While participation of women in esports is booming across the globe, equitable and safe spaces to compete are lacking. Almost half of gamers worldwide identify as female, and yet, within the professional esports sphere, women make up just a fraction of online teams. In research shared exclusively with the BBC last year, the top 300 esports earners were entirely male-dominated. Just a tiny amount of the millions in prize money worldwide is being won by women.
By expanding its HER Galaxy esports platform into North America, gaming and esports giant, Galaxy Racer, wants to redress that balance.
Expansion Into The World’s Biggest Gaming Market
The world’s biggest esports, gaming, and lifestyle organization is expanding its presence in the US by creating a foundation to support women-identifying esports talent. The aim? To empower women to thrive in one of the biggest gaming markets in the world, and shift the culture of esports to become safer and more inclusive.
Newly-appointed North America CEO, Akemi Sue Fisher says, “48% of gamers in the US identify as women, and yet they only make up 1% professional esports players and just 5% of the esports workforce. It’s our mission to change that. We have hugely talented women players emerging into the esports scene. We’re here to support their exponential growth.”
HER Galaxy will initially do this by creating a grassroots, inclusive ecosystem that will close the gender gap for women-identifying US gamers. Fisher explains, “We’ll be leveling up the resources available to female players, offering sponsorship opportunities, representation, and women-only tournaments that provide a clear path to professional status.”
Providing Safe Spaces For Women Online
In doing so, HER Galaxy is creating safe, empowering online spaces for women-identifying gamers to develop their professional talents. This includes a multi-platform tournament series and a foundation to support women’s esport talents in the region.
“The North American expansion of HER Galaxy is all about making the esports space an environment that welcomes and encourages women to rise to victory.” Says Akemi Sue Fisher, “We’ll be fostering the creation of all-women pro teams and providing a safe platform in which they can compete and grow as gamers.”
The work is inspired by Galaxy Racer’s previous initiatives to empower women gamers worldwide, including its support of La Ligue Feminine esports tournament in France and its sponsorship of other global female esports teams.
It has also been championing women gaming stars, signing up YouTube sensation Noor Stars and Fortnite streamer Anne “Mamabenjyfishy” to promote inclusivity in the gaming community.
Funding Female Participation
A large part of HER Galaxy’s empowerment initiatives involve providing women teams with access to the same levels of funding and cash prizes that their male counterparts enjoy. The HER Galaxy Foundation will be giving significant grants to four all-women esports teams across multiple platforms, to cover salaries for five players, a team coach, and support for travel, PR, marketing, and branding.
Akemi Sue Fisher continues, “What we are doing is offering an unmatched opportunity for growth for female teams. Essentially, we’re directly addressing the problem by creating an entire women’s esports ecosystem. We’ll be including a multi-platform tournament series for three sports games titles, with unprecedented prize pools, and quarterly offline events for the top teams to showcase their skills.”
For Akemi Sue Fisher, resolving the inequities in gaming to encourage more women to compete is her primary focus. “Upcoming female players bring new competitive elements into existing competitions – which makes this an exciting opportunity not just for female players but the whole esports community to evolve to the next level. I can’t wait to meet the hopeful female teams we can help launch into the professional esports area.”
