Mobile was the most popular platform, with 60% of online respondents playing on phones or tablets. Console and PC audiences were each about half that, with 33% of people playing on PC and 32% playing on console.
Considering mobile phone games counted I feel like that makes sense. I thought the article would be referring to devices designed specifically for gaming (ex. Xbox One, PS5, Switch, and so on)
Kind of makes the title moot. People with home entertainment systems (be it a PC or a console) also spend time playing on a handheld device when not at home.
Did they expect people to carry around cables and a console to play while waiting for the dentist?
Fascinating stuff. I think we’ll see a new category emerge in studies like this for Steam Deck, ROG Ally, a Sony’s (ridiculous) project Q. I think these devices have more to do with each other than they do with PC or console - at least when it comes to player behaviour and use case
mostly platformers it works well enough for me even remote using my phones 5g to my home , eastward, and graveyard keeper are the ones I played the most this way, I tried moonlighter as well but sometimes it gets a bit blocky and its not fun when it happens when youre trying not to die, most of the time though I play while at home on the couch, Im pretty close to one of my wifi 6 access points there so it looks great
I’m not sure the Project Q fits in here. It doesn’t play games on its own, just streams them. Sounds like it has more in common with the Logitech G Cloud.
I’m more surprised how evenly it’s split between PC (43%) and console (41%), with 19% playing on both. With the price of hardware on PC and price of games on console it’s quite an expensive hobby to maintain both.
I almost wanted to get a copy of the report, as something doesn’t seem totally right. 73% of the “online population” plays games, and 43% of that is people gaming on PC?
I’m curious about how people are actually polled. If only because I’m curious how someone who was only gaming on consoles would be polled? According to the website, they use an online computer survey, which would seem to self-select towards people gaming on a PC.
I would expect a higher percentage on PC, because casuals play low end indie games and older games on PC, and there are bound to be a lot more of them than hardcore gamers.
PC players are (from my personal experience) the most dedicated gamers. Where as Console players tend more towards the cansual approach to gaming.
Consoles typically being the cheaper solution and it plugs into peoples already existing ‘media centers.’
PC’s “needs” extra gear and facilities, from monitors, keyboard & mouse, desktop, maybe an extra controller and an OS (if you didn’t buy it pre-made) and such.
Few casual ‘anythings’ would opt for the PC option to begin with, just because of the set-up requirements alone.
You don’t need the latest and greatest in either case. If you were to slap any recent budget GPU into a Dell Optiplex or similar that can be found for cheap, then pick up an Xbox Series S for $300 or less, you’d have a PC for eSports titles, older games, checking out free game giveaways like on Epic and GOG, plenty of Prime Gaming games if a Prime member, and anything with lower system requirements, then a box that’ll get games for the next ~7 years, can do game emulation when in the $20 developer mode, and has a $15/mo gaming Netflix subscription that is regularly updated and hundreds of titles strong.
That’s a lot of value, and with the prices I’ve seen it’d come out to about $700 or less before any subscriptions come into play, which have also gotten way less necessary recently thanks to the rise of F2P titles.
Yeah, a lot of my kids friends are PC gamers with $600-1000 systems, tops. They might not be the greatest, but they work. Even my kids systems were only ~$1500 and they’re both at least a year or two old now, and still running just about everything.
Most hobbies of any kind are expensive if you really get into them. If you don’t have to have new releases, even consoles and console games can be had at great discounts. I’m honestly surprised that so many people limit themselves to one platform. Even though my wife and I are in a low income bracket, we’ve managed to get a PC (nothing crazy like an “i9, 3090, 64gb RAM” PC but it is enough to play most games), Xbox One (I know, last gen), Switch, Switch Lite, and (our biggest splurge) a PS5. Don’t get me wrong, these all have been major purchases for us, as we make sub $30,000 a year, but we’ve made it work. To be fair, most people have other/multiple hobbies that divide their money, or they have other expenses that we don’t have (the big example being crazy high rent, where rent in our area is generally much lower than the national average. We moved recently but our previous apartment was only $375 a month). It’s just interesting to me that many people in our area who I talk to personally make more money than us and then say they can’t afford to have multiple gaming platforms like we do. I think the reality in that case is that it’s simply not that high of a priority for them like we’ve made it for us, and that’s perfectly okay.
I was going to say, I wonder how many are like me and do pc and switch. But now that the steam deck is out, and emulation is getting good, my switch is going bye bye.
