A fun little number crunch on gender ratio in game characters

I thought I would see how riot has handled over the lifetime inclusion of female characters and what their 'ideal' ratio between male and female champions is. When the game released it started with 41% female which is unheard of high. It then dropped down to less than 30% going to the lowest at 8/10/2010 of 24%. It since steadily climbed dropping below 30% only one more time at 4/10/2011 until trending upward to where it stands today at ~ 33-34%, starting on 3/1/2013.

Whatever you may feel about these numbers I thought it was interesting to graph champion release by release date and gender. I've found the 33% mark to be pretty standard in most games (and other media). I asked a female game developer about this and she said 33% is about the point where most people start to see male/female ratios as equal (IE 33% women in a group of 100 people will appear at first glance like 50/50 to most people).

It does make me wonder if the ratio was reversed with females outnumbering the males by two thirds if people would feel that number was acceptable, or too high or just didn't care. Similarly I wonder if the current state of the game (in regard to these numbers) are particularly bothersome to anyone.

I also wonder how much (if at all) riot considers this balance when deciding which champion designs to move forward with. Did they, for instance, decide that the 24% was just too low before adding more females to the mix?

Anyway, just thought that was a fun thing to look at.

Enjoy reking noobs.