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PC Gaming Statistics: How Many PC Gamers are There? (2023)

Last updated: 4 months ago
7 min read

Estimated 1.83 billion people worldwide play PC games, which is more than half of all gamers in the world. So, is PC gaming really dying?

Learn the answer to the question and also:

  • How many PC gamers are in different world regions
  • How old are they?
  • How profitable is PC gaming compared to consoles and mobile?
PC Gaming Statistics

PC Gaming Statistics

  • Out of 3.03 billion gamers worldwide, an estimated 1.83 billion are PC gamers.
  • Most PC gamers come from Asia (687.6 million), but North America has the highest share compared to all gamers in the region (77.8%).
  • Gamers of all types and ages are the least keen on playing offline PC games.
  • Despite the PC gaming industry earning “only” $38.2 billion in 2022, much less than the console and mobile gaming market, up to 63% of developers still develop games for PC.
  • Up to 31% of PC gamers in the US are between 30 to 39 years old compared to younger PlayStation gamers from the 25-to-35 age group and Xbox users with an average of 33 years.

How Many PC Gamers are There?

  • There are estimated 1.83 billion PC gamers in the world in 2023.

The data was last updated in 2022; however, Statista also reports a decrease in overall gamer count from 3.2 billion to 3.03 billion by the end of 2022.

Meaning that the real number of PC gamers in 2023 can be lower than expected.

The table shows the estimated number of PC gamers worldwide from 2016 to 2023:

YearNumber of
PC gamers
worldwide
Number of
gamers
worldwide
Share of
PC gamers
compared to
all gamers
20231.828 billion
(estimated)
3.26 billion
(estimated)
56.1%
20221.799 billion
(estimated)
3.03 billion59.4%
20211.774 billion3.21 billion55.3%
20201.746 billion3.05 billion57.2%
20191.553 billion2.62 billion59.3%
20181.497 billion2.49 billion60.1%
20171.449 billion2.39 billion60.6%
(Statista, Statista 2)

Number of PC Gamers per Region

  • Unsurprisingly, Asia held the biggest number of PC gamers at 687.6 million in 2021.

That represented 48.5% of all gamers in Asia that year.

Here are the numbers of PC gamers in different regions and their percentage based on all gamers in that region:

World regionNumber of
PC gamers
Number of
all gamers
Share of
PC gamers
compared to
all gamers
Asia687.6 million1417.2 million48.5%
Europe468.4 million667.8 million70.1%
Latin America258.7 million382.8 million67.6%
North America203.2 million261.3 million77.8%
MENA62.3 million161.6 million38.5%
Sub-Sahara
Africa
47.3 million134.3 million35.2%
Oceania20.7 million35.6 million58.1%
(DFC, Statista 3)

Is PC Gaming Dying?

The idea that PC gaming is dying dates back to (at least) 2008. It’s brought up anytime the PC video game industry shrinks its revenue, loses some players, or when next-gen consoles come out.

Right now, the main reason is the astronomical prices of PC hardware, while next-gen consoles like PS5 or Xbox Series X offer beautiful graphics and smooth framerates for under $600.

Moreover, gamers of all interests and age groups are less likely to play games on PC than on consoles or mobile.

Here’s a more detailed view of how gamers like to play their games based on type:

Gamer typePrefer playing
on mobile
ConsolesPC onlinePC offline
Gamer
(in general)
72%41%29%20%
Enthusiastic
gamer
73%53%42%26%
Casual
gamer
70%31%18%15%
(Morning Consult)

And here, you can see how gamers like to play their games based on age:

Gamer agePrefer playing
on mobile
ConsolesPC onlinePC offline
18-34 years74%61%38%24%
35-44 years79%55%32%23%
45-64 years73%23%17%14%
65+ years51%8%25%21%
(Morning Consult)
  • Despite that, Steam data shows that the number of active weekly users (on the platform and in-game) is steadily growing.
MonthAll weekly
Steam users
In-game
Steam users
March 2023
(current peak)
33.6 million10.1 million
January 202333.1 million10.3 million
January 202228.7 million8.2 million
January 202125.4 million7.1 million
January 202018.1 million5.6 million
(SteamDB)
  • Another proof that PC games will keep coming is that up to 63% of developers make games for PC.

