I do not know where did this assumption come from as to Consoles being popular than PC's. I'll also just assume that it might be an area related observation of yours.

To my best of knowledge, I think PC's might actually be the more popular one in the context of my location. Well, the reason for that may as well be the affordability between the two.

Sure, PC can get too expensive than the current prices of the current Consoles depending on how you build it (Might not apply against PS5). But the variation and the freedom on how you can make a budget build with a PC while taking gaming into account as well as using it for work are those that I count as variables that makes PC more popular. Along with how the information of building one and its technicalities are easily accessible these days.

But that's just me.

arent those just mobile gamers?:O
Sorry but i cant believe there are that many pc gamers in china.
if pc is more popular then why publishers want console games first and then port it to pc maybe?

"if pc is more popular then why publishers want console games first and then port it to pc maybe?"

Hmmm, i am sorry I dont know about that.

The way I will see this situation console to pc port, It might as well be publishers wanting to see on how the games fairs in terms of number players in their platform then just port to PC if the numbers seem lacking or just want to.

Its like how the ported game has a lot more players in a certain platform than the other, of course i will state with Bias, the game is more popular in PC then the console version, prolly about how the game is updated often, some graphical settings, or in terms of multiplayer when the game does not have cross-play where PC has much more player.

But again, I do not have an evidence, it is a mere assumption.

Maybe this can help shed some light on the matter:

MobyGames Stats - 2020 edition

no it doesn't

They... don't? Most multiplatform games come to PC either first, simultaneously or as soon as possible. Only some Japanese publishers still focus on consoles over PC outside of specific exclusivity deals and that is probably attributable to a cultural thing above anything else.

I prefer consoles because they are plug n play. They age better too, I can play a game from 1996 now as easy as I could then. Besides that a lot of the differences are disappearing.

It's an interesting question, thanks for breathing some life into these forums by making your threads OP! Ignore the naysayers and people shouting 'tRoLL' at you. They fail to look in the mirror. Daily.

I approach your question from a different point of view - money and devs either outright focusing on consoles and keeping PC gamers as an afterthought, or, devs treating the two market segments equally despite differing user bases and the fact that they really should be catering to PC gamers first.

In terms of revenue, PC gaming loses out as it's market share is 23% vs consoles' 28%.

https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/

Considering that it's pretty clear there are more PC gamers out there, it proves the assertion that console gamers spend more on games than PC gamers.

It's a hard pill to swallow, but PC gamers don't like to pay, either full-price, or at all for their games. Massive discounts on digital distribution platforms means that like clockwork pretty much all PC gamers just wait until the next sale to buy something at 70%-90% off, reducing those revenue values steeply. Consider also that the success of the game's sales in the first few months determines the feasibility of a studio's next project. The long-tail is surely increasingly more important, especially on PC, but the reality is that budgets do not depend on the revenue that comes 3 years after release. Even then, popular AAA titles sell less on PC than on consoles regularly. Combining it all, it becomes apparent why the revenue figures are lower for PC than consoles.

If consoles are more, or as lucrative as PC gaming, it's clear why there is such a focus on them.

As others have said, PC gaming is only less popular if you count console gaming as a whole, and even then it's not the massive difference people think it is.

That said there's a real difference where the revenue comes from. A lot more of PC gaming's revenue comes from live service payments, last I checked, like Warcraft subs or Fortnite skins. Also genre really matters, stuff like Skyrim sells a lot more on PC revenue share wise than stuff like Devil May Cry, again the last the time I checked. This is slowly changing though as more and more people use a PC like a console with a controller under a TV. Look how much JRPGs have been blowing up on Steam.

These stats are no good. They are not counting all the ways that users on PC can purchase their games. I can not find the reddit post but I did email the site for the break down but a couple of stores were not listed:

* Humble Bundle
* Fanatical
* itch.io
* GameJolt
* GreenManGaming
* Direct from Devs
* IndieGala Store

and more I just listed those that had their own launcher or ways to play the games outside of adding them to another service.

There are also niche console markets missing like the Sega Genesis sales of Brazil and South America as a whole where that console is still selling and games still being made for it. With the latest being Coffee Crisis, Xeno Crisis, Tanglewood, Penguin Land and others.

Unfortunately not too many companies are transparent with their numbers not even with their own investors. The closes thing we have to do that is SteamDB which extracts and post live data daily.

Then you have things like browser based games that have their own stores and markets that are never factored in from things like Runescape and surviv.io...are MXT purchase on there counted as computer sales or what? Many of these are cross-platform with android and ios and they count those sales on their end.

Then you have the freeware scene that is big in the US but even bigger in the Japan and South America, while there are no sales there many freeware developers have patreon and paypal pages. I'll consider these donations as oppose to sales but still it's a market.

Are you saying these and others are worth 8 billion USD or more (28% vs 23% of revenue)? Because I find that extremely hard to believe.

And even if they were worth 8 billion, that would get the revenue market share equal between PC and consoles. This would still mean that console gamers spend more money per capita, due to differing userbases.

The numbers are far from perfect, but two points remain:
1. Higher or similar revenue on consoles than on PC
2. Higher spending per gamer on console than on PC

These are very difficult to argue against, which is why we suffer from studios emphasising consoles a lot, i.e. 'consolitis'.

I don't speculate, I'm just looking for real numbers.

I was under the impression for many studios that they published on console first because of cash/support infusions from those console makers. I know that GDC has vids and podcast on it but it's not something I follow as I've never been into consoles but I hear about it being reference a lot when the EPIC exclusive issue was a topic on various sites.

I know that it's very hard to consolidate all computer game sales because of the open nature of it all and that most of the data is self reported from indie devs to big publishers. There just seems to be a lot of other areas of computer gaming that ppl seem to glance over from browser based mmos to others. I look at it this way if MULTIPLE companies are pouring money into to make these products then their revenue is not be laughed at. I've always found it strange when data polls like this skip over this stuff without even mentioning it at all.

I'm not sure how you can say that the Newzoo 2020 analytical study (where the revenue market shares come from) didn't consider those areas, when the whole methodology is a blackbox and behind paywalls.

And you say you don't speculate, but you just did ;)

Anyways, once again I'm going to repeat - the exact numbers aren't actually important to the points I was making about console gaming being very lucrative compared to PC gaming. And why devs focus so much on consoles.

Incorrect - That link was posted on reddit awhile back and it has a break down of the data which was pulled and it was only the major companies like Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, EA and such. Still looking for it.

Why post a black boxed data link when we can't verify, though?

That link you posted seems to be damaged.