PC gaming outsells Console gaming at an alarming rate

It has been undoubtedly stated many times by various users that the world of PC Gaming has a lot of advantages compared to consoles, here is why.

[gold_drake]

i dunno if i agree with that.

both have their advantages.

price of the hardware is definitely a huge selling point for consumers.

a pc does have the advantage of a huge reyro library with emulation or games that are too controversial for consoles.

[Terry_B]

Aye. Just bought me a new pc..and I bet I am going to play more older games than new ones on it in the next years.

Including some of my favourite PS2 games.

[blackblades]

Main problem with PC is the hardware price and not user friendly when upgrading. Which steam deck comes in handy or one day a steam box 2 comes around. Its the best companion device honestly for those like me. I like PlayStation but I don't like the pay to play online nonsense and there high prices on games amongst other things. Having a PC aka SD style for me, epic games has the free games, steam for fighting games cause im not paying just play them online on ps. As well has buying at a cheaper price then what is on the ps store. Then theres pc only games, mobile games,
emulation etc. Then theres freedom, the player has the choice to uncensor or censor. Pc has the overall advantage in my book SD won me over. Pretty sure a lot of people is like that.

[crazyCoconuts]

There are quite a few other usability downsides to PC for non-technical gamers. The wild thing is to see the huge leaps Valve has had in pushing a PC more towards a console. Hard to imagine that someday we may be debating what a PC really is.

[gold_drake]

oh i absolutely agree with that, it gets so technical sometimes, its crazy

[Junryain88]

PC is just becoming more accessible and affordable. History repeats itself and I think will will be the go-to for gaming again.

The free online play and PC game stores giving away free games also helps. You can build a big library from epic game store or GOG for free. Valve rarely gives away free games (but every time they did, I picked it up).

[rippermcrip]

Article provided no sales facts at all.

Said the PS5 is overpriced compared to average modern gaming PC? Say what?

[Fishy Fingers]

Its all linked in the article https://www.matthewball.co/...

[NotoriousWhiz]

I'm not going through 221 slides, the information should have been in the article.

[Fishy Fingers]

No agreed. Hopefully someone can condense it into something more appropriate for my attention span like a tweet or a TikTok dance.

[VariantAEC]

@NotoriousWhiz
MY TIME HAS COME!
At slide 59 we see the title, "Twenty years ago, PC' S share of non-mobile content spend was 29%. It's now 53%. And while console has stagnated since 2021, PC has grown 20%"
It shows a bar graph and the important bits are outlined in the title. In 2021 the PC market was about 49% of the pie while consoles were 51% of the pie. The revenue split was 4% favoring consoles.
In 2024 PC revenues grew by 20% from $39.7 billion to $47.7 billion the console market grew from $41.3 billion to $42.3 billion in the same timeframe.

What the headline of the article above doesn't tell you is that the mobile gaming market is 220% larger than PC and console combined while most of the money made on Mobile and PC is in GAAS and LS games that console gamers and most PC gamers here and elsewhere all uniformly agree are bad. This growth in revenue is driven by games like Roblox, Fortnite, PUBG, Genshin Impact, as well as other similar titles.

The stuff we agree we all hate is fueling the rise of PC as it has already exploded the smartphone gaming market.

On slide 60 we have this, "The PC ecosystem benefits from many compounding advantages over the console ecosystem -and its momentum is still growing" for a title and these points are raised,

"Existing PC Advantages:

• Much larger library than any one console (or all consoles combined), and with near full backwards compatability

• Much larger social graph than any one console (and often reaching into consoles)

• Ability to multi-task (e.g. Alt-Tab to YouTube for tips and tricks, read Game Guides, use WhatsApp, etc.), run full Discord natively, livestream with full OBS/editing suites, etc.

