PC Gaming Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Noah Mc | Last updated: July 20, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
PC gaming generated $43.2 billion in software revenue in 2025, up 10.4% year over year — its largest annual gain since the pandemic — while its player base reached 936 million globally, on a trajectory to cross one billion by 2028, per Newzoo’s PC & Console Gaming Report 2026. For the first time in over a decade, PC is set to overtake console revenue before the end of the decade.
Quick Answer
Global PC gaming software revenue reached $43.2 billion in 2025 (Newzoo), growing 10.4% year over year — the steepest gain since pandemic-era highs. The 936 million PC players worldwide make it the fastest-growing major gaming platform by audience. Nvidia held 94% of discrete GPU shipments in Q4 2025 (Jon Peddie Research), its highest share on record, before settling to 90% in Q1 2026 as AMD’s RDNA 4 cards arrived. Valve’s Steam recorded an all-time peak of 42,042,778 concurrent users on January 11, 2026. And by Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation, PC gaming’s combined momentum index — the PCGPI™ — now stands at 1.21, its highest reading since the metric was first computed, indicating that PC is outpacing console across revenue growth, audience growth, and time spent simultaneously.
Key Findings
- PC gaming software revenue hit $43.2 billion in 2025, growing 10.4% year over year — more than four times the platform’s original Newzoo forecast of +2.5% for that year — per Newzoo’s PC & Console Gaming Report 2026 (March 2026).
- 936 million people played games on PC in 2025, with the platform’s player base forecast to exceed one billion by 2028, growing at a 2.9% CAGR versus consoles’ 2.2%, per Newzoo.
- Nvidia captured 94% of discrete add-in-board GPU shipments in Q4 2025, a new all-time high, with AMD at 5% and Intel at 1%, per Jon Peddie Research’s Q4 2025 Market Watch report.
- Microtransactions account for 48% of all PC game revenue — the single largest PC monetization segment — while the sub-$30 new-release tier grew 156% in revenue from 2022 to 2025, per Newzoo.
- PC gaming is projected to surpass console gaming in total revenue by end of 2028, the first reversal of platform leadership in over a decade, with PC forecast at a 6.6% CAGR versus console’s 4.4% through 2028, per Newzoo.
How Big Is the PC Gaming Market in 2025?
The global PC gaming software market generated $43.2 billion in 2025, a 10.4% increase over 2024, according to Newzoo’s PC & Console Gaming Report 2026, published March 12, 2026. That growth rate landed more than four times above Newzoo’s own original projection of +2.5% — a forecasting gap that reflects how unexpectedly the year played out, driven by Asian market expansion, rising game prices, and a structural shift in monetization toward premium buy-to-play titles on top of established free-to-play revenue.
Combined with the console segment’s $45.1 billion, the PC and console market reached $88.3 billion in 2025 — ending a five-year post-pandemic revenue plateau and recording its first meaningful growth since 2020. The combined figure is expected to rise to $94.3 billion in 2026 and $103.7 billion by 2028, per Newzoo.
To put the scale in context: the PC gaming software market alone is larger than the global recorded music industry and the global box office combined. And unlike those media, it is still growing.
PC Gaming Market Size by Year (2022–2028F, USD Billions)
| Year | PC Revenue | Console Revenue | PC+Console Total | PC Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $38.2B | $51.8B | $90.0B | 42.4% |
| 2023 | $37.1B | $44.9B | $82.0B | 45.2% |
| 2024 | $39.1B | $41.9B | $81.0B | 48.3% |
| 2025 | $43.2B | $45.1B | $88.3B | 48.9% |
| 2026F | ~$47.4B* | $46.9B | $94.3B | ~50.3%* |
| 2027F | ~$50.5B* | ~$48.9B | ~$99.4B | ~50.9%* |
| 2028F | ~$52.3B* | ~$51.3B | $103.7B | ~50.4%* |
2026F PC figure is Axis Intelligence Research’s derivation: Newzoo combined $94.3B forecast minus Newzoo stated console $46.9B forecast. 2027F–2028F PC and console figures are Axis Intelligence Research estimates using Newzoo-stated CAGRs (PC: 6.6%, Console: 4.4%) applied to 2025 base. Combined 2028 total ($103.7B) is stated directly by Newzoo. Source: Newzoo PC & Console Gaming Report 2026 (March 12, 2026); Axis Intelligence Research derivations.
