Study: 20 million PC players switch to consoles or cloud until 2022

Google Stadia Cloud Gaming Controller
(Picture: Google)

Consoles and cloud gaming are on the rise. According to a new study, 20 million PC players will therefore switch to the alternatives by 2022.

Is the PC obsolete as a gaming platform?

In the last years the technology around gaming has changed a lot. While 20 years ago the PC was the only platform for gaming, consoles as well as other devices have spread since then. Meanwhile, a large part of the gaming market also belongs to smartphones and other mobile devices. However, the main limiting factor is still image quality. While console players usually don’t get high frame rates or high resolutions, the PC does look much better. 144 Hz, 4K, G-Sync and FreeSync or simply the upgradeability and significantly higher performance are arguments for PCs.

However, there are also a number of points against it. So PCs are actually designed as multifunctional tools, while consoles, for example, are only used for gaming or perhaps for watching movies. On the one hand, this can be an advantage, but on the other hand it can also be a major disadvantage. Problems are relatively more likely to occur when tinkering with PCs than with consoles or smartphones. Another big difference is the price. While consoles or smartphones are available for a few hundred bucks, we quickly end up above 1000 bucks at gaming PCs with everything included.

20 million PC players to switch by 2022

All these are good reasons for PC gamers to switch from their beloved computers to off-the-shelf systems such as consoles. With the PlayStation 5 also 4K titles with 60 FPS should be possible. Google Stadia could also have a large share in the change. Google’s streaming service turns virtually any internet-enabled device into a powerful computer, whether it’s a smartphone, PC or TV. The Internet giant has probably discovered a gigantic market potential here.

The market research company Jon Peddie Research also sees this development. In a recently published study on TV gaming, the company analyzed the gaming market for the next three years. By 2022, a good 20 million PC gamers are expected to switch from their computers to alternatives such as consoles or cloud gaming. The trigger for this is supposed to be the rather sluggish development in the processor and graphics card area. The advance of Google with Stadia and the performance of smart TVs as gaming platforms are also a reason for the change. In terms of consoles, exclusive titles that only come out for Sony’s Playstation or Microsoft’s Xbox also play a role. The main group of the change-willing is thereby by the way in the beginner and mainstream range. According to the study, enthusiasts will continue to prefer the PC as their gaming platform.

About Florian Maislinger 1222 Articles
Florian Maislinger is author and founder of PC Builder's Club. As a skilled IT engineer, he is very familiar with computers and hardware and has been a technology lover since childhood. He is mainly responsible for the news and our social media channels.

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