For a very long time now it was a notion that PC gaming was dying as the revenue figures did not look impressive. But given the surge of e-Sports and that most of the game in the genre are played on PC never let the platform slide out of the market completely.
But now, a recent report by research firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the PC gaming market has garnered $30 billion in revenue worldwide in 2016. It has apparently set a new record. However, the previous milestone was not mentioned. Earlier the firm had predicted that the PC gaming industry will cross the $30 billion mark by 2018, so it looks like the sector is experiencing an immense growth already.
According to the report by JPR, the PC gaming market is poised to grow by six per cent (CAGR) by 2019.
“Global consumers continue to embrace the PC platform for video games due to multiple factors,” asserted JPR, senior game industry analyst, Ted Pollak. “The desktop ergonomic is popular because the display distance offers increased detail when using HD and UHD monitors. Additionally there is superior control with mouse and keyboard control interfaces. This has been validated with e-Sports overwhelmingly being played on PCs.”
The report suggests that the Asia Pacific region is the largest in terms of market size, contributing to around $11.3 billion out of the $30 billion. This is because of “an entrenched PC gaming culture, large population, and a lack of significant console traction,” according to JPR.
“Additionally, product designers have given PC gamers thousands of options for complete customisation from a functionally and aesthetic perspective,” said Pollak. “Examples of this include dedicated driving and flight systems, multi-display set-ups, super-powerful graphics boards, and a wide selection of gaming notebooks ranging from desktop substitutes to innovative ‘thin and light’ offerings. Liquid cooling, lighting, solid state drives, genre specific gaming mice, mechanical keyboards, notebook graphics amplifiers, and Xbox accessory compatibility offer gamers more choices than they have ever had.”
It looks like PC gaming market is not as dim as it was perceived to be and this would be the best time for the PC hardware producers to push forward.
