PC Gaming Market Reaches Almost A Billion Players With 92% Of Them Preferring To Play Older Games

Expert Verified By

Most Hours Spent On Live-Service Games!

Story Highlight
  • PC gaming has 907.5 million users as of 2024, whereas the console market only has 653.5 million. 
  • 92% of gamers from this amount preferred to play older games. 
  • Moreover, most hours were spent on live service games.

While fans may agree on the best console option for gaming, the PC is by far the most viable option for gamers worldwide. A new report suggests the market is closing on a billion players.

Moreover, the same report reveals that 92% of this player base’s total audience prefers to play older games.

Why it matters: Despite the rise of video games in the past few years, possibly the only upside of the pandemic, video game quality is declining, as evidenced by these figures. The industry needs to fix the root cause and retreat to its older ways of game development.

steam 40 million user
Steam Hits Over 40 Million Concurrent Users For The First Time, Huge Milestone For PC Gaming

A new article by PCGamer, which got an early sneak peek at the report by Newzoo, a company known for gathering video game analytics and reports, revealed the following metrics: The PC gaming market increased to 907.5 million players in 2024 from 873.5 million players in 2023.

The console player count reached an estimated 653.1 million users in 2024. 73,000 players conducted this survey, which used data from over 10,000 games.

Returning to the PC side, Newzoo reports a higher concentration on live-service titles from PC gamers. Almost 67% of the total play hours were reported to have been spent on games six years or older.

PlayStation Live Service Games
PlayStation Live Service Games Push Ruined The Entire Console Generation For Them

The remaining 25% was spent on games 2-5 years old, while the remaining 8% was spent on newer games released in the last few years. A major chunk of the total hours, 7.1%, was spent on Counter-Strike 2, whereas 5.4% was spent on Fortnite. 

This also explains why the industry is prevalent in pushing live-service titles: If done right, they can be easy cash cows for publishers.

What are your thoughts on this report? Let us know in the comments below or head towards the Tech4Gamers forum.

Was our article helpful? 👨‍💻

Thank you! Please share your positive feedback. 🔋

How could we improve this post? Please Help us. 😔

Gear Up For Latest News

Get exclusive gaming & tech news before it drops. Sign up today!

Join Our Community

Still having issues? Join the Tech4Gamers Forum for expert help and community support!

Latest News

Join Our Community

104,000FansLike
32,122FollowersFollow

Trending

Black Ops 7 Beta Struggles on Steam – Player Count Nearly 5x Lower Than Battlefield 6 Beta

According to SteamDB, Black Ops 7 beta player count only topped at about 100K players, compared to Battlefield 6 beta's over 500K.

Activision Claims 97% Of Black Ops 7 Cheaters Are Banned Within 30 Minutes

97% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 cheaters were banned within 30 minutes of signing in, while only 1% made it into the game.

Silent Hill 3 Remake Reportedly Coming in 2028 as Bloober Team Works on Resident Evil-Inspired New IP

Bloober Team is rumored to be working on a Silent Hill 3 remake and a new Resident Evil-inspired IP, with releases expected in 2026 and 2028.

Battlefield 6: EA Promises 120 FPS Performance on Consoles and Free DLC Support

Battlefield 6 to support 120FPS, and alongside, EA to give out a free DLC titled 'Covert Operations' during Season 1.

Microsoft Reportedly Scrapped Its Xbox Handheld After AMD’s Shocking Demands

A new report reveals that the first-party Xbox handheld was cancelled because AMD demanded 10 million sales to develop a custom SoC.