “Clayster” to his Call of Duty squad, earned $365,000 in 2020. In contrast, Autumn Burchett, one of the top earners among our LGTQ+ gamers, earned $50,000. In terms of popularity, Burchett has less of a following compared to Eubanks (who has roughly 14 times the following of Burchett), whereas Dominique McLean may be the most socially influential LGBTQ+ player, with 166K followers.

According to a study from the Anti-Defamation League, 65% of all gamers have experienced “severe harassment” while playing online, regardless of their sexual orientation. LGBTQ+ gamers reported an even less inclusive environment online, where 73% of those surveyed had experienced harassment based on their sexual orientation. 

LGBTQ+ gamers were 21% more likely to be harassed online by the community than those who have not disclosed their sexual orientation. The subjects of these harassments are sometimes even violent. One in 4 respondents reported they had been threatened with sexual assault, with women and people identifying as nonbinary receiving this form of harassment at a rate 15% higher than men. LGBTQ+ women in our survey were also more than twice as likely to be harassed about their gaming skills than men.

The online gaming environment has led many LGBTQ+ gamers to take steps to avoid harassment online. Games like League of Legends have been reported as being particularly toxic environments for LGBTQ+ gamers, which could help explain why 41% of respondents avoided certain games and communities due to harassment. These experiences led 40% of LGBTQ+ to choose to forgo gaming online at all and 35% to lie about their sexual identity. 

Our study found that online gaming can be formative for gamers discovering their sexual identity; 45% of the LGBTQ+ gamers we surveyed said they discovered their sexual identity through gaming. Gen Xers were the most likely generation to have video games influence the discovery of their identity (58%), compared to only 20% of Generation Z respondents and 41% of millennials. 

The most supportive community for LGBTQ+ gamers, according to our respondents, was Animal Crossing, where 49% viewed it as supportive. The second-most supportive game was Call of Duty (27%); this was followed by Minecraft (26%). Animal Crossing has an active LGBTQ+ community of gamers, where some players coordinated a virtual pride week within the Animal Crossing: New Horizons universe. Animal Crossing allows gamers to choose their character’s style rather than choose their gender in order to be more open to different identities. If a game contains a queer storyline, 81% of LGBTQ+ gamers are more likely to buy it, according to our study. Games like Dragon Age have featured openly gay characters since 2015.

Our study shows that online gaming still has a significant problem with harassment, and half of LGBTQ+ gamers are still uncomfortable being open about their sexual identity with their gaming communities. But there is progress being made: Members of the LGBTQ+ community are garnering support online, as games like Animal Crossing provide LGBTQ+ gamers with a more inclusive environment and queer content starts to become more common. And while society as a whole may not be the supportive environment that sexually diverse gamers need, to many gamers, specific gaming communities are providing LGBTQ+ gamers support and friendship, as well as fun. With several games like Lore Finder and We Should Talk slated for release featuring LGBTQ+ characters, the gaming world, though still a work in progress, is seemingly moving toward inclusivity and diversity. 

We surveyed 788 respondents in order to explore LGBTQ+ community experiences in the video game community. We defined gamers by asking them the frequency in which they played video games and excluding anyone who played once a month or less. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 70. The mean age was 33.8 with a standard deviation of 10.9 years. 50% of our respondents identified as women, 47% identified as men, and 3% as nonbinary. We asked respondents to select their sexual orientation but allowed respondents to choose multiple. 58% of respondents were bisexual, 17% identified as lesbian, 16% as gay, 7% as queer, 6% as transgender, 5% as asexual, 2% as intersex, and 1% identified as another group including bicurious, pansexual, and demisexual. 

Survey data has certain limitations related to self-reporting. These limitations include telescoping, exaggeration, and selective memory. We didn’t weight our data or statistically test our hypotheses. This was a purely exploratory project that examines the experience of gamers in the LGBTQ+ community.