How toxicity differ between male and female players in competitive Overwatch

Abstract: This thesis aims to research whether or not Overwatch players believe toxicity is an issue in today's gaming and how the toxicity differs itself between men and women. The purpose was to find out different kinds of toxicity and how these affected players in Overwatch, as well as to investigate if toxicity differed between men and women at all. The method of this thesis relied on answers from a survey, posted on Reddit’s sub forums r/Overwatch and r/Competitiveoverwatch. The data used in the thesis is answers from 328 participants in the survey. The results of this thesis found that Overwatch players see toxicity as an issue today and that most of them have experienced toxicity and are affected negatively by it. The thesis found that there is a major difference in toxicity between men and women, as women are affected by toxicity more than men. Many female players feel the need to hide their gender in order to not receive toxicity which will lead to many women not utilizing important tools such as the voice chat to communicate important information to their team, which could put women at a disadvantage when trying to achieve higher ranks within the game, compared to men.