Female Representation in Major Sports Video Games is Finally Making the Cut, But it is Still a Challenge to Score Equality On and Off the Screen

By: Hanna Lambert*                                                                         Posted: 3/28/2024

Women’s soccer had a historic year in 2023: the Women’s World Cup was expanded to include thirty-two teams, broadcast viewership of the Women’s World Cup broke records in numerous countries, World Cup attendees broke ticket sale records in New Zealand twice, and European women’s club teams and women’s teams that competed in the 2022 and 2023 FIFA World Cup were included in EA’s newest release of the FIFA video game.[1]  With the expansion of the FIFA video game to include more women’s teams and the inclusion of women’s teams across all playing modes within the videogame, the visibility of female players is heightened and commercial opportunities for women are expanded like never before.[2]  While equivalent games for the NBA, NHL, and MLB have recently included women, the limited game modes available to play as women’s teams limits the avenues of exposure and commercial opportunities necessary to grow viewership of women’s sports.[3]

The Slow, But Steady Inclusion of Women’s Teams in Professional Sports Video Game Adaptations

Among the earliest to allow players to compete with both women’s and men’s teams, the NBA “2K20” video game provided players an opportunity to play with both NBA and WNBA teams in select game modes.[4]  The NHL video game followed two years later when EA Sports updated to the game’s software to include women’s teams competing in the Hockey World Championship among the options for players to compete with.[5]  FIFA implemented the most robust and broad overhaul of any video game, mimicking a professional sports league with the release of FIFA 23.[6]  In the new updates for the 2023 version of the FIFA video game, EA Sports added European women’s club teams and women’s teams competing in the 2023 Women’s World Cup as options for game players to utilize in all game modes.[7]  The latest video game inspired by a professional sport to include female athletes as options for players is “MLB The Show.”[8]  Not only will players of the 2024 version of MLB The Show be able to play as a female baseball player, the game’s developers have shared that the journey a gamer playing as the female character option will undergo to get to the big leagues is specifically crafted to reflect the struggles and frustrations felt by female baseball players.[9]  Of all games offering players an opportunity to compete as a female athlete or female team, the most expansive and inclusive game is FIFA 23 (and its successor, FIFA 24): it allows players to play as women in each of the game modes offered, as opposed to only allowing players to utilize female teams during certain, separate game modes.[10]

Expanding Visibility and Commercial Opportunities for Female Professional Athletes

By increasing visibility and recognition of female players, increased value for athletes can be translated to economic and financial opportunities like brand sponsorships or partnerships.[11]  Researchers contend that a lack of visibility and awareness surrounding women’s sports and athletic competitions results in low viewership and ultimately, lower pay and sponsorship opportunities.[12]  Currently, the video games modeled off of the NHL, MLB, and NBA do not allow players the opportunity to play as female athletes or teams during all game modes.[13]

Looking specifically at FIFA 23, the game helps to solve the visibility and exposure problems common with women’s sports, as it provides players an avenue to see how the women’s teams perform on their own terms during any game mode of their choosing.[14]  FIFA 23 had over 10.3 million players within the first week alone, and assuming that many of the FIFA video game players playing that first week were unfamiliar with women’s players or teams, the women included in FIFA 23 were just exposed to over 10 million possible new fans just by way of inclusion within the game.[15]  To emphasize the possible impact of the mere inclusion of women, after the first year of inclusion of women’s teams in the FIFA video game, the Women’s World Cup broke multiple records for broadcast viewership and ticket sales.[16]  While inclusion of women in some game modes of all major video games emulating the major league sports leagues is major progress from even two years ago, women’s leagues and individual teams should continue to fight for visibility and equality both on the court and the screen.

*Staff Writer, Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal, J.D. Candidate, May 2025, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law.

[1] See Russell Lewis, The Women's World Cup Expanded to 32 Teams This Year. Has the Quality Suffered?, NPR (July 23, 2023, 7:01 AM), https://www.npr.org/2023/07/23/1189634000/fifa-womens-world-cup-expanded-to-32-teams-new-zealand-australia (discussing historic increase in participation for Women’s World Cup); see also Staggering Statistics Demonstrate FIFA Women’s World Cup™ Growth, Inside FIFA(Aug. 4, 2023, 4:15 AM), https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/australia-new-zealand2023/media-releases/staggering-statistics-demonstrate-fifa-womens-world-cup-tm-growth (discussing record-breaking year for Women’s World Cup); see also Steve Dent, EA’s Last FIFA Game is Finally Making Women’s Soccer a Priority, Engadget (July 21, 2022), https://www.engadget.com/eas-last-fifa-game-is-finally-making-womens-soccer-a-priority-071056253.html (discussing expansion of women’s teams inclusion in newest FIFA video game release).

[2] See Andy Marston, In The Game: How Ultimate Team Inclusion is Driving Women’s Football Forward, Sports Pundit (Nov. 28, 2023), https://sportspundit.substack.com/p/in-the-game-how-ultimate-team-inclusion (explaining benefits of women’s inclusion in all FIFA 23 game modes).

