Open Access

Daniel Görlich, Max Wagner, Markus Breuer

• Unfortunately, sexism and sexual harassment are common in both private online gaming and professional esports. It has been repeatedly questioned whether the operators of multiplayer games, platforms and esports leagues are taking sufficient measures to adequately protect users, players, children, young gamers, and esports athletes. When measures are taken, such as censoring sexist or offensiveUnfortunately, sexism and sexual harassment are common in both private online gaming and professional esports. It has been repeatedly questioned whether the operators of multiplayer games, platforms and esports leagues are taking sufficient measures to adequately protect users, players, children, young gamers, and esports athletes. When measures are taken, such as censoring sexist or offensive chat messages or banning users, they tend to be undifferentiated. This may be partly due to a lack of surveys, studies, and data. This paper therefore presents the results of two consecutive studies using the games Overwatch and Valorant, two of the world’s most popular multiplayer first-person shooters which are also played professionally in esports leagues. Participant observations were conducted on 28 Overwatch and Valorant game sessions in a first study and 120 Valorant game sessions in a second one. These sessions’ voice chats were transcribed, coded, and statistically evaluated. The results indicate that female gamers are harassed in every seventh Valorant game, ranging from questions about their gender to unsolicited affection to threats of or jokes about rape.…