Twice as many women as men in the United States play online video games, turning the conventional wisdom on its ear, a new report suggests.

Of the online gamers surveyed in a Nielsen Entertainment survey, 64 per cent were female.

In the broader video game sphere, male gamers still outnumber women overall by a factor of two to one, according to the report released on Thursday.

The Nielsen survey also suggested that about eight per cent of gamers are at least 45 years old, but teenagers still make up the largest portion of all gamers, representing 40 per cent of those who play games.

The survey looked at 2,200 gamers in July who own at least one game device — including game consoles, hand-held devices and PCs.

There are about 117 million video game players over the age of 13 in the United States, 56 per cent of whom play online.