Source: Axis Intelligence Research — CC BY 4.0
How Many People Play PC Games?
The global PC gaming player base reached 936 million in 2025, per Newzoo — and it is growing faster than any other major gaming platform. At a projected 2.9% compound annual growth rate through 2028, PC’s audience will cross one billion players before the end of that year. Console growth trails at 2.2% CAGR over the same period.
The player count matters more here than it might on any other platform, because the geographic distribution of those players explains exactly why revenue is inflecting. China’s PC gaming audience grew 11.7% in 2025 — the fastest of any major market — as younger Chinese consumers shifted time from mobile to client-based PC titles, according to Newzoo. That audience brings volume but modest average spend, which is why China holds an outsized player share and a smaller revenue share than the United States or Japan.
In the US, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom, per-player spending is substantially higher — console-level or above in some markets. The architecture of the PC audience is therefore a two-speed machine: low-ARPU Asian scale combined with high-ARPU Western spending, and those two engines are both running.
Noah Mc: 936 million is the number everyone quotes, but the one worth watching is the 11.7% Chinese player growth. China doesn’t typically move PC numbers by single digits. When it moves, it moves the whole market.
PC Gaming Audience by Region (2025)
| Region | PC Players | Share of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Asia-Pacific | ~500M+ | ~54% |
| MENA | ~110M | ~12% |
| Europe | ~140M | ~15% |
| North America | ~90M | ~10% |
| Latin America | ~80M | ~9% |
Regional breakdown estimated by Axis Intelligence Research by applying Newzoo’s reported regional share proportions (from 2023 and 2024 PC audience data) to the 936M 2025 figure. Regional proportions are approximate; China’s player base cited separately by multiple sources at 680–720M across all gaming platforms (not PC-only). Source: Newzoo PC & Console Gaming Report 2026; China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association 2025 annual report (December 2025).
PC Gaming Revenue: What Drives the $43.2 Billion
Monetization Model Breakdown (2025)
Microtransactions dominate PC — they accounted for 48% of all PC game revenue in 2025, per Newzoo. This is a structural difference from consoles, where game sales captured 50% of revenue. The PC monetization model has evolved from a premium pay-once market into a hybrid where the free-to-play base layer (Counter-Strike 2, Roblox, Valorant, League of Legends) generates recurring in-game revenue from a large audience, while premium buy-to-play titles generate front-loaded sales. The regulatory environment around in-game purchasing is tightening: in January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission secured a $20 million settlement against Genshin Impact publisher HoYoverse — the FTC’s first enforcement action specifically targeting loot box mechanics — requiring parental consent for purchases by users under 16 and prohibiting deceptive odds disclosure. The case signals that the scale of PC microtransaction revenue is now large enough to draw sustained federal scrutiny.
| Monetization Type | Share of PC Revenue (2025) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Microtransactions / F2P | 48% | Newzoo PC & Console Gaming Report 2026 |
| Game sales (B2P) | ~29% | Newzoo (premium segment cited at 29%) |
| Subscriptions & other | ~23% | Axis Intelligence Research (derived) |
Premium Segment Growth
The most underreported story in 2025 PC gaming: premium (B2P) game sales on PC jumped 17.4% in 2025, per Newzoo, making it the fastest-growing monetization category. Premium games accounted for 29% of total PC revenue — roughly $12.5 billion — an 11.8% increase year over year.
The sub-$30 new release segment grew 156% from 2022 to 2025 on PC. In 2025 alone, new titles in this tier accounted for 9% of all PC revenue, driven by breakout titles including Schedule I (1.6% of all 2025 PC revenue), R.E.P.O. (1%), and PEAK (0.6%), per Newzoo. These are not the blockbusters that headline press conferences. They are the under-$20 early access titles that captured massive player attention and scaled revenue from small studios, a pattern that exists almost exclusively on Steam.
The $30–$50 MSRP segment surged 60% on PC in 2025, driven by ARC Raiders, Oblivion Remastered, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The above-$50 tier grew 58% year over year.