That’s twice as much as for PlayStation 5 and still more when you combine PS5 and PS4.

Here are the percentages of developers that make games based on different platforms:

Gaming platformPercentage
of developers
creating games
PC63%
PS531%
Android30%
iOS30%
Xbox Series X/S29%
Xbox One/One X22%
PS4 (and Pro)21%
Nintendo Switch20%
Mac18%
Web browser games10%
VR7%
Linux3%
Stadia
(already dead service)
3%
(Statista 4)

Nonetheless, PC gaming isn’t dying which video game addiction statistics clearly show.

PC Gamers vs. Console Gamers

  • The average monthly PC gamer’s playtime is around 7.5 hours.

That’s much less compared to the 17 hours per week that people spend playing Xbox.

Here are the average playtime compared to other video gaming platforms:

Gaming platformAverage weekly playtime
PC7.5 hours
PS513 hours
Xbox17.1 hours
Mobile9.8 hours
Nintendo Switch6.4 hours
(Lenovo, Sony, Switch Weekly, Globe Newswire, MSpoweruser)
  • There were 132 million monthly active PC users on Steam only in 2021.

That’s much more than on PlayStation and Xbox.

Unfortunately, Steam didn’t provide a refreshed monthly count for 2022 in its yearly report.

Here’s the table showing the average monthly players for different gaming consoles:

YearPC (Steam)PlayStationXbox
2022n/a108 millionn/a
2021132 million106.6 million46 million
2020120 million111.25 millionn/a
(Steam, Steam 2, Sony, Weil)

PC vs. Console Market Share

  • Proof that gaming isn’t dying is the fact that its revenue, while the lowest of the three major gaming platforms, is still growing year by year.
Global gaming industry revenue share

Here’s a breakdown of PC vs. mobile vs. console market revenues:

YearGlobal PC
revenue share
MobileConsole
2022$38.2 billion$92.2 billion$51.8 billion
2021$36.7 billion$93.2 billion$50.4 billion
2020$36.9 billion$77.2 billion$45.2 billion
2019$35.3 billion$68.2 billion$45.3 billion
(Newzoo, Newzoo 2, Newzoo 3, Newzoo 4)

PC Gaming Market Share

  • The PC gaming industry only held the 5th highest market share in 2022.

On the other hand, mobile games dominate the market at 50% share.

Here’s a more detailed view of the gaming revenue market share:

YearPC gaming
market share
MobileConsole
202221%50%28%
202120%52%28%
202023%48%28%
201924%46%30%
(Newzoo, Newzoo 2, Newzoo 3, Newzoo 4)

How much do PC gamers spend per region?

  • PC gamers in Western Europe will spend an estimated $16.7 billion on PC hardware in 2024.

That’s $300 million more than Chinese PC gamers.

World regionEstimated spending
among PC gamers
Western Europe$16.7 billion
China$16.4 billion
Eastern Europe/
MENA
$14.3 billion
North America$12.5 billion
Asia/ROW$10.9 billion
Latin America$2.8 billion
(DFC 2)

PC Gamer Demographics

  • The majority, up to 31% of American PC gamers, are between 30 and 39 years old.

Surprisingly, 8% of PC gamers are between 60 to 64 years old.

Age groupPercentage of
PC gamers
18-19 years6%
20-29 years22%
30-39 years31%
40-49 years19%
50-59 years14%
60-64 years8%
(Statista 5)
  • In 2020, out of all millennial gamers, 56% were playing PC games.

At the time, that represented gamers aged 23-38.

Age generationPercent of
PC gamers
in generation
Gen Z (age 10-22)51%
Millennials (age 23-38)56%
Gen X (age 39-50)51%
(Statista 6)
  • The average age of PC gamers worldwide in 2014 was 38.

The average age in 2011 was 37, which could indicate PC gamers might be getting older.

Especially compared to PlayStation users, most of them between 25 and 36 years, and Xbox users, with an average age of 33.

