We all know both that playing computer games is a largely male-dominated arena and that Nintendo has long had an eye on changing that, but we didn't know just how successful the company has already been.

According to a presentation given by Nintendo bigwig Reggie Fils-Aime, the number of female console gamers found in his US research currently stands at around 11.7 million.

Nintendo out in front

While that's still just under a third of the 33.3 million male players, it's a far more impressive stat than might have been expected just a few years ago.

Naturally – and this was Fils-Aime's point, of course – most of that cadre of female gamers are adherents to the Nintendo faith.

The Nintendo of America research showed that 80 per cent of them get their fix through the Wii, leaving just 11 per cent on the Xbox 360 and 9 per cent on the PS3.