According to Sony, 41% of PlayStation console owners were female in 2020, up from 18% during the PS1 era and still growing. They didn't buy them as paper weights. The real equation for publishers isn't men vs women. It's insecure misogynists vs men AND women, as most regular, socially well-adjusted men are perfectly fine playing female characters, even unsexualised or not hyper-attractive ones. So if such a game is great and appealing to mass regular consumers, a publisher can lose thousands of sales from a vocal minority of beta losers, and still come out ahead. Most interested, normal men and women will still buy the game, and the publisher may also gain a few million additional female sales. That is partly how a new IP like Horizon Zero Dawn, whose female protagonist lonely beta males whinged was “ugly,” sold a staggering 24.3 million copies, with its sequel selling 8.4 million in roughly a single year. For context, Horizon Zero Dawn sold 68% more than the best-selling Halo and 305% more than the best-selling Gears of War. Comparing first-year sales, it also sold 153% more than Stellar Blade (on PS5 and PC combined) and 610% more than Bayonetta 3. Both the latter are great games with highly sexualized, attractive female protagonists. All figures above are based on last reported official figures, NOT estimates. It's also partly how Ghost of Yotei sold 3.3 million copies in a single month and sold faster than Ghost of Tsushima over the same period, despite launching on a smaller install base, lacking a COVID sales bump, and featuring a female protagonist that some insecure misogynists and weirdos bitched about. Yotei even outsold Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on PS5 in the US in 2025. Spider-Man 2 is the #2 best-selling PS5 game EVER in the US (out of more than 4,000 games), not even including bundled sales, again despite a great deal of vitriol about MJ and so called “anti-woke” complaints. The reality is that most regular, socially well-adjusted consumers, simply do not care about the things socially dysfunctional haters constantly whine about. Likewise, most regular REAL men are not insecure about strong women. Sources for data attached.