Thing is, generally everyone has a PC. You can get a higher end laptop and play a lot of games on it. That way, you can choose a specific console but still have access to games not on that console, and old games.
I’ve always been a Playstation gamer but I use PC to play Sims 4, Alan Wake and Quantum Break, and Star Trek Online when in a trekkie mood.
Tons. Lots of good ones too. GOG has a large chunk of the older ones (Bridge Commander with mods, Elite Force, and Armada II are my favourites). Everything from point and click adventure games to ship sims, to FPS’s, RTS’s, and an online MMO.
I used to be one of those “play on all three” until recently - I stopped console playing once I decided not to get a PS5, so now only game on PC and mobile.
Up until the 360 era, I used to play on everything. Then it became Nintendo + Xbox. Now it’s Nintendo plus pc. But I’m pretty close to moving on from the switch and getting a steam deck. Then i guess it’s just pc.
I was always a Nintendo/PC gamer. I made the move the week my Steam Deck shipped (Q3er). I hacked my launch switch and dumped all my my switch games that I didn’t own but were available on PC (for example, DOOM 2016 was skipped but Daemon X Machina was not). I have those dumped games backed up on my computer, but I just have them all on an SD card for the Steam Deck!
Mostly everything I’ve tried has run pretty much perfectly. A while ago Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 had some pretty major texture issues but within the last few months there were some major strides for switch emulation and that seems to have effectively solved a majority of the issues I had run into with the games.
I’m now most of the way through MUA3 on the Steam Deck :) I’ve also got the trilogy all one one console :) format shifting, library consolidation, that’s what the Steam Deck is all about!
I used the hacked switch for a little while, there are some interesting things it can accomplish but it hasn’t been used at all since then. Even before the Steam Deck I had just hardly been using it, and now having the ability to make any control scheme I want make it the easy choice every time.
The Steam Deck is incredible but it’s the Steam Input API that convinced me with the Steam Controller it was worth it.
PC and I have an Xbox Series S mostly for family playing. I had considered a PS5 but not much compelling on there, and I just know that actually i’m just going to end up playing my PC favorites anyways.
Interestingly though I recent got a 360 again - I think that era was peak console gaming, enough tech for decent graphics and gameplay, but before mtx and season passes kind of ruined everything AAA. (PS2 era was pretty good also, but doing some emulation play of older games…it’s really mostly nostalgia carrying them and gameplay, not just graphics, were being held back by technology)
I was also considering ps5, but with Sony doing a delayed PC launches there really aren’t that many exclusives to draw me in, since most of them end up on the PC. The only one I really want to play is Bloodborne, but I’m not buying a Playstation for that. I’ll just wait until they remaster it and port it to PC.
And it’s not like I don’t have an ever increasing backlog of games to play. I was fine without PS games and I’ll be fine with getting them on discount.
Honestly, this is our experience too. My kids play on their computers and the Xbox probably 90% of the time. The PS5 getting very minimal use. The switch at least has the virtue of being portable, and thus gets hauled around.
It’s confusing to me because there are next to no games on the Xbox that aren’t on PC, but PlayStation has a boat load of exclusives.
I primarily game on PC, so my Xbox One collected dust after I got bored with Rare Replay and Halo 5 while my PS4 saw plenty of use from 2013 all the way through 2020. This gen I skipped Xbox entirely and just got a PS5.
Well the older I get the more i slowly devolve into the same old games, Minecraft, Vintage Story, and Slay the Spire. Maybe some other games every so often, like last year was lots of Elden Ring. Hopefully this year will be Starfield but we’ll see how that goes.
I also find i have less and less patience to start a new “AAA” game where you like have to do like 1-2 hours (or so it seems) tutorial and cut scenes before really playing.
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Yeah we have PC, XSX, Switch and soon a PS5. First console generation of having all 3.
Considering mobile phone games counted I feel like that makes sense. I thought the article would be referring to devices designed specifically for gaming (ex. Xbox One, PS5, Switch, and so on)
Kind of makes the title moot. People with home entertainment systems (be it a PC or a console) also spend time playing on a handheld device when not at home.
Did they expect people to carry around cables and a console to play while waiting for the dentist?
I dont typically play mobile games. My mains are ps5 and switch. I just look at internet stuff when I wait for the dentist.
Yea I mean, I don’t play much on the phone but I still have a few games there, so I might count in the 47% too.
Otherwise it’s been only PC gaming for me.