• Lower entry price point than consoles and higher top-range of performance than high-performance consoles

• Greater competitive capability (i.e. keyboard/mouse)

• Ability to play nearly every Early Access title in "Early Access"

Intensifying PC Advantages:

• More annual game releases (thus a compounding library advantage)

• PlayStation now releases its "exclusives" on PC (albeit in second window), as Xbox now does with all titles

• Premium Roblox games can only be bought on PC

• Hundreds of millions of children growing up on Roblox are unlikely to ask for a $500 console to play AAA games

• Portable Windows-based gaming devices are growing in popularity and have access to full Steam/PC catalogues and entitlements"

So they also admit that Xbox and PS releasing games on PC is also driving PC while ignoring the fact that many of the existing PC advantages also exist on console. Many competitive games offer more than a simple gamepad to interface with and many offer K/M, like War Thunder.

I could go on, but the reality is that if this research is correct console is where core gamers are more now than ever. On slide 32 we see that 40 billion users are downloading hyper-casual and casual games with only a few hybrid-casual games (probably the next step up to whatever "mid-core" games are by their interpretation).

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

Literally zero evidence in the article to back up the title. What a waste of time.

[Jingsing]

Because this story provides no evidence why is it that Spider-man sells 11 million on PS5 and about 40k on PC?

[INMATEofARKHAM]

Anyone, plus yourself, is an embarrassment to gaming and free thought. I kick goggle search returns results showing Spider-Man sold 1.5 million copies sold on PC as of March 2023. (It released on PC in August 2022.)

https://www.gamedeveloper.c...

Hell, it's day 1 concurrent numbers on steamcharts.com is over 40K. 🤣

[VariantAEC]

The presentation this article is based on shows that PC gamers are likely all hyper-casual children playing Roblox and Fortnite which are always online GAAS games we all claim to hate so much, but as I said this is what is driving PC's growth in marketshare.

[anast]

The cost of a PC equivalent to a PS5 is around $1600 and PS5 is $500.

[Michiel1989]

you should reconsider where you buy your pc parts

[Terry_B]

a 4060 ti 16gb ram alone is around 400-500 € already.

[Michiel1989]

except radeon 5700 is more equivelant, which would also make much more sense to compare it to since sony uses amd chips. It's so old now that it doesn't even get sold anymore. I had it a couple years before the ps5 released.

a 16gb 4060 will outperform it and even if, where does the other 1200 come from? and the 16gb is a nice metric you can use except more modern 8gb cards outperform older 16gb cards.

btw in case you don't understand, im not trying to argue you can get it cheaper than a ps5, but the price mentioned above is completely unaccurate.

[Deeeeznuuuts]

I genuinely mean this because I hear this all the time and not trying to bait anyone, I'm genuinely curious but can someone send me a link to a PC or the parts to create a PC that is the equivalent to a PS5 and cost the same or less, so £370 or less.

Don't get me wrong, I like PC and it definitely has huge advantages but I always see comments saying that they could build a PC for the same or less but I'm yet to see anyone post proof, I'm just curious.

[Michiel1989]

@deeznuts idk who are these so called people, I'd love to see who says that since you hear it "all the time"

[anast]

I can buy a brand new console with brand new (not used) parts. If I can't do that then it is not the same thing.

Provide a PC with all new parts (not used) for $500 that will run everything exactly like a PS5 and I will stand corrected.

[DivineHand125]

That quote is grossly inaccurate post-chip shortage. To build a PC that costs $1600. It would mean you are building something with an Rtx 4080 super or RTX 5080, 32 GB RAM, and a Ryzen 5 9600x. With that performance, you would far exceed even the PS5 Pro by a large margin.

[rippermcrip]

Comparing specs of a PC to a console is stupid.

Games on console require much less specs because developers optimize for one single spec.

PC games are highly unoptimized because they have to be developed to support basically millions of possibly combinations of parts.

So the question isn't building a similarly spec'd PC.

The question is can you build a PC that can meet the graphically output of the same game on PS5? Also these gorgeous PlayStation exclusives that have released on PC. Will they look as good on a $500 PC? The answer is no.

