This page contains visualizations of which countries made games with LGBTQ content, as well as which genres most commonly feature such content. It’s worth noting up front that many of the trends apparent here are likely present in other forms of content as well; in other words, that these trends are likely due to industry trends of where and what type of games are made.

By Country

This chart demonstrates that the United States and Japan produce the most games with LGBTQ content in every decade, though this is likely because they have two of the largest game industries in the world. Interestingly, while the US made more games with queer content in the 1980s, Japan takes a sizeable lead in producing queer content in the 1990s and maintains it into the 2000s. The chart also reveals how the games industries in other countries are growing quickly and producing more LGBTQ content, especially the UK and Canada. Countries included in the “Other” category include Australia, Belgium, France, and Germany, all of which made one to several games with LGBTQ content in the 2000s.

 

By Genre

The two genres that had the most LGBTQ content in the 1980s were Interactive Fiction and Action/Adventure games. This is likely due to the state of the industry at the time: there were more works of interactive fiction and basic action/adventure games available, while other genres had yet to fully develop.

 

The 1990s saw major shifts in the popular genres of the game industry, as well as a steady increase in home gaming platforms. With the increase in home technology, Interactive Fiction waned as a game genre, and almost disappears in this decade. Action/Adventure games continue to contain the most LGBTQ content, while Fighting and Role-playing games start to include more.

 

Role-playing games overtook Action/Adventure games in the 2000s as the genre with the most LGBTQ content. This trend corresponds with the increasing availability and complexity of RPGs on home gaming platforms in this decade, meaning that more games were capable of providing role-playing experiences with queer content. While Fighting games decrease in their relative share of LGBTQ content, several other genres emerge: Simulators (present in the 1990s but largely without LGBTQ content), Visual Novels, and First Person Shooters (FPS). Despite the growing popularity of FPS games in the 2000s, the genre did not include many queer representations, a trend that largely continues to this day.