Average
PC gamer
age
Average
PlayStation
gamer age
Average
Xbox gamer
age
38 years25-36 years33 years
(PCGamesN, Destructoid, Sony, Windows Central)
  • Up to 41% of PC gamers in the US are females.

That leaves the other 59% to males. This is the exact ratio between PS4/PS5 gamers in 2021 (Sony).

The ratio was much more even in 2014, when US female gamers represented 50.1% of PC video gamers.

YearShare of US
female PC gamers
Share of US
male PC gamers
April 202241%59%
201742%58%
201450.1%49.9%
(Statista 7, PC Gamer, Windows Central)
  • Taiwan had the highest global PC gaming reach of 46% in 2020.
CountryPercentage of
PC gaming reach
in 2020
Taiwan46%
China45%
Philippines44%
(Statista 8)

For how long have PC players played games?

  • Most PC gamers have been playing video games for over 14 years.

Most passionate hardcore PC gamers play games in such a way for an average of 10 years.

On the other hand, “casual customizers”, as Lenovo calls them, play games only occasionally and like building and customizing their PCs on their own, games for 24 years on average.

Also, hardcore gamers are less likely to play offline, single-player games.

Type of PC gamerAverage time
they’ve been
playing PC games
Hardcore10 years
Avid9 years
Moderate15 years
Casual16 years
Casual customizer24 years
(Lenovo)

When do PC gamers play games?

  • Up to 69% of PC gamers prefer to start gaming once the sun goes down.

Here’s when PC gamers prefer to play video games:

When the sun
goes down
In the eveningAt night
69%46%23%
(Lenovo)
  • 67% of PC gamers see work as the main reason they don’t play more games.

Here are other reasons that keep PC gamers away from spending more time gaming:

Reasons why PC gamers
don’t play as much games
Percentage
Work67%
No data or
computer access
56%
Family56%
House chores45%
(Lenovo)

PC Gaming Hardware Statistics

  • Intel remains the king of CPUs, holding almost 71% of the global revenue share by vendors in 2022.

However, AMD saw an 8.1% jump in revenue from 2021 and 2022, going from 11.74% to 19.84%.

CPU brandMarket share
in 2022
Market share
in 2021
Intel70.77%80.71%
AMD19.84%11.74%
AWS3.16%1.82%
Ampere1.52%/
Others4.71%4.62%
(Counterpoint)

Even when it comes to ownership of CPUs, Intel had a comfortable 62.8% distribution share compared to AMDs 35.2% in Q4 2022.

However, Intel lost 20% of its share compared to the golden years in 2016.

Quarter of the yearIntelAMD
Q4 202262.8%35.2%
Q4 202162.1%34.3%
Q4 202061.5%38.5%
Q4 201968.4%31.5%
Q4 201877.1%22.9%
Q4 201778.9%21%
Q4 201682.2%17.8%
Q4 201579.6%20.4%
Q4 201476.6%23.4%
Q4 201374.8%25.2%
Q4 201270.8%29.2%
(Statista 9)

Graphics card market share

  • Interestingly, Intel has the biggest GPU market share of 71% in Q4 2022.

Though, that’s due to integrated GPUs inside their CPUs, many of which are used in Ultrabooks without discrete graphics cards.

GPU brandGPU market share
in Q4 2022
Intel71%
Nvidia17%
AMD12%
(Statista 10)
  • Up to 90% of PC gamers own a gaming PC rather than a standard one.

Also, the top 3 things gamers are most likely to change to enhance performance are GPU, CPU, and RAM. 

The survey was done in 2018 and published in 2019 by Lenovo.

(Lenovo)

Nvidia vs. AMD revenue

  • Nvidia’s revenue for the 2023 fiscal year is $26.97 billion.

That’s just around $600 million more compared to 2022. While this is still a record revenue, it may indicate some stagnation over poor reception of the expensive RTX 4000 generation of GPUs.

Nonetheless, the year-on-year quarterly growth in Q4 2022 was down by -20.83%.

