While the death of PC gaming seemed like a near reality just a few years ago, a new report by Jon Peddie Research strongly suggests otherwise. Right now the firm estimates that PC games is a $21.5 billion dollar market, and will soar all the way past $23 billion by the time 2017 is over. In that sense, not only is PC gaming better than it’s ever been, but the best is still yet to come.
The report summarizes those claims by stating that the growing PC segment is nearly “twice as large” as what we see on all console platforms combined. What’s the reason for this recent increase in interest you ask? Ted Pollak of JPR boils it down to two areas: power and functionality. When built with the right components, a top quality gaming PC outperforms even the updated specs of PS4 and Xbox One. To date PC is the only platform that can play 4K-quality games, while Xbox One still struggles to maintain a 1080p resolution. Pollak also mentions that because PCs do far more than just play games, consumers are willing to spend more money to buy a nice one.
The only foreseeable threat to the modern PC gaming ecosystem is the roughly 26% of consumers that fall into the “mainstream” category. The other seventy percent however, seems to prefer the flexibility and force that PCs have to offer. If these stats hold true, maybe fanboys are right when they say that PC is the “master race” of the games industry.
