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San Francisco-based mobile game developer Glu Mobile had so much success with Kim Kardashian: Hollywood that the company followed it up with other celebrity video games, such as Britney Spears: American Dream.Glu Mobile Inc.

An unlikely tech titan is shaking up the world of mobile gaming.

Better known for her topless selfies and reality-TV escapades, Kim Kardashian has raked in $150-million (U.S.) in revenue in just 18 months by partnering with the San Francisco-based company behind a smartphone game.

"I love this game. It's as if you are actually famous!" reads one review for Kim Kardashian: Hollywood on the Google Play app store. The free game allows players to choose outfits, go on dates and attend photo shoots in the quest to move up from the Hollywood D-list to the A-list. It has been downloaded 28 million times on Android and iOS devices, has clocked over 11 billion minutes of play and has earned more than half a million positive reviews.

While some traditional gamers and tech reporters scoff at this fashion-obsessed, social-climbing game, it's championing a new trend in the industry: the rise of the female gamer. For decades, gamers have been boys and men who spend hours on PCs and consoles playing violent or fantasy-themed games such as World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Halo. Now, they're increasingly women and girls addicted to social media and their phones.

A 2014 study by the Internet Advertising Bureau showed that women make up 52 per cent of today's gaming audience. According to mobile ad company Flurry, women spend 35 per cent more time on mobile games than men and make 31 per cent more in-app purchases. The Entertainment Software Association reports the number of female gamers grew 70 per cent between 2011 and 2014 and four times as many women report playing games five days or more a week.

Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is made by San Francisco-based mobile game developer Glu Mobile and is so successful the company followed it up with a Kendall and Kylie Jenner game and a Katy Perry game, and recently announced contracts with Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Britney Spears.

"We're moving more and more of our focus away from male gamers to female gamers," said Glu chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi. "In the last three years, Glu went from being a majority male gamer-driven company to a majority female-driven company."

Founded in 2001, Glu first stepped into the underserved market with a game called Stardom: Hollywood in 2011. The game was popular, but the company needed help growing its reach. Mr. De Masi contacted Ms. Kardashian and they launched her game in June, 2014; it cracked the Top 10 download lists soon after. Analytics company Thinkgaming says the app makes Glu $40,000 a day, and Ms. Kardashian has reportedly made $80-million generated from in-app purchases of virtual clothing and "K-Stars," which allow users to advance levels more quickly.

"Games like World of Warcraft or Minecraft get talked about as educational properties," Mr. de Masi said. "But the reality is there's as much depth and complexity in the Kim Kardashian game as any other product on the market."

Other Silicon Valley companies hoping to cash in on the market for female mobile gamers include CrowdStar, which bills itself as the world's premiere mobile-entertainment company for women with games including Covet Fashion and It Girl, and Episode, which specializes in choose-your-own-adventure "stories" such as Mean Girls: Senior Year and Demi Lovato: Path to Fame.

"As a company, we benefit from Kim Kardashian's game because it brought more women to the gaming market. They're introduced to gaming through her, then decide to explore what else is out there," said CrowdStar senior vice-president of brands and marketing Blair Ethington. "The market is so far from being saturated – her success benefits everyone."

Ms. Ethington said more than half of CrowdStar's users don't consider themselves gamers, or Covet Fashion to even be a game "because of all the historical stereotypes wrapped around those words."

"We galvanized a good chunk of players who had never previously thought of themselves as gamers," said Glu's Mr. de Masi. "It's democratizing access to gaming. Gaming is no longer a male, nerdy console experience. It's an app you can carry with you and check whenever."

This is no small feat in a world where girls have been alienated from gaming, and tech in general, for years. "Women have been discouraged in so many ways," says Melissa Sariffodeen, co-executive director of Ladies Learning Code, which has taught nearly 20,000 women how to code in five years. "There aren't many role models in the media of women who are developers, and cool and relatable."

Miriam Verbug, owner and game designer of Toronto-based studio Bloom Digital, created the popular episodic dating and adventure game LongStory, which has a largely teen female fan base, after brainstorming the idea at a Ladies Learning Code networking event. "When I started, I told people there were a lot of teenage girls who wanted to play games and everyone said, 'No, you're ridiculous,'" Ms. Verbug said. "I think the female market was always there, but it took celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift to bring attention to it."

Still, many game makers cite a talent shortage when it comes to recruiting women to work on these games. According to the International Game Developers Association, the percentage of female developers more than doubled since 2009, but women still only make up 22 per cent of the industry work force.

"CrowdStar's content, brand and marketing teams are very heavily or 100-per-cent female in some cases. We'd love to hire more female developers, but there's still a supply issue," said Ms. Ethington. "The rising popularity of these games absolutely has the power to change that."

Editor's note: CrowdStar senior vice-president of brands and marketing Blair Ethington is a woman. She was mistakenly referred to as Mr. Ethington in an earlier version of this story. This version has been corrected.

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