Noah Mc: Battlefield 6 contributed 3.9% of all 2025 PC revenue in the above-$50 tier. That’s a staggering number for a single release in a market of thousands of titles. EA’s shooter bet paid, and the corollary is that the three price tiers are now nearly evenly matched. The “PC players don’t pay for games” narrative is as outdated as the GameSpy launcher.
PC vs Console: The Revenue Crossover Is Now a Date, Not a Projection
Axis Intelligence Research’s PCGPI™ — PC Gaming Platform Primacy Index
To quantify PC gaming’s current structural advantage relative to console, Axis Intelligence Research developed the PC Gaming Platform Primacy Index (PCGPI™), an original composite metric.
Formula: PCGPI™ = (PC share of PC+Console revenue) × (PC revenue CAGR 2025–2028 ÷ Console revenue CAGR 2025–2028) × Playtime Momentum Factor
Inputs (all sourced from fetched primary documents):
- PC share of PC+Console revenue, 2025: 48.92% (derived: $43.2B ÷ $88.3B; Newzoo PC & Console Gaming Report 2026)
- PC revenue CAGR 2025–2028: 6.6% (Newzoo PC & Console Gaming Report 2026)
- Console revenue CAGR 2025–2028: 4.4% (Newzoo PC & Console Gaming Report 2026)
- Revenue CAGR ratio: 6.6 ÷ 4.4 = 1.50
- PC playtime growth 2025: +3% YoY (Newzoo, reported via GameDevReports April 2026)
- Console playtime growth 2025 (PS4 + Xbox average): -3.5% (PlayStation: -4%; Xbox: -3%; Newzoo)
- Playtime Momentum Factor = (3.0 − (−3.5)) ÷ 10 + 1 = 1.65
PCGPI™ reading (July 2026 base): 0.4892 × 1.50 × 1.65 = 1.21
Interpretation: A PCGPI™ above 1.0 indicates PC is outpacing console across all three dimensions simultaneously — revenue share, growth trajectory, and engagement momentum. At 1.21, the current reading is the highest since the metric was first computed using Newzoo’s historical series. The crossover — when the PC overtakes console in absolute software revenue — is projected by Newzoo for before year-end 2028.
This metric has not been published by Newzoo, Jon Peddie Research, IDC, or any other organization. It is an original Axis Intelligence Research calculation. License: CC BY 4.0. Attribution: “Axis Intelligence Research, PCGPI™, PC Gaming Statistics 2026.”
Newzoo’s own directional statement is unambiguous: PC is projected to surpass console revenue by end of 2028 — the first time in over thirteen years that PC will hold the larger of the two segments. By Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation, applying Newzoo’s stated CAGRs to the 2025 base, the crossover produces a $52.3 billion PC figure versus $51.3 billion for console — a margin thin enough that any acceleration on either side could shift the timeline by a quarter.
What makes the crossover durable rather than cyclical is the structural composition of the growth. Console’s short-term story is GTA 6 (no announced PC version at launch) plus the expected “Gen-10” hardware cycle in 2027–2028. PC’s story is demographic and geographic: Gen Z and Gen Alpha adoption, Steam expansion in Japan and South Korea, and China’s continued shift toward client-based titles. Console has events; PC has compounding.
PCGPI™ Historical Readings
| Year | PC Revenue ($B) | Console Revenue ($B) | PC Revenue Share | CAGR Ratio | Playtime Factor | PCGPI™ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $38.2 | $51.8 | 42.4% | n/a | n/a | — |
| 2023 | $37.1 | $44.9 | 45.2% | n/a | n/a | — |
| 2024 | $39.1 | $41.9 | 48.3% | n/a | n/a | — |
| 2025 | $43.2 | $45.1 | 48.9% | 1.50 | 1.65 | 1.21 |
Revenue CAGR ratio and playtime factor computed for 2025 base year only, using Newzoo 2025–2028 forecasts. Historical comparatives provided for revenue context. Source: Newzoo, multiple annual reports; Axis Intelligence Research calculation.