Fiscal yearNvidia’s revenueAMD’s revenue
2023$26.97 billion$23.6 billion
2022$26.91 billion$16.43 billion
2021$16.68 billion$9.76 billion
2020$10.92 billion$6.73 billion
2019$11.72 billion$6.47 billion
2018$9.71 billion$5.25 billion
2017$6.91 billion$4.32 billion
2016$5.01 billion$4 billion
(macrotrends, macrotrends 2)

Conclusion

These were some of the latest and most interesting PC gaming statistics. As you can see, PC gaming is far from dying, with small but steady yearly growth in players and revenue.

What do you think is the future of gaming? Do you prefer PC or console gaming? Let us know in the comments below.

Related:

  1. Statista, Number of PC gaming users worldwide. Published Nov 24, 2022. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 2, Number of video game users worldwide. Published Nov 11, 2022. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 3, Number of PC gaming users worldwide in 2021, by region. Published Oct 25, 2022. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 4, Share of game developers worldwide working on game projects for selected platforms in 2023. Published Jan 23, 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 5, PC/laptop video game players in the United States in 2022, by age. Published Apr 4, 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 6, Share of active PC gamers worldwide in 2020, by age group. Published Jul 27, 2022. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 7, PC/laptop video game players in the United States in 2022, by gender. Published Apr 5, 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 8, PC gaming penetration in selected countries worldwide as of September 2020. Published Jul 21, 2022. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 9, Distribution of Intel and AMD x86 computer central processing units (CPUs) worldwide from 2012 to 2022, by quarter. Published Feb 28, 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Statista 10, PC graphics processing unit (GPU) shipment share worldwide. Published Feb 28, 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. DFC, Global Gamers by Region. Published Sep 21, 2021. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. DFC 2, PC Gamer Hardware Spending 2024 by Region. Published Sep 22, 2021. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Morning Consult, Console Is Still King. Published Nov 8, 2021. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. SteamDB, Steam Charts. Published 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Newzoo, Newzoo Global Games Market Report 2022. Published Jul 26, 2022. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Newzoo 2, The Games Market and Beyond in 2021: The Year in Numbers. Published Dec 22, 2021. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Newzoo 3, The World’s 2.7 Billion Gamers Will Spend $159.3 Billion on Games in 2020. Published May 8, 2020. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Newzoo 4, Newzoo Adjusts Global Games Forecast to $148.8 Billion. Published Nov 19, 2019. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. PCGamesN, PC gamer statistics reveal equal gender split and average age of 38. Published Sep 11, 2014. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Destructoid, PC vs Console Gaming infographic: PC is making a comeback. Published Sep 29, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Sony, Game & Network Services Segment. Published 2021. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Windows Central, Internal Microsoft research provides insight on Xbox One owners. Published May 12, 2017. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. PC Gamer, Researchers find that female PC gamers outnumber males. Published Oct 29, 2014. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Lenovo, Next Gen Gamers: Beyond the Stereotype. Published 2019. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. Counterpoint, Data Center CPU Market: AMD Surpasses Intel in Share Growth. Published Feb 27, 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. macrotrends, NVIDIA Revenue 2010-2023. Published 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. macrotrends 2, AMD Revenue 2010-2022. Published 2023. Accessed May 3, 2023.
  1. MSpoweruser, Study shows Xbox One users spend more time playing games than PS4 users. Published Sep 28, 2016. Accessed May 4, 2023.
  1. Switch Weekly, The State of Switch 2022. Published Mar 26, 2022. Accessed May 4, 2023.
  1. Globe Newswire, Over Two-thirds of U.S. Adults Increase Time Spent Gaming. Published Feb 24, 2022. Accessed May 4, 2023.
  1. Steam, Steam – 2021 Year in Review. Published Mar 8, 2022. Accessed May 4, 2023.
  1. Steam 2, Steam – 2020 Year in Review. Published Jan 13, 2021. Accessed May 4, 2023.
  1. Weil, MICROSOFT’S RESPONSE TO THE CMA’S REFERENCE DECISION. Published Oct 11, 2022. Accessed May 4, 2023.

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