Emmanuel Rosier, Head of Market Intelligence at Newzoo, stated that the PC gaming market has shown a clear upward trend over the past two to three years, with its current growth rate surpassing that of the home console market. This conclusion reflects his assessment of market trends and does not represent complete, officially published industry statistics.
Rosier believes that changes in platform content structure and distribution methods have driven this shift. PC players have access to a wider variety of game genres, and independent developers find it easier to launch their works on platforms like Steam first, porting them to consoles only after market validation. The PC platform also hosts a large number of free-to-play and games-as-a-service titles, with about half of its revenue coming from in-game purchases; in contrast, the console market currently relies more heavily on direct sales of full-priced games.
Between 2015 and 2020, the PC market was nearly stagnant, while the console market performed strongly, driven by games-as-a-service titles and products like Fortnite. Rosier states that this trend has now reversed: the console market's ability to attract new users is approaching its capacity limit, whereas the PC market still has room for expansion. He also views Sony's move to bring some PlayStation exclusives to PC as one of the factors driving this market shift.
Some major publishers achieved unexpected double-digit revenue growth on the PC platform in the first half of 2026, which may lead Newzoo to raise its previous growth forecasts for the PC market in 2026. However, the PC market also faces the issue of rising hardware prices, with related pressures linked to sustained demand from data centers and artificial intelligence companies.