With mobile gaming on the rise, some might think that it’s the “hot market” when it comes to the game industry. And it is – but you shouldn’t count out PC, as it’s likely to see an increase thanks to a core market.
The Open Gaming Alliance, a non-profit organization that keeps tabs on everything happening with the games industry business, is set to unveil its seventh annual research report at the end of this month. With it, using research from market research firm DFC Intelligence, it intends to explain how the PC gaming industry will grow even larger over the next few years. Estimates indicate that the market will rise from $26 billion in 2014 to $35 billion by 2018.
“Much of the growth is driven by pure demographics. We continue to identify a core group of consumers for whom playing on the PC is a major pastime,” said DFC analyst David Cole. “This is, in fact, a fairly new demographic that skews highly male and is only increasing in buying power.”
The report will break down specifics, such as the impact of hardware spending (like who goes all out for buying devoted gaming PC’s and such), as well as the overall growth of eSports, and how competitive gaming has become such a hot spectator sport, driven by such games as Wargaming’s World of Tanks and Riot’s League of Legends.
“In past years much of the growth in PC games has been due to adoption of the platform in Asia. Now we are estimating a potential 86 million PC gamers outside Asia that we have targeted as market growth drivers,” continued Cole. “These are the consumers that are driving spending not just on software, but also on PC hardware, as they buy expensive equipment to play, view and record games.”
OGA board member and Research Subcommittee chairman Matt Ployhar also had some input on this growth. “The recipe that keeps PC gaming on top is simple: the platform is accessible to all markets, and especially so with the free-to-play and freemium content; the hardware continues to evolve with gamers’ lifestyles, offering more choice and freedom; and, due to the ubiquity of PC’s globally, it’s easier to share, communicate and be more sociable with friends and family,” he explained. “These same factors, in part, also help explain the meteoric rise of eSports.”
Once more details emerge from this report, they’ll certainly paint a larger picture of what we can expect from this market. But good news is definitely ahead for both devoted and casual game players in this field.
