There are more PC gamers than ever but they’re all stuck in the past

The amount of PC gamers has jumped over the past year, but the overwhelming majority are still playing only playing old games.

While the console market has plateaued over the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S generation, one area has continued to rise: PC gaming.

This is apparent not only through analyst reports but in the actions of Sony and Microsoft over recent years, with both companies releasing games on PC to try and recoup the increasingly high development costs of console games.

The rise of PC gaming has been reinforced in new data from video game market intelligence company Newzoo, along with the fact that only a small minority are actually playing new games.

According to Newzoo’s yearly survey (via PC Gamer), which polled 73,000 players and pulled data from over 10,000 games, the PC market grew from an estimated 873.5 million players in 2023 to 907.5 million in 2024.

This is considerably larger than console audience estimations of 653.1 million in 2024, although based on Newzoo’s prior reports, this has also seemingly increased, from around 625 million players in 2023.

According to Newzoo, the vast majority of these PC players are playing older live service games. From January 2024 to December 2024, 67% of player hours on PC were spent on games that were six or more years old.

A further 25% of player hours were spent on games that were two to five years old. The remaining 8%, meanwhile, was spent on games that were released within the past two years.

Just to hammer the point home, that means a whopping 92% of time spent playing games on PC is dedicated to games that are at least two years old.

The top games within the 67% chunk were Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (including Counter-Strike 2, which was released last year but is not considered a true sequel) with 7.1% of total hours, followed by League Of Legends at 6.4%, and Roblox at 6.2%.

Notably, the top five games in this portion are all free-to-play live service titles, with Dota 2 and Fortnite taking up the remaining slots.

This skew towards old live service games has been highlighted before, for both consoles and PC, but the point is worth reiterating – especially when it comes to understanding why so many developers are chasing the live service trend, despite the likelihood of any given project being shut down months later.

The size of the PC market also tracks with the amount of games being developed for the platform. In a GDC State Of The Industry survey from earlier this year, 80% of over 3,000 developers said they were making a game for PC, a 14% rise from 66% in 2024. This figure has been steadily growing since 2020, when it was at 56%.

In comparison, 38% were developing a game for the PlayStation 5, while 34% were targeting the Xbox Series X/S. It’s important to note though that the GDC report skews heavily towards Western developers, with mobile being more prominent in Asia and PC less popular in Japan.

While the PC market is growing, it’s important to note that console gaming is still bigger in terms of overall revenue. As highlighted in a report from Newzoo last year, console games make up 28% of the overall games market, whereas PC sits at 22%, and mobile is at 49%.

Regardless, the steady growth within the PC space might have a ripple effect on Sony and Microsoft’s plans for the next generation, with the latter reportedly developing a PC-like handheld with a third party company and planning a ‘PC in a box’ approach for its next home device.

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