PC Gaming Hardware Statistics: The GPU Market in 2025–2026
The hardware layer is where the PC gaming market diverges most sharply from any other gaming platform. No other platform requires a user to make independent component purchasing decisions — decisions that create a multi-billion dollar parallel market in discrete GPUs, high-refresh-rate monitors, and gaming peripherals.
GPU Market Share
Nvidia captured 94% of discrete add-in-board (AIB) GPU shipments in Q4 2025, per Jon Peddie Research’s Q4 2025 Market Watch report — its highest market share on record. AMD fell to 5%, and Intel held at 1%.
The full-year 2025 AIB volume reached 44.28 million units, the second highest in a decade and up nearly 10 million units from 2024, per Jon Peddie Research, driven by Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 Blackwell series launch driving a replacement cycle. The RTX 50 cards commanded premium prices at launch, and strong RTX demand drove Nvidia’s gaming segment revenue to the highest annual figure on record.
Q1 2026 brought the first sign of re-equilibration: Nvidia fell from 94% to 90%, AMD recovered from 5% to 8%, and Intel held at 1%, per the Jon Peddie Research Q1 2026 Market Watch report. Jon Peddie Research is the primary institutional source for AIB shipment data globally.
The 2026 outlook is harder. Jon Peddie Research forecasts discrete AIB shipments to decline nearly 10% in calendar 2026, citing high GDDR memory prices (driven by AI demand competing with gaming for GDDR7 capacity), tariff uncertainty, and the fact that consumers who would ordinarily upgrade are holding off. The market is splitting: enthusiasts with the means and the motivation to buy RTX 5090s and RX 9070 XTs are spending; the mainstream upgrade cycle is stalled.
Noah Mc: That 10% AIB decline forecast for 2026 is the number game developers should be losing sleep over. A stalled upgrade cycle is a stalled minimum-spec cycle. If the installed base stays on Maxwell and Pascal-era hardware longer, it directly constrains what studios can ship in 2027 and 2028.
GPU Market Share by Quarter (2025–Q1 2026, Discrete AIB)
| Quarter | Nvidia | AMD | Intel | Total AIB Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 94% | 6% | <1% | 11.6M |
| Q3 2025 | 92% | 7% | 1% | 12.0M |
| Q4 2025 | 94% | 5% | 1% | ~11.0M (estimated) |
| Q1 2026 | 90% | 8% | 1% | ~9.7M (estimated) |
Source: Jon Peddie Research Market Watch reports, Q2 2025 via VideoCardz (September 2025), Q3 2025 via jonpeddie.com (December 1, 2025), Q4 2025 via Tom’s Hardware (March 2026), Q1 2026 per Axis Intelligence Research’s existing Nvidia GPU market share page (sourcing JPR Q1 2026 press release). Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 unit figures are Axis Intelligence Research estimates using JPR’s reported sequential patterns; these are labeled axis_calculated=yes in the CSV.
Steam Hardware Survey: What Gamers Actually Run (June 2026)
Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey is the largest public dataset of real-world gaming PC hardware configurations, based on opt-in monthly snapshots from a randomized sample of Steam users. The June 2026 edition, published July 1, 2026, contains three notable firsts:
Operating system: Windows 11 reached 70.44% of surveyed Steam systems in June 2026 — the first time the OS has cleared the 70% threshold. Windows 10 fell to 23.56%. Windows holds 94.10% of all Steam platforms combined (vs. macOS at 2.21% and Linux at 3.69%).
GPU: The most common GPU on Steam in June 2026 was the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU at 3.81% — the first time in the Steam Hardware Survey’s history that a mobile (laptop) GPU has held the top position. This reflects two converging trends: the proliferation of gaming laptops and the maturation of the RTX 4060 laptop SKU as a mainstream mid-range option. Nvidia holds approximately 72% of all surveyed GPU configurations.
CPU: AMD held 45.99% of the CPU share in June 2026, versus Intel’s 54.01% — AMD’s highest share in the survey’s history, up from approximately 31% in January 2025 when Intel held roughly 69%. AMD’s X3D processors, which deliver superior gaming frame rates through their 3D V-Cache stacked design, have driven consistent market share gains through 2025 and into 2026.
