PC gaming is on the rise: In the console vs. PC race, it looks like PC is surging ahead

Julio Franco

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Since our last video game survey, the industry has undergone some major changes, including the debut of both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. But does that mean that mobile, PC, and Nintendo gaming have faded even further away?

We surveyed our game-playing readers again this year, and as it turns out, PC gaming has pulled ahead as the go-to platform. We also discovered that computer gamers are more prone to binge sessions, while Xbox 360 users are proving to be hesitant about the Xbox One.

Read on to find out more about the state of gaming in 2014.

PC Gaming Is Back

The most drastic change we saw this year was the comeback of computer gaming. A full 39% of respondents in 2014 told us they predominantly game on a PC, an increase of 13% since last year. That fits in with the industry-wide impression that PC gaming is experiencing a resurgence: video card maker Nvidia reported better-than-expected earnings last year, despite a decline in overall PC sales, and one study found that PC games generated more revenue than console ones.

PC fans have a right to gloat, as market analysts had been predicting the deaths of both PCs and their games for years. No one is entirely sure what reversed this trend, but many credit affordable and quality titles, like those regularly bundled by Steam.

What else surprised us this year? Check out the infographic below, as well as our analysis of the numbers.

Wii U and Mobile Gaming Get More Gamer Cred

It's no secret that the Wii U resulted in one of the biggest sales disappointments in recent memory, as the Nintendo console infamously fell way short of projections. But critics still praised the Wii U's ingenuity all the same; IGN, for example, loved the potential for multi-screen play offered by the new controller. Perhaps for this reason, 13% more respondents this year said that they consider Wii users to be serious gamers.

Similarly, mobile gamers got a little more love this year, too. Respondents denying them gamer status decreased from 87% to 81%. (Mobile gamers are still pretty hard on themselves, though: only 16% believe smartphone players and 18% believe tablet players are real gamers, compared to 30% to 35% for console users.)

Taken together, one could surmise that gaming might be getting more egalitarian. (Maybe.)

Console and PC Gamers Binge the Longest

A full 56% of combined Xbox users reported playing 4 to 12 hours straight in their longest gaming binge, compared to 54% of Playstation users and 47% of PC gamers.

But pushing through to 20 to 24+ hour binges shows that PC gamers may be the most hardcore. A full 17% of PC gamers have approached or gone past a full day of play, compared to 10% for Playstation and 12% for Xbox.

Xbox Fans Don't Know What They Want

Our survey shows that 43% of Xbox 360 users have not bought a current-generation console because of price. But 58% of those very same users said they also wouldn't buy the Xbox One at the lower price of $399. (That's $100 off the original MSRP, but it comes without the Kinect motion sensor.)

This could mean one of a few different things: A) Users think $399 is still too much for the Xbox One, especially without the Kinect. B) These players have become happier with their 360. Or C) They don't really know what they want.

Current-Generation Console Users Spend More

We asked current-generation Xbox and PlayStation users how many games they've bought for their console, and a whopping 82% have purchased one to seven titles; based on the standard MSRP price of $60 a game, that's as much as $420. That seems to contradict last year's response, when 71% said they would not pay more for games. Also, the number of gamers downloading games directly to their consoles increased slightly, from 76% to 83%.

So what do you think? Is this an accurate reflection of gaming's current state -- and is that state good?

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I am one that does not consider WII users actual gamers.
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The data for this infographic was gathered from 927 survey respondents

I wonder what the margin of error is on a survey of this size given that games like COD sold well over 4 million on the console alone.

I willing to bet its +/- 15 to 20% which means all conclusions are garbage.
 
Well PCs tend to be for gaming masochists like myself. I'm sure Steam has helped with this since every PC gamer I've ever met loves Steam wholeheartedly.
 
I think most of this is generally true, I can't name a single buddy (maybe 1?) who has a new console. My PS3 is my blu-ray player and the GF has taken it over, the 360S is a great streamer/occasional gamer.
PC gaming is still quite awesome!
 
As is typical with these sorts of articles there are some major problems:

"This could mean one of a few different things: A) Users think $399 is still too much for the Xbox One, especially without the Kinect. B) These players have become happier with their 360. Or C) They don't really know what they want."

Or maybe it means Xbox gamers have grown up and become PC gamers. You don't need to be that mature to figure out that console gaming is a huge rip-off with higher prices per game, generally less content and dumbed-down gameplay. And then there's modding, one of the saving graces in the age of quick and dirty console ports for PC. The only real edge that consoles have these days is used games, and that brings me to..

"We asked current-generation Xbox and PlayStation users how many games they've bought for their console, and a whopping 82% have purchased one to seven titles; based on the standard MSRP price of $60 a game, that's as much as $420."

Are these *new* games? Because I'm betting that most of the increase comes from used titles. Furthermore, "1 to 7" is a positively meaningless range. That's like saying that people who told you a year ago that they would never buy another overpriced latte and then bought 1 to 7 this year obviously caved. Of course, these figures make more sense when you consider the next sentence:

"Also, the number of gamers downloading games directly to their consoles increased slightly, from 76% to 83%."

And there's your uptick in game purchases. Most downloaded games are cheaper indie titles, not the newest Call of Battlefield: Urban Honor. Why would you bother to spend hour upon hour downloading a game that costs the same as the DVD you can get at WalMart or Gamestop? If you ever need to reinstall that game you have physical media to do it with, too.
 
Well PCs tend to be for gaming masochists like myself. I'm sure Steam has helped with this since every PC gamer I've ever met loves Steam wholeheartedly.

