The growth of vibrant gaming communities has been driven by the accessibility of platforms that allow gaming content to easily be consumed and go viral. However, gaming communities also mirror and exacerbate real-world social inequalities, especially with relation to gender. Leveraging 42,376 videos and 6,117,441 comments from YouTube (across 150 channels and 3 games), this study examines gender inequality in collaborative content creation. We introduce a dual supplydemand framework for understanding social media harms: supply-side factors shape how content is produced and structured, while demand-side dynamics determine how audiences engage with and amplify inequalities and harms. Using Shapley values from cooperative game theory and network analysis, we identify strong in-group collaboration patterns driven by in-game affordances. However, audience responses remain consistent across games, revealing symmetric biases across communities. Our results engage with the broader literature on digital and online biases, demonstrating how genre and affordances moderate gendered collaboration and the direction of inequality. Additionally, we propose a generalizable framework for quantifying synergy in collaborative ecosystems.

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