[3] See Kevin Webb, The WNBA's Inclusion in the World's Most Popular Basketball Video Game Will Dramatically Change the Perception of Women in Sports, Bus. Insider (Oct.11, 2019, 6:12 PM), https://www.businessinsider.com/wnba-nba-2k20-womens-sports-video-games-2019-10  (discussing improvements and additions made to include women in NBA 2K20 video game); see also Julian McKenzie, Why EA Sports NHL Decided to Add Women’s Players to NHL 22: ‘Seeing It to be It’, Athletic (Jan. 28, 2022), https://theathletic.com/3086283/2022/01/28/why-ea-sports-nhl-decided-to-add-womens-players-to-nhl-22-seeing-it-to-be-it/ (discussing addition of women’s players and teams to specific NHL video game modes); see also Orlando Mayorquin, Baseball Video Game Will Include Women for the First Time, N. Y. Times (Mar. 7, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/07/sports/baseball/mlb-the-show-24-women-players.html (discussing additional game mode developed to include women).

[4] See Webb, supra note 3 (explaining that NBA 2K20’s inclusion of women is most expansive yet, but still forces players to play in separate game mode to use WNBA players).

[5] See McKenzie, supra note 3  (discussing women’s inclusion in NHL video game).

[6] See generally Dent, supra note 1 (discussing lack of separate game modes and availability for players to play with numerous female teams).

[7] See id. (discussing expansive inclusion of women in FIFA 23 and game-makers’ decision to add rosters of English club teams and World Cup Teams for utilization in regular game mode, and option for individual utilization of female players from aforementioned team rosters for Ultimate Team mode).

[8] See Mayorquin, supra note 3 (discussing game developer’s decision to include separate game modes where players can play as female baseball players).

[9] See id. (discussing addition of women’s game mode to reflect unique challenges and journeys related to being female baseball player).  In designing this new game mode highlighting female baseball players, Sony game developers solicited input from Veronica Alvarez and her players on the U.S.A Baseball Women’s National Team to ensure that the game accurately depicts what it is like to be a female baseball player and the deep-seeded gender norms associated with attempting to play professional or college baseball as a woman.  See id. (explaining inspiration behind introduction of new game mode for “MLB The Show”).

[10] See Dent, supra note 1 (explaining that women’s inclusion took central role for development of FIFA 23); see also Mayorquin, supra note 8 (explaining that game mode allowing players to play as female baseball players is separate game mode).  FIFA 24, the newly released and updated version of the FIFA video game not only allows players to choose to play with women’s teams in matches against other players, but also has opted to include women as options for players to add to their “ultimate teams,” which are fantasy all-star teams built from players of the game-player’s choosing.  See Wesley Yin-Poole, EA’s Message to People Upset Women Can Play With Men in FC 24 Ultimate Team: Kick off Mode is Right There, IGN (July 18, 2023, 11:00 AM), https://www.ign.com/articles/eas-message-to-people-upset-women-can-play-with-men-in-fc-24-ultimate-team-kick-off-mode-is-right-there# (explaining that EA executives and game-makers “felt strongly about using their game to promote women’s football” and advocated for inclusion of female players and teams in all game modes).

[11] See Leonard Armato, The Power of Athletes to Become Media Companies and Transform the Game, Forbes (May 31, 2023, 12:21 PM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/leonardarmato/2023/05/31/unleashing-the-power-of-athlete-media-companies-how-todays-athletes-are-transforming-the-game/?sh=4ac375be5a68 (discussing relationship between athlete visibility and recognition, and financial opportunity).

[12] See Visibility and Leveling the Playing Field in Women’s Sports, Yellowbrick (Mar. 22, 2022), https://www.yellowbrick.co/blog/visibility-and-leveling-the-playing-field-in-womens-sports (explaining “the chicken and the egg” problem of women’s sports and viewership as paradoxical issue in which “[n]etworks don’t show more women’s programming because people don’t want to watch women’s programming. However, people don’t watch women’s programming because they’re unaware that it’s even there.”).

[13] For further discussion of the limited game modes in which female players or teams are available as players of the NBA, NHL and MLB video games, see supra note 3 and accompanying text.

[14] See Marston, supra note 2 (explaining importance of FIFA 23 including women players and teams as option in all existing game modes).

[15] See Tom Phillips, FIFA 23 Had Series’ Largest Ever Number of Players at Launch, Eurogamer (Oct. 13, 2022), https://www.eurogamer.net/fifa-23-had-series-largest-ever-number-of-players-at-launch (discussing record breaking 10.3 million players of FIFA 23 during first week of its release).

[16] See Staggering Statistics Demonstrate FIFA Women’s World Cup™ Growth, supra note 1 (discussing broadcast viewership and ticket sales numbers of 2023 Women’s World Cup).  FIFA reported the broadcasting records shattered by country as follows: Australia had 2.16 million people watch the final group stage match, making it the largest World Cup audience since the Men’s World Cup in 2014; New Zealand saw 1.88 million viewers streaming the country’s final group stage match, which is higher than any World Cup audience on record; China PR’s match against England had 53.9 million viewers and gained the title for highest broadcast attendance across the globe; and FOX Sports USA and NBC Universal reported that 7.94 million people viewed the USA and Netherlands match-up, making it the most streamed “Group Stage match” in the country’s history.  See id. (emphasizing spike in viewership of Women’s World Cup across globe in 2023).  FIFA also reported that over 1.2 million fans attended the World Cup in person and that New Zealand’s record for most people in attendance for a soccer match was broken twice throughout the span of the tournament.  See id. (emphasizing in-person turnout and spike in attendance for Women’s World Cup in 2023).