[attilayavuzer]

Even a 6650xt, ryzen 5 3600, 16gb ram, cheap case, 1tb hd, basic mobo....maybe not 500 on the nose, but 650-750 will definitely get you there. Could argue from there about game cost, free online etc... The days of needing 1k+ for a solid gaming pc are well behind us though.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

That is a straight up lie…

[Npugz7]

I doubt that. Obviously the editor is a pc gamer

[VariantAEC]

You know it especially when they missed the fact that driving PC's marketshare are what the presentation classified as "hyper-casual" games and that the mobile marketshare is 220% larger than the entire PC and console market combined also driven by the same always online GAAS games we seem to all agree is destroying gaming to some extent or another.

PC is growing because of Roblox and Fortnite... but this is supposed to be great news?

[Vithar]

PS5 pro is too expansive,.... goes and buy a $1200K graphic card.....
Comparing PC's to consoles is stupid

[OpenGL]

Stupid article that doesn't cite anything. PC gaming is strong right now but Nvidia's war against consumers has seriously hurt the value proposition of the PC as a gaming platform. Hopefully AMD and Intel can help fix the situation with budget cards like the RX 9070, as Nvidia has lost their damn mind their $2000 gaming cards.

[VariantAEC]

I agree that the article is ridiculous, even stupid. But Nvidia isn't the problem especially since AMD has followed suit. The reality is also that PC core gaming is weaker than ever. What this article doesn't reference is the fact that PC grew 20% because of GAAS and live service games played by children who live mostly in Asian nations. The presentation cites Roblox and Fortnite as well as Genshin Impact PUBG and other hero shooter style games. League of Legends was surprisingly low on their list of popular games on PC. The games these kids are playing are considered to be "hyper-casual" by the presenters.

Making matters worse is the fact that the mobile market is 2.2 times larger than all PC and console gaming combined! This is also where I scraped the 40 billion hyper-casual gamer stat from in the presentation.

[DivineHand125]

I agree that PC gaming is the way to go today but this article doesn't post any statistics to prove the headline true. I know the newer generation of gamers prefer to game on PC and I too am thinking of distancing myself from console gaming come next generation. Especially since console pricing is moving close to that $1000 mark.

I have said it before, but console gaming has become overpriced. The new Sony is not the same Sony we had in the PS4 days. Back then never did it occur to me that I am being taken advantage of just by being a console gamer. PS Plus essential has gone up to $80 in price while losing value. We used to get some really good games each month in the service and the discounts with a PS Plus subscription used to make those digital games close to price matching their physical counterpart, but this isn't the case no longer. If you buy a PS5 at launch and the generation last 6 years, you would have spent $480 on PS Plus alone.

There is also the issue of the controllers not being reliable. Almost immediately after the launch of the console iFix it put out a report that the potentiometers in the controllers have a high chance of failing yet we continue to see Sony put out console and controller revision after revision without addressing the main issue by adding hall effect sticks. I have had 3 controllers and all 3 have gotten the stick drift. I had the original launch white model, galactic purple and cosmic red models. I eventually figured out how to use a heatgun to desolder and install the hall effect sticks myself instead of buying a 4th controller.

There is also the fact that developers don't allow console gamers to adjust graphic settings outside of the 2 performance and quality modes so we can squeeze out some more performance. While we don't have many games that run at 30 fps or less, we do have many that run below 60 fps on the base PS5 and Xbox. Allow me to dial things down to hit that constant 60 fps.

Finally, the cost of digital games at release are sometimes $10 to $20 cheaper at launch on PC compared to the console counterpart. The fact that I can buy from multiple competing storefront PC provides a huge advantage to me the consumer compared so I don't feel like I am being taken advantage of.

The prices on PC parts are now stable and starting to come down but I expect the prices on console to increase as time goes. Sure, you will end up spending more upfront for a capable gaming PC but in the long run you will enjoy cheaper games, better performance and more options through mods.

[VariantAEC]

The article doesn't cite anything because the presentation, if the research proves to be an accurate representation of the global gaming market , strongly suggests that the core gaming market on PC is dead.

[Dandizzle]

Wtf random ass blog post is this. How the hell is this random kids opinion even considered news?