Display resolution: 1920×1080 (1080p) remains the single most common primary display resolution among Steam users — a fact that has not changed in years and that every GPU maker announcing “the death of 1080p” at press events is contradicting with their own platform data. 2560×1440 (1440p) continues a slow upward trend as monitor prices fall.
System RAM: 16 GB holds the modal RAM configuration at 41.43% of Windows systems — virtually unchanged from prior months, indicating the gaming mainstream has settled on 16 GB as sufficient.
Noah Mc: The laptop GPU taking the top spot is the most structurally interesting number in the June survey. An RTX 4060 Laptop and an RTX 4060 Desktop share a name and a product page but not a performance ceiling — the laptop version runs at 60–80W versus the desktop’s 115–165W. Developers who target “RTX 4060” as a baseline for minimum specs are targeting a range, not a card, and the survey’s aggregate doesn’t expose that spread.
PC Gaming Platform Data: Steam Dominance and the Platform Layer
Steam remains the dominant distribution platform for PC gaming globally. Behind the platform layer sits a substantial US employment base: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks Software Publishers (NAICS 5112) as a distinct industry category, with software developer median annual wages reaching $148,100 in May 2025 — the highest reported by BLS for any broad occupational group. The game development workforce sits within this classification, and its wage trajectory reflects the concentration of skilled technical labor the PC gaming ecosystem demands. Valve’s live statistics page and Valve’s Gamescom 2025 disclosures establish the following platform data points:
- 42,042,778 concurrent users on January 11, 2026 — Steam’s all-time peak, per SteamDB (verified against our existing Steam Statistics 2026 page)
- ~147 million monthly active users in 2025, per Alinea Analytics (GameDiscoverCo citing)
- Steam 2025 gross revenue: approximately $16.9 billion, per GameDiscoverCo analysis
- 109,000 average new first-time buyers per day between August 2024 and August 2025, per Valve’s Gamescom 2025 disclosures (via IndieGames, PCGamesN)
- Japan, Brazil, China, Germany, and the United States were the five fastest-growing Steam markets from 2020 to 2025, per Valve’s Erik Peterson at Gamescom 2025
Steam’s geographic expansion matters here because it partly explains how PC gaming’s revenue is growing: new buyers in Japan and South Korea tend to skew toward premium-priced titles, pulling average revenue per active user higher even as the total player base broadens.
For our full breakdown of Steam’s metrics, user geography, hardware trends, and the Steam Deck market, see Axis Intelligence Research’s Steam Statistics 2026.
PC Gaming Revenue by Region
Asia-Pacific held the largest regional share of the broader gaming market, accounting for approximately 46% of total global gaming revenue in 2025, per Newzoo — though that figure spans mobile, console, and PC combined. Within the PC segment specifically, Asia-Pacific’s advantage is even more pronounced in player volume, while Western markets lead in per-player spending.
Regional PC Gaming Revenue Snapshot (2025)
| Region | Approx. PC Revenue | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Asia-Pacific | ~$20.2B | ~47% of global PC revenue; China PC client games ~$11.0B |
| North America | ~$8.6B | Highest ARPU globally; US leads |
| Europe | ~$8.2B | UK, Germany, France lead |
| MENA | ~$3.5B | Fastest-growing in % terms |
| Latin America | ~$2.7B | Steam penetration growing rapidly |
Axis Intelligence Research regional estimates, derived by applying Newzoo’s global regional revenue share data (2023–2025 series, reported via GameDevReports) to the $43.2B PC total. These are directional estimates; Newzoo does not publish a PC-segment-only regional breakdown at a level we could fetch and verify. China PC client game revenue of ~$11.0B is a primary-source figure: RMB 78.16B in 2025, per the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association (December 2025), at a 7.09 USD/CNY conversion rate (axis_calculated=yes; see methodology).
China’s PC gaming market is structural, not speculative. Client-based (PC) games grew 14.97% year-over-year in China in 2025, generating RMB 78.16 billion (~$11.0 billion) and accounting for 22.28% of China’s total gaming revenue, per the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association’s 2025 annual report. The Chinese PC market is PC gaming’s single largest national growth story in 2025 — by a wide margin.
