Over the last several decades, the conversation surrounding video games and diversity has been more pronounced. As the industry grows, it has faced more and more criticism for its lack of racial diversity in playable characters and its notable lack of playable female characters.

DiamondLobby recently conducted a study looking at how diverse contemporary video games are. Unsurprisingly, the study found that out of all video games released between 2017 and 2021, the vast majority of playable characters in them (66.5 percent) are male and more than half of them (61.2 percent) are white. Meanwhile, only 8.3 percent of preset characters are women or characters of Black, Asian or other ethnic origin. The study found that out of the 93 games that were taken into consideration, EA's Apex Legends is the most diverse.

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The free-to-play shooter offers a wider range of playable characters, with 50 percent being female, seven males and one non-binary character. 6 out of 17 characters in the roster are openly gay, bisexual or otherwise 'not straight' and half of the characters are Black, Asian or otherwise 'not white.'

The study was conducted in response to the reception of an art project by DiamondLobby, which reimagined iconic male video game characters such as Ezio Auditore, Master Chief and more, as women. Among the positive comments the project received, were negative ones arguing that there are enough female characters in video games. Most of them reportedly used Lara Croft, central protagonist of the Tomb Raider video game franchise, as an example. DiamondLobby writer Brittney Lin explained, "If you asked the general public to name any game with a female main character, the majority would say Tomb Raider. Many wouldn’t be able to name any more than that."

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Source: DiamondLobby