[Father__Merrin]

One more thing about PC there's so many games you need fixes for it's ridiculous. Google any GPU and combine any game and many complaints of performance

[DivineHand125]

I have been dabbling with PC gaming for over a decade, and I have never tried to launch a game my system meets the requirements for, and it failed to launch. You are doing yourself a huge disservice by continuing to believe that none sense.

[VariantAEC]

Really, I've been playing MSFS 2020 for years on my PC and now it won't launch. Same HW, nothing about my PC changed except driver, OS, and game/launcher updates, but games I was playing now don't even work. This •••• happens all the time on PC... ALL THE TIME!

[andy85]

I do both console and PC. But if I have a choice I get the game on PS simply because it's FAR cheaper overall.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Considering PC gaming has most of PS5’s top Franchises and all of MS’s games on top of better performance (in most cases) I’m not surprised. I’ve almost completely abandoned Xbox which was my main console and I only really use my PS5 for Virtua Fighter 5 (which is dropping on PC on the 27th). Consoles are slowly becoming PC’s anyway.

[VariantAEC]

The presentation the article cites brings up Steam Deck adoption.

Steam Deck is a pretty popular PC-like console.

[Profchaos]

There's no statistics or facts here the title isn't even talked about again how is this an approved article.

I've seen some bad articles but this is probably the worse.

PC outselling consoles is a silly notion that doesn't take into consideration workers who use high end GPUs for cad rendering and media processing along with crypto stuff.

[GotGame818]

This article is FOS! Completely FOS! 🤣😂 There is a reason even Sony is porting games to PC!

[hiawa23]

But, isn't the PC gaming market much larger than the console market?

[VariantAEC]

Literally billions of Windows PCs on Earth since the year 2000 with growth exploding over the past 20 years and yet only 20% greater revenues as of 2024 across all PCs next to just 3 console manufacturers in the game with a collective total of less than 200 million units out in the wild this gen.

The PC elite want you to know consoles are dying and this article is another nail in the coffin.

Those PC guys didn't read the presentation. Mobile is 2.2 times larger than PC and console combined with the biggest games on PC over the past decade being GAAS games which is what the presenters are claiming drove PCs increase in global marketshare. Core gaming on PC is effectively dead according to the presentation.

[hiawa23]

Good point. PC market is larger. My point is the more gamers that have access to games across all platforms the better for all gamers.

[Kyizen]

My issue is that they aren't developing triple A games for PC. These are console ports. We need a PC games that pushes the hardware and the PC that amazes people. I thought Star Citizen would do this but now I dunno.

[Firebird360]

The only thing stopping me from becoming a pc only player is the nostalgia and absolute ease of use console offers.

[Charal]

Alarming? Why? People are gaming, that’s good for our hobby and the industry.

[VariantAEC]

No, not really. Like mobile gaming (Android/iOS) PCs growth is driven by always online GAAS games, primarily Roblox and Fortnite as cited by the presentation. These are not what we call gamers in most cases and we also recognize that this explosion in revenue is why PS is trying to make live service games. There is a lot of money in the always online "forever" games even if only a handful play for a few months. So long as everyone spends $40 on a free game that was cheap to make, you make money.

The growth in PC gaming market is a sign that gaming is still dying. Eventually, we will be dealing with the arcade at home. Pay digital currency to play games that are in your possession on HW in your own living room already installed on the HW. Lose and you will be required to pay more to try again.

PC is the next largest driving force in the GAAS gaming market!

[Charal]

Console market is the one gaas powered to my opinion. Gamepass is 100% gaas, you need to pay a sub to play everything, even a solo game if you use gamepass.

I don’t see why playing on PC is more gaas threatening than a PS or XB.

[VariantAEC]

@Charal
Is that different from GeForce Now? GamePass is also on PC, just for your information. There is also Apply Arcade, and Google Play Pass on mobile and Ubisoft+ and EA Play on PC. All of the above listed services and PS+ offer games for a monthly subscription fee.

Because Steam doesn't yet (that I know of) all of PC is GAAS-free? That doesn't make any sense.