In contrast, research firm Newzoo has found that of the 1.2 billion people playing video games globally, 46%, or 570 million, are female, with the highest share of women playing in Latin America (49%) and the lowest in Asia-Pacific region (43%).

"In the U.S., around 170 million Americans play online, mobile, PC, or console games," said Peter Warman, founder of Newzoo. "Almost half, 48%, of these gamers are female." Warman notes the majority of female gamers -- 55% of them -- is older than 30.

The most popular platform to play games on are smartphones and tablets, according to Newzoo research. Three out of four American female gamers, or 61.7 million women, play games on their mobile device.

In the video game industry, Meloni found that there are slightly higher numbers of women working in casual games. She also found more women entrenched in the non-entertainment serious games sector. Women tend to be more dominant in executive production and management rolls where they can oversee the process. Where they fall short is in the more technical capacity of programming and audio design.

"Aside from getting more women to view games as a positive career option for them, we need to support them in all areas of production, design and development," said Meloni. "Additionally, we need to work on pay equity and more positive mentoring activities."

Here are 10 powerful women in games today, any of whom would serve as good role models for female gamers looking to enter the interactive entertainment work force.

Casual game publisher and developer King is heading towards an IPO. The maker of hit cross-platform games like Candy Crush Saga and Bubble Witch Saga lured CFO Hope Cochran away from Clearwire Inc. The Swedish mobile game developer, which tests games out on its main site before fine-tuning them for Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) and then monetizing them on mobile, is one of the fastest-growing companies out there. King has over 1 billion gameplays per day globally across 150 exclusive games in 14 languages through mobile, Facebook and online. Cochran previously helped raise over $11 billion while at Evant, which bodes well for King's IPO and aggressive growth plans.

With the proliferation of mobile gaming, there's been a boom in independent game developers around the world. Even big console makers likeSony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT,Fortune 500) are embracing indies with their current and next-gen consoles. Stephanie Barish has helped spotlight the greatest minds in independent game development today through IndieCade, which has partnered with established gaming events like Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and Game Developers Conference and also held its own festivities. Barish previously founded and created the blueprint for the Annenberg Center for Communications' Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML) at the University of Southern California.

Mobile game maker Kabam has had great success reaching mainstream gamers through Hollywood licensed product like Fast & Furious 6: The Game (33 million installs worldwide) and original franchises like Kingdoms of Camelot. That franchise, which has made over $200 million to date, saw Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North become the top-grossing app on iOS in 2012. Liu was an initial designer on that game expansion. She has also grown Kabam's personnel base by 500% in three years with more than 600 employees around the world. Liu was previously Senior User Interface Designer for AOL (AOL).

Emily Greer and her brother Jim created casual video game site Kongregate back in 2006. She led the initial product development of Kongregate, from the first wireframes to live site, including designing the level and points system that lures gamers back to try more of the never-ending stream of free-to-play games. Leading video game retailer GameStop (GME, Fortune 500) acquired the site in 2010, connecting its global gamers to the growing library of titles. After expanding its offerings to mobile, Kongregate recently invested $10 million to fund new game developers and help them reach an audience.