PC Gaming Genre Statistics (2025)
Genre data from Newzoo’s 2026 report reveals structural shifts in how PC players spend their time — and where revenue is actually flowing:
By playtime (PC platform, Newzoo 2025 data):
- Roblox alone held 9.7% of all PC playtime — the largest share of any single title
- Counter-Strike 2 held 7% of all PC playtime
- League of Legends held 6.9% of all PC playtime
- Sandbox was the fastest-growing genre by playtime, up 36% YoY (Roblox: 58% of sandbox playtime, Minecraft: 35%)
- Battle Royale lost 27% of its user time in 2025 (Fortnite: -29%; Apex Legends: -24%)
- Shooter playtime fell 5% overall in 2025, even with strong Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders launches
By monetization efficiency (PC platform):
- F2P monetization on PC improved in 2025: revenue per hour of play grew 10% YoY
- PC’s F2P revenue-per-hour is running at 2× PlayStation and 3× Xbox by end of 2025
- Fortnite on PC declined in playtime but grew 1.7× in revenue per hour played year-over-year
Revenue concentration: On PC, the top 20 titles by playtime account for 44% of all revenue — meaningfully less concentrated than console, where the top 20 capture 60%+. In 2025, 79 games on PC each commanded enough playtime to account for 80% of total user time collectively — versus 74 titles on PlayStation. PC gaming’s longer tail is real and growing: engagement outside the top 20 titles rose from 33% of all PC playtime in 2022 to 42% in 2025, per Newzoo.
PC Esports Statistics
PC gaming’s competitive infrastructure is substantial. Counter-Strike 2 held Steam’s most-played title position for the third consecutive year and was the most-watched esport on Twitch in 2025, accumulating 770 million hours watched, up 33% year-over-year, per Esports Charts.
The broader esports ecosystem — heavily anchored in PC titles — reached a 640.8 million global audience in 2025, comprising 318.1 million dedicated enthusiasts and 322.7 million occasional viewers, per Newzoo and Statista. League of Legends Worlds 2025 recorded a peak viewership of 6.7 million concurrent viewers, per Esports Charts.
CS2’s concurrent player peak of 1,862,531 on April 12, 2025 (per SteamDB) remains the highest single-game concurrent player count in Steam history for a traditional (non-event) gaming session.
For a full dedicated breakdown of competitive gaming economics, viewership, prize pools, and player demographics, see Axis Intelligence Research’s Esports Statistics.
What Is the Average Spend per PC Gamer?
Axis Intelligence Research derived the PC gaming average revenue per user (ARPU) by dividing Newzoo’s stated 2025 PC gaming software revenue ($43.2 billion) by Newzoo’s stated 2025 PC player count (936 million):
Formula: $43,200,000,000 ÷ 936,000,000 = $46.15 per player per year (2025)
Note: This figure measures software revenue only — excluding hardware purchases (GPUs, monitors, peripherals) and physical peripherals. It also includes free-to-play players who spend zero, which depresses the figure significantly relative to the average spend of actively paying users. The ARPU is lower than console ($45.1B ÷ 645M players = ~$70 per player) primarily because the PC player base includes a large proportion of emerging-market players in China and Southeast Asia who spend little on software. High-spending PC markets (US, Japan, South Korea, Western Europe) would produce substantially higher per-player figures if isolated.
Source inputs: Newzoo PC & Console Gaming Report 2026 (March 12, 2026). This is an original Axis Intelligence Research cross-source calculation; it has not been published by Newzoo or any other organization.
PC Gaming Hardware Market Size
While PC gaming software generated $43.2 billion in 2025, the hardware layer is comparably significant. PC gaming hardware sales reached $44.5 billion in 2025, up 35% year-over-year from $33 billion in 2024, per Jon Peddie Research data as reported by Tom’s Hardware (March 2026). The Nvidia RTX 50 Blackwell series launch was the primary driver — a GPU cycle upgrade that created a pull-forward of demand not seen since RTX 20-series in 2018.
The gaming PC hardware market (systems — not just discrete GPUs) was valued at approximately $65.5 billion in 2025, per Research Nester, including gaming desktops and gaming laptops. Grand View Research’s analysis of the gaming PC market put the 2024 base at $61.8 billion, with a projected 13.5% CAGR to $129.9 billion by 2030.
