I usually choose male, sometimes female when I feel like it.

When I replay a game, I always choose the opposite gender.

It’s usually a mix for me, for example; mass effect I chose to play as a male but it Final Fantasy 14 i made a Fenmale character.

Female characters are becoming more and more popular in games where you have no choice anyways.
Bayonetta
Gravity rush
Hellblade
Tomb raider
Horizon Zero Dawn
Nier Automata
Mirrors Edge

Completely random. I'll pick whatever I feel like picking at that moment. If it's a game that I end up doung multiple playthroughs of I tend to alternate.

Depends on how I feel at the time. I have no problems playing as either a male or female character in games. In Dark Souls III I made a female character for example, whereas in Tales of Xillia I chose the male character path, so it really just depends on the situation.

Depends on if it’s single player or online. For me, anything goes in single player. Online, it just feels awkward pretending to be a girl, especially with how some people behave.

As much as I love choice in games this is one area where choice isn't needed. All characters in all video games should be female by default.

If it's customisable i usually choose male, but outside of that for me, the typically better-designed characters are female (e.g Pokemon) so i choose female for that reason.

Message boards like these do not, in any way, reflect the mainstream. Go play COD or Halo and see how many men play as something that represents themselves vs how many play as women. I'd say 90% or better choose male.

Both but mainly female. In the case of Mass Effect, it helped as the Female Shepards performance is so much better than males. Seriously, if you haven't played ME with FemShep, do. Same with Dragon Age Inquisition English female voice... look up the acting when she is moaning about having the mark in the the DLC, you can listen to them all at once on youtube and the pain and anger in her voice comes through so much better than everyone else.

I know many people create characters that match themselves, I don't. They are characters I play, not me. As Alfredo says though, we are different to the normal. Most create an alpha male version of themselves.

... also depends on the game... because I'm a perv.

I am a male and I tend to choose to play as a Male but I can in a second run pick the female.  As a kid, i always caught Only Male versions of Pokemon but today I am not concerned with the gender and even prefer to have the female version of some Pokemon.

The only time I couldn't play a character was in Diablo 2, the Paladin, he was black and it took me out of the experience... a black paladin. I simply don´t relate as well to black characters not that I am completely unable to play as them --- but if I have a choice I won't.