86% of Adult Gamers Experience Online Harassment—and It’s Getting Worse

Longstanding issues with rhetoric used in online gaming communities persists, as a new study(Opens in a new window) reports that 86% of adult gamers have experienced harassment, including trolling, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

That’s up 16% from 2019, when 74% of gamers reported being “harassed at all.” Other categories in the report include beging “called offensive names,” “personally embarrassed,” and “stalked,” among others. Instances of all increased from 2019 to 2022, the survey found.

The report was compiled by Casinos En Ligne(Opens in a new window), a French Canadian online-gambling company. It cites information from the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) 2022 report(Opens in a new window) on hate and harassment in gaming, which noted that 76% of gamers in the United States are over 18.

“The immense popularity of online games means it is likely that you or someone close to you has experienced hate and harassment,” says the ADL.

Regarding the table above (data courtesy of the Casino En Ligne report), the ADL defines doxing as “making personally identifying information public.” Swatting is “when a stranger makes a false report to emergency services to target someone.” Survey respondents report having their addresses and phone numbers leaked to a group of players online and police showing up at their doors under the false belief that the gamers are holding hostages.

“It’s clear there is a serious issue with hate and harassment in the online gaming sphere,” says a spokesperson from Casinos En Ligne. “The alarming rate at which levels are rising should be a warning to both game companies and communities.”

Increase in Identity-Based Harassment

Women and gamers identifying as African American reported staggering 44% and 47% jumps in harassment, respectively. Jewish online-multiplayer gamers experienced an even bigger spike in harassment, which increased 55% between 2019 and 2022, according to the ADL.

(Credit: Anti-Defamation League)

“I stupidly said I was Jewish, and they started the myth jokes,” reported one 42-year-old gamer. “People were saying the Holocaust didn’t happen,” said another respondent. “It was pretty upsetting, seeing as my ancestors went through the unfortunate event.”

Another respondent, a 20-year-old white Protestant male playing Call of Duty, said: “I was playing with some random people online, and they initiated a conversation about how other races are supposed to be slaves to the supreme white race.”

Most Problematic Games

The two games in which adult gamers are most likely to experience harassment are Counter Strike: Global Offensive (86% of players reported this game) and Valorant (84%), the study finds.

The total share of adults who reported experiencing harassment by game, according to the ADL:

Adults who experienced harassment in online gaming reported offline impacts such as feeling uncomfortable/upset (21%) and being less social (18%). It can cause them to quit playing certain games (33%) and try to play with different people (43%).

“Gamers are calling for game companies and platform owners to be held accountable for the hate and harassment that takes place in their space,” says Casinos En Ligne. “Gamers themselves can still play a role in reducing hate and harassment in online multiplayer games, whether it’s through reporting incidents of hate, avoiding certain players, or calling on companies to remove players proliferating hatred online.”

In extreme examples, online gaming rhetoric can lead to violence. “On May 14, 2022, a white supremacist extremist committed a mass murder at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 Black shoppers and injuring three others,” says the ADL. “In the logs of his messages on the social platform Discord, the shooter wrote that a game on Roblox was a key vector in his radicalization.”

The ADL notes that “the spread of hate, harassment, and extremism in these digital spaces continues to grow unchecked,” and says progress within the games industry is even slower than it is within another notorious industry: social media.