Quietly and without too much fuss, the PC has outstripped both the console market and the mobile market in terms of gaming revenue in the last couple of years. At the end of 2015, total worldwide gaming revenue from PCs equaled £22.5 billion. By comparison, consoles and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets generated £17.6bn and £17.5bn respectively.
Platform wars
So how did this happen? Back in the 1980s, PCs were the main platform for gaming, and to some extent this continued into the early 90s, with the rise of online gaming. Important games that were initially only available on PC include the classic shooter Doom and the strategy game StarCraft. But by this time they were meeting serious challenges from console systems, which evolved from the popular but distinctly basic devices such as the Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and early Nintendo to the ubiquitous Xbox and PlayStation of today.
The selling point of the console is its simplicity and relative affordability. Unlike a PC, it is designed primarily with gameplay in mind and is incredibly easy to use. Early on, the fact that consoles plugged into the TV was also a major plus. This generally meant a bigger screen with better graphics, and more potential for playing with your friends on the sofa in the lounge, rather than all squeezed around a bedroom PC.
More power
Now things have changed. A good quality PC is much more powerful than even the most state-of-the-art console, and is capable of much stronger graphics with higher resolution, as well as faster, smoother gameplay. As a result, some of the best games can only be played to their full potential on the PC.
Online gaming
PCs have also benefited hugely from the rise in popularity of online gaming. More than half of the revenue mentioned above comes from free-to-play online games. Another 25% comes from online social network gaming. This online market includes massive multi-player role-playing games as well as hugely popular adaptations of traditional pastimes such as online bingo. Sites such as Wink Bingo are just as much a part of the PC’s rise to gaming dominance as League of Legends, which attracts 27 million players every day and 67 million active players each month.
Full steam ahead
Another important factor in the growing popularity of the PC is the website / app Steam. This one-stop point of sale for PC games also acts as a social network and allows developers to design and distribute their own games through its platform. Steam has 125 million active users worldwide, compared to 110 million PlayStation Network users and 48 million Xbox Live subscribers.
Ultimately, PC gaming has become more accessible. It is no longer the preserve of serious hobbyists who spend excessive time and money building a bespoke computer setup. It’s now just as easy to play on a PC as on a console, especially when one considers the range of games available online that one can start playing immediately. And with the current industry buzz all about virtual reality and the Oculus Rift headset, which can only be used to its full potential on a PC, the humble home computer shows no signs of being left behind.
