Valorant and DOTA 2 are the games where players reported the most harassment in 2021, according to a study conducted jointly by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Newzoo. Valorant ranked first with 79% of players reporting harassment in the game, followed closely by Dota 2 with 78%. In contrast, Minecraft was the game where players reported the least harassment in 2021 (46%), making it the only game that was below the 50% mark. This study used data collected from 2206 Americans, consisting of 542 children, aged 13 to 17, and 1,664 adults, aged 18 to 45, from various games.
Dota 2 and Valorant players report the most harassment for the second year in a row
Dota 2 and Valorant players have topped the list of reported harassment for the second year in a row. 80% of both games' players reported harassment in 2020. Dota 2 was the game with the highest percentage of reported harassment in 2019 as well.
ADL
With 59% of players reporting harassment, Rocket League was the game with the least amount of harassment following Minecraft. The game experienced an impressive 17-point decline in 2021.
Furthermore, a staggering 89% of harassing behavior was also reported by Valorant players in the 13-17 age range. Call of Duty and Dota 2 came in second and third at 85% and 84% respectively.
There is a tendency for people to be more cautious when it comes to revealing their identities, voices, and gender when playing these online games due to all the harassment that goes on. For Call of Duty players aged 13-17, 40% said they were more cautious now or had given up the game entirely because of toxic experiences in the last six months. Valorant ranked fourth with 33%, while Dota 2 ranked sixth with 28%.
ADL
The study conducted by Anti-Defamation League and Newzoo also accounted for the positive social experiences that players had while playing these games. At least 87% of players (adult category) in every game of this report had some positive in-game social experiences.
With 96% of players reporting positive social experiences, Madden NFL topped the list for positive social experiences. Dota 2 came third with 94%, while Valorant placed last with 87%. Valorant had a big drop in positive social experiences from 95% in 2020 to 87% in 2021.
In this study, the Anti-Defamation League also offered solutions for tackling harassment in online games, in an effort to make these games safer and more welcoming to all sorts of gamers.