I'm must be on of the few who doesn't love Steam. Certain games require that I enjoy playing and, like Origin, that is the main reason I use it.
 
Well PCs tend to be for gaming masochists like myself. I'm sure Steam has helped with this since every PC gamer I've ever met loves Steam wholeheartedly.

I'm must be on of the few who doesn't love Steam. Certain games require that I enjoy playing and, like Origin, that is the main reason I use it.

^ console user for sure that thinks origin is anything other than NASTY.

Steam for life!
PC master race ftw lol
 
I will occasionally pass on buying a game if it's DRM free because I want it in Steam. In fact, I accidentally bought Assassin's Creed III thinking it was in Steam but since it isn't I've never installed it. I'm still hoping to find someone who will trade me a Steam copy for it.
 
Things are not always that easy anyways. For me, I'm a heavy jRPG player so it's all consoles for me.
 
I like how this article assumes that the survey of "our readers" represents the views/trends of the entire gaming market. I wonder how different the number would be if the survey included those 15 million+ people who got next-gen consoles. 2014 is just a weird year for gaming.
 
I got my brother an XBO for his birthday a few months ago because he told me he didn't want a gaming PC, he preferred consoles. Now the only game he plays is Hearthstone on the media server PC I built him for Xmas hahaha. Honestly if Halo, Uncharted, Last of Us, Gears of War, and maybe 1 or two other exclusives were on PC there wouldn't be a console market besides Nintendo.
 
"I wonder what the margin of error is on a survey of this size given that games like COD sold well over 4 million on the console alone.
I willing to bet its +/- 15 to 20% which means all conclusions are garbage."

Margin of error actually shouldn't be that large since you're mainly comparing the readership of the site the survey was posted on to those that responded to the survey

Also, 927 is a decent number for a population of about 300million. Look at the US polls for 2012 election
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...the_United_States_presidential_election,_2012

Most polls with about 1000 respondents have margin of error of 3-4%. That is because the population is so large, unless you increase the sample size to say 25% of population, your margin of error won't change much.
 
I consider consoles for younger gamers and PC's for more serious mature gamers. Thankfully I'm completely out of gaming, nearly got me kicked out of engineering.
Now how is that possible? I've been a gamer all my life and still obtained my engineering degree without too much hassle, and that was back in the early/mid 80's.

And now with titles like GTA V officially making it's way to the vastly superior PC platform, things can only get better.
 
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Computer games in the 1980's were short & sweet, and very few and far between. I used to program them.

These days, you could spend a lot of time, living a better & fuller life, in a computer game. In a way, many of these PC games are not even games anymore.
 
"36% of readers have played games 12 hours or more". These people have some serious problems. Also, I will never consider Nintendo users gamers. Wii looks more like a toy to me.
 
:)
year 2001-2002: I do pc gaming for about 8 straight hours, from around 8pm till early morn.

current year 2014: I sometimes do pc gaming for 4 hours straight but now enjoys tv shows more than ever, watch the shows till my eyes drop dead.
 
This is a typical case of be careful what you wish for as developers demanded that both consoles be designated to x86 hardware which in turn just made them custom lower-mid range PC's running proprietary OS with a ton of DRM. Once smarter gamers figured this out it only made sense to just go with a custom gaming rig since ports would pretty much be seamless now.

Let's be real for a minute here both Sony and MSFT really went el cheapo on both these consoles by placing what's essentially a tablet/netbook CPU along side a two crippled lower mid end GPU. The fact that you can now get equal or better performance from GPUs that cost $120-150 only makes things worse for consoles. The final nail will be DX12 which eliminates the last advantage consoles still had in low level programming. Anyone with a old Core 2 Quad or Phenom/Athlon X4 is just better off purchasing a 750ti, R7 265 or R9 270X for a superior gaming experience.
 
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Now how is that possible? I've been a gamer all my life and still obtained my engineering degree without too much hassle, and that was back in the early/mid 80's.

And now with titles like GTA V officially making it's way to the vastly superior PC platform, things can only get better.


Games are way more immersive, cinematic and time consuming, compared to the 80s games.

Also, I'll consider PC the superior gaming "platform" when I can relax on my bean bag and game on a PC. Until then, the PS3/4 take the crown.
 
"The Wii looks like a toy" is like saying the Simpsons is only for kids. The robe doesn't make the druid, as Asterix says.
 
I had to smirk at that 64% of gamers think Wii U gamers are true gamers. I'm not saying they don't have some good games, but it's hard for me to take that console seriously.

I also think PC gaming has gotten a big boost from games like F2P games like LoL, and an insane list of others. With kids not having $60 to throw around on a new games on consoles these F2P games get them into PC gaming.

Lastly, long live the master race!
 
Why are they not true gamers? I think you're missing the point of the device.

x86 consoles have now rendered themselves a pointless purchase as PC surpasses them in all manners, except the ability to easily sit on the sofa and game. Games released for those consoles are heavily skewed towards an emphasis on graphical performance over gameplay; FPS style gameplay on a gamepad is laughable compared to a mouse and keyboard. Console-only fanatics are obsessed with 1080p@60FPS - get a PC if that's all you're looking for.

A true gamer cares about a control scheme being adapted to the style of games released for the platform, and the game experience - Wii U has done that; if you can get past the graphical style (which should be irrelevant in any case when compared to the gameplay itself), you'll find that, in the console space, the Wii U is the only option in terms of quality when you consider a) the games are largely exclusives b) the quality is second to none, and are not broken on release day.

A true gamer buys a Wii U for the exclusives to go alongside their PC platform.
 
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