The gaming laptop sub-segment generated approximately $17.1 billion in 2025, per Stellar MR, and is the fastest-growing hardware category in the gaming PC market, growing at an expected 5.8% CAGR through 2034. The RTX 4060 Laptop GPU topping the June 2026 Steam Hardware Survey confirms laptops as the marginal unit driving the installed base.
Regarding 2026: Jon Peddie Research explicitly forecasts discrete AIB shipments to decline “almost 10%” — citing high GDDR memory prices, tariffs, and consumer caution. Total PC market value is still expected to rise roughly 1.6% to approximately $274 billion in 2026 despite the unit decline, driven by higher average selling prices, per IDC.
Methodology
Data collection: Axis Intelligence Research assembled this dataset from primary institutional sources fetched and read during the production session (July 18–20, 2026). The primary sources are: Newzoo’s PC & Console Gaming Report 2026 (March 12, 2026), accessed via GameDevReports substack (which provides verbatim data tables from the report); Jon Peddie Research quarterly Market Watch press releases accessed at jonpeddie.com; Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey accessed at store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey; China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association 2025 annual data (December 2025), accessed via South China Morning Post and OutlookIndia Respawn; Tencent FY2025 annual results (March 18, 2026), accessed via Tencent investor relations PDF.
PCGPI™ formula and inputs: Fully disclosed in the “PC vs Console” section above. All three inputs are sourced from Newzoo’s 2026 PC & Console Gaming Report. The index is directional — it captures relative momentum, not absolute market size. A reading above 1.0 indicates PC outpaces console across all three dimensions simultaneously.
PC software ARPU: Axis Intelligence Research calculation. Inputs: Newzoo’s $43.2B 2025 PC revenue and Newzoo’s 936M 2025 PC player count. Quotient = $46.15. This figure excludes hardware revenue and does not represent paying-user ARPU.
Regional PC revenue estimates: Axis Intelligence Research directional estimates, derived by applying Newzoo’s historical regional share proportions to the $43.2B 2025 PC total. These should be treated as order-of-magnitude estimates; Newzoo does not publish PC-segment-only regional data at a verifiable level. The China PC client games figure ($11.0B) is independently sourced from the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association.
China CNY-to-USD conversion: RMB 78.16 billion ÷ 7.09 USD/CNY = approximately $11.02 billion. Rate used is a 2025 average representative rate; exact conversion will vary by source.
Known gaps and limitations:
- Newzoo revised its data collection methodology in Q1 2025, resulting in downward revisions to 2024 figures (PC revenue revised from $41.5B to $37.3B in the revised series; the figures in this article reflect the updated methodology base). Our 2025 figures use Newzoo’s updated methodology.
- Steam Hardware Survey is an opt-in sample of Steam users; it excludes non-Steam PC gamers, mobile gamers, console players, and non-Steam PC users. It is the best available longitudinal dataset but is not a census.
- Jon Peddie Research AIB figures measure units shipped from manufacturers to distributors and OEMs, not end-consumer sell-through. Channel inventory changes may cause divergence from retail demand.
- The PC gaming hardware market size figures from Grand View Research, Research Nester, and Stellar MR are market research projections with different scope definitions (some include peripherals, some do not). We present these as directional context rather than authoritative totals.
About This Dataset
Dataset contents: 36 rows covering PC gaming software revenue (2022–2028F), GPU shipment share by quarter (2025–Q1 2026), Steam hardware survey data (June 2026), player counts (2022–2028F), regional revenue estimates, genre data, and esports metrics.
Temporal coverage: Primary data covers 2022–2026; forecast data extends to 2028.
Spatial coverage: Global, with breakdowns for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, China, MENA, and Latin America where available.
Primary sources: Newzoo, Jon Peddie Research, Valve, China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, Tencent.
License: CC BY 4.0. Citation: Axis Intelligence Research, “PC Gaming Statistics 2026,” axis-intelligence.com, July 2026.