I mainly switch between PC and PlayStation, with a Switch Lite on the go. It is not that rare if I look around me.
Fascinating stuff. I think we’ll see a new category emerge in studies like this for Steam Deck, ROG Ally, a Sony’s (ridiculous) project Q. I think these devices have more to do with each other than they do with PC or console - at least when it comes to player behaviour and use case
Yeah I think these hardware created their own category, handheld PCs. Separate from PC, console and handheld consoles.
I wonder where cloud gaming fits in, I play pc games through steamlink to my phone pretty often
What games? How well does that work? I find that even streaming to my MacBook from my Steam Deck is insanely slow.
I use Parsec instead of Steam link and it works really well
mostly platformers it works well enough for me even remote using my phones 5g to my home , eastward, and graveyard keeper are the ones I played the most this way, I tried moonlighter as well but sometimes it gets a bit blocky and its not fun when it happens when youre trying not to die, most of the time though I play while at home on the couch, Im pretty close to one of my wifi 6 access points there so it looks great
I’m not sure the Project Q fits in here. It doesn’t play games on its own, just streams them. Sounds like it has more in common with the Logitech G Cloud.
I’m more surprised how evenly it’s split between PC (43%) and console (41%), with 19% playing on both. With the price of hardware on PC and price of games on console it’s quite an expensive hobby to maintain both.
I almost wanted to get a copy of the report, as something doesn’t seem totally right. 73% of the “online population” plays games, and 43% of that is people gaming on PC?
I’m curious about how people are actually polled. If only because I’m curious how someone who was only gaming on consoles would be polled? According to the website, they use an online computer survey, which would seem to self-select towards people gaming on a PC.
I would expect a higher percentage on PC, because casuals play low end indie games and older games on PC, and there are bound to be a lot more of them than hardcore gamers.
These days I am less inclined to believe casual players would be bothering with gaming on a PC over their phone as much as the survey indicates.
I personally think it’s the other way around.
PC players are (from my personal experience) the most dedicated gamers. Where as Console players tend more towards the cansual approach to gaming.
Consoles typically being the cheaper solution and it plugs into peoples already existing ‘media centers.’ PC’s “needs” extra gear and facilities, from monitors, keyboard & mouse, desktop, maybe an extra controller and an OS (if you didn’t buy it pre-made) and such.
Few casual ‘anythings’ would opt for the PC option to begin with, just because of the set-up requirements alone.
You don’t need the latest and greatest in either case. If you were to slap any recent budget GPU into a Dell Optiplex or similar that can be found for cheap, then pick up an Xbox Series S for $300 or less, you’d have a PC for eSports titles, older games, checking out free game giveaways like on Epic and GOG, plenty of Prime Gaming games if a Prime member, and anything with lower system requirements, then a box that’ll get games for the next ~7 years, can do game emulation when in the $20 developer mode, and has a $15/mo gaming Netflix subscription that is regularly updated and hundreds of titles strong.
That’s a lot of value, and with the prices I’ve seen it’d come out to about $700 or less before any subscriptions come into play, which have also gotten way less necessary recently thanks to the rise of F2P titles.
Yeah, a lot of my kids friends are PC gamers with $600-1000 systems, tops. They might not be the greatest, but they work. Even my kids systems were only ~$1500 and they’re both at least a year or two old now, and still running just about everything.
You can also scour the used market for a Switch Lite in the $100 range, and boom, 3 platforms.
Most hobbies of any kind are expensive if you really get into them. If you don’t have to have new releases, even consoles and console games can be had at great discounts. I’m honestly surprised that so many people limit themselves to one platform. Even though my wife and I are in a low income bracket, we’ve managed to get a PC (nothing crazy like an “i9, 3090, 64gb RAM” PC but it is enough to play most games), Xbox One (I know, last gen), Switch, Switch Lite, and (our biggest splurge) a PS5. Don’t get me wrong, these all have been major purchases for us, as we make sub $30,000 a year, but we’ve made it work. To be fair, most people have other/multiple hobbies that divide their money, or they have other expenses that we don’t have (the big example being crazy high rent, where rent in our area is generally much lower than the national average. We moved recently but our previous apartment was only $375 a month). It’s just interesting to me that many people in our area who I talk to personally make more money than us and then say they can’t afford to have multiple gaming platforms like we do. I think the reality in that case is that it’s simply not that high of a priority for them like we’ve made it for us, and that’s perfectly okay.
