Say what you will about the state of PC gaming, but as far as hardware sales are concerned, the industry is doing rather well according to the PC Gaming Alliance. The group says that PC gaming hardware shipments doubled that of all the main consoles combined in 2009, including the Wii, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Unfortunately (or conveniently), the press release (PDF) doesn't mention whether "PC gaming hardware" constitutes individual components or entire machines. That's probably dissected in the full report, which is tucked behind a $5,000 to $30,000 membership fee.
Revenue from consumer desktops and laptops shipped with discrete graphics totaled $54.6 billion, which is expected to reach $61.3 billion by 2014. The Asia Pacific region represents 33% of that market, while Western Europe and the US account for 24% and 21.5%.
Around 212.6 million people play games on such computers, and that's predicted to grow to 322 million by 2014. The PCGA also notes that gamers are relying more on notebooks to get their fix, which isn't too surprising with the increasing availability of powerful and efficient systems.