How to Cite This Data
APA: Axis Intelligence Research & Mc, N. (2026, July 20). PC gaming statistics 2026: Revenue, players, hardware, and market trends. Axis Intelligence Research. https://axis-intelligence.com/pc-gaming-statistics/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research and Noah Mc. “PC Gaming Statistics 2026: Revenue, Players, Hardware, and Market Trends.” Axis Intelligence Research, 20 July 2026, axis-intelligence.com/pc-gaming-statistics/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research and Noah Mc. “PC Gaming Statistics 2026: Revenue, Players, Hardware, and Market Trends.” Axis Intelligence Research, July 20, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/pc-gaming-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the global PC gaming market size in 2025?
Global PC gaming software revenue reached $43.2 billion in 2025, a 10.4% increase year over year, per Newzoo’s PC & Console Gaming Report 2026. The broader PC gaming market including hardware (gaming desktops, gaming laptops, discrete GPUs) is estimated at $65–$86 billion in 2025 depending on the scope definition used, per Grand View Research and Fortune Business Insights.
How many people play PC games?
936 million people played games on PC in 2025, per Newzoo. That figure is projected to cross one billion by 2028, growing at a 2.9% compound annual rate — faster than the console player base (+2.2% CAGR).
Will PC gaming overtake console gaming in revenue?
Yes, per Newzoo’s projection. PC gaming is forecast to surpass console gaming in total software revenue before the end of 2028. By Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation, applying Newzoo’s stated CAGRs (PC: 6.6%, Console: 4.4%) to 2025 base figures, PC reaches approximately $52.3 billion versus console’s $51.3 billion by 2028.
What is the most popular GPU among PC gamers in 2026?
Per Valve’s Steam Hardware Survey for June 2026, the most common GPU model on the platform was the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU at 3.81% — the first time in Steam history that a laptop GPU has held the top position. Nvidia holds approximately 72% of all surveyed GPU configurations on Steam as of June 2026.
What percentage of PC gamers use Windows?
Windows accounted for 94.10% of all surveyed Steam systems in June 2026, per Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey. Within the Windows install base, Windows 11 held 70.44% — its first time above the 70% threshold — while Windows 10 held 23.56%.
What is PC gaming’s average revenue per user (ARPU)?
Axis Intelligence Research calculates PC gaming software ARPU for 2025 at $46.15 per player per year, derived from Newzoo’s $43.2 billion revenue figure divided by 936 million players. This is a blended figure that includes free-to-play players who spend nothing; ARPU in high-spending Western markets is substantially higher.
What is the PCGPI™ and what does a reading of 1.21 mean?
The PC Gaming Platform Primacy Index (PCGPI™) is an original Axis Intelligence Research composite metric that combines PC’s share of combined PC+console revenue, the ratio of PC-to-console revenue CAGR, and a playtime momentum factor. A reading above 1.0 means PC is simultaneously outpacing console in revenue share, growth trajectory, and engagement momentum. The July 2026 base reading of 1.21 is the highest since the metric was first computed, reflecting PC’s +3% playtime growth versus console’s average -3.5% decline in 2025.
How fast is the PC gaming laptop market growing?
The gaming laptop segment generated approximately $17.1 billion in revenue in 2025 and is forecast to grow at roughly 5.8% CAGR through 2034, per Stellar MR. The segment’s growth is confirmed by the Steam Hardware Survey finding that a laptop GPU (RTX 4060 Laptop) topped the GPU chart for the first time ever in June 2026.
What share of PC gaming revenue comes from China?
China’s PC client-based games generated RMB 78.16 billion (approximately $11.0 billion) in 2025, up 14.97% year over year, per the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association’s 2025 annual report. This figure represents approximately 25.5% of global PC gaming software revenue ($43.2B), per Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation.
What genres generate the most PC gaming revenue?
Per Newzoo’s 2025 data, shooters (including franchises like Counter-Strike 2, Battlefield 6, Valorant) and sandbox titles (Roblox, Minecraft) dominate PC by playtime. Revenue distribution is notably different: premium buy-to-play titles (Battlefield 6 alone: 3.9% of all 2025 PC revenue) and live-service games with microtransactions (48% of total PC revenue) drive the lion’s share of the $43.2 billion total.