I was going to say, I wonder how many are like me and do pc and switch. But now that the steam deck is out, and emulation is getting good, my switch is going bye bye.
Thing is, generally everyone has a PC. You can get a higher end laptop and play a lot of games on it. That way, you can choose a specific console but still have access to games not on that console, and old games.
I’ve always been a Playstation gamer but I use PC to play Sims 4, Alan Wake and Quantum Break, and Star Trek Online when in a trekkie mood.
Star Trek had a game?
Tons. Lots of good ones too. GOG has a large chunk of the older ones (Bridge Commander with mods, Elite Force, and Armada II are my favourites). Everything from point and click adventure games to ship sims, to FPS’s, RTS’s, and an online MMO.
PC and PS5. PC is so much better for competitive online games or stuff like Anno/Cities Skyline but nothing comes close to PS5 exclusives.
I used to be one of those “play on all three” until recently - I stopped console playing once I decided not to get a PS5, so now only game on PC and mobile.
Up until the 360 era, I used to play on everything. Then it became Nintendo + Xbox. Now it’s Nintendo plus pc. But I’m pretty close to moving on from the switch and getting a steam deck. Then i guess it’s just pc.
I was always a Nintendo/PC gamer. I made the move the week my Steam Deck shipped (Q3er). I hacked my launch switch and dumped all my my switch games that I didn’t own but were available on PC (for example, DOOM 2016 was skipped but Daemon X Machina was not). I have those dumped games backed up on my computer, but I just have them all on an SD card for the Steam Deck!
Mostly everything I’ve tried has run pretty much perfectly. A while ago Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 had some pretty major texture issues but within the last few months there were some major strides for switch emulation and that seems to have effectively solved a majority of the issues I had run into with the games.
I’m now most of the way through MUA3 on the Steam Deck :) I’ve also got the trilogy all one one console :) format shifting, library consolidation, that’s what the Steam Deck is all about!
I used the hacked switch for a little while, there are some interesting things it can accomplish but it hasn’t been used at all since then. Even before the Steam Deck I had just hardly been using it, and now having the ability to make any control scheme I want make it the easy choice every time.
The Steam Deck is incredible but it’s the Steam Input API that convinced me with the Steam Controller it was worth it.
Yeah, I evaluated my library and there are like 2 games that are switch exclusive that I would care about.
Tears of the kingdom and Mario odyssey.
PC and I have an Xbox Series S mostly for family playing. I had considered a PS5 but not much compelling on there, and I just know that actually i’m just going to end up playing my PC favorites anyways.
Interestingly though I recent got a 360 again - I think that era was peak console gaming, enough tech for decent graphics and gameplay, but before mtx and season passes kind of ruined everything AAA. (PS2 era was pretty good also, but doing some emulation play of older games…it’s really mostly nostalgia carrying them and gameplay, not just graphics, were being held back by technology)
I’m surprised you consider ps5 exclusives not that compelling. What types of games do you normally play?
I was also considering ps5, but with Sony doing a delayed PC launches there really aren’t that many exclusives to draw me in, since most of them end up on the PC. The only one I really want to play is Bloodborne, but I’m not buying a Playstation for that. I’ll just wait until they remaster it and port it to PC.
And it’s not like I don’t have an ever increasing backlog of games to play. I was fine without PS games and I’ll be fine with getting them on discount.
Honestly, this is our experience too. My kids play on their computers and the Xbox probably 90% of the time. The PS5 getting very minimal use. The switch at least has the virtue of being portable, and thus gets hauled around.
It’s confusing to me because there are next to no games on the Xbox that aren’t on PC, but PlayStation has a boat load of exclusives.
I primarily game on PC, so my Xbox One collected dust after I got bored with Rare Replay and Halo 5 while my PS4 saw plenty of use from 2013 all the way through 2020. This gen I skipped Xbox entirely and just got a PS5.
Well the older I get the more i slowly devolve into the same old games, Minecraft, Vintage Story, and Slay the Spire. Maybe some other games every so often, like last year was lots of Elden Ring. Hopefully this year will be Starfield but we’ll see how that goes.
I also find i have less and less patience to start a new “AAA” game where you like have to do like 1-2 hours (or so it seems) tutorial and cut scenes before really playing.
Here’s the link to the “source”. Hard to assess the quality of the data and conclusions on the other side of a paywall :/
In theory, I play them all. In practice it is all on PC thanks to emulators