Female gamers are a rarity, but not so in the realm of World of Warcraft, as according to a new Nielsen report, a surprising number of female gamers have set up characters in the game.

The report states that the popular MMORPG was the most-played “core” game for women, with over 428,621 unique female players estimated in December 2008.

That statistic is made even more impressive when considering that approximately 675,000 male players of the same age group logged into the game during that period, indicating that the gender gap is not as large as suggested.

So, the next time you come across a girl in WoW, she might actually be a girl instead of some dude pretending to be one.