50+ PC Gaming Statistics (2025)

PC gaming is a global industry worth over $86 billion, with nearly 2 billion players and a hardware ecosystem dominated by a few major players. Whether you're a journalist covering the industry, a content creator building an audience, or a gamer planning your next build, these are the most important PC gaming statistics to know right now.

Every statistic on this page is sourced from established industry analysts and platforms including the Steam Hardware Survey, Gartner, Mercury Research, Jon Peddie Research, Newzoo, and more. We update this page regularly to keep the data current.

1. How Many PC Gamers Are There?

• An estimated 1.8 to 1.9 billion people worldwide play games on a PC, making PC the platform with the most gamers globally. (Statista / DemandSage)
• PC gamers represent more than half of all gamers in the world, though many also play on mobile or console. (DemandSage)
• Of those ~1.9 billion PC gamers, approximately 300 million use high-end gaming systems. The rest play on mainstream or budget hardware. (Industry estimates)
• Asia has the largest PC gaming population at 687.6 million players, while North America has the highest PC gaming penetration relative to its total gamer population at 77.8%. (Statista)
• PC is the top platform for game developers, with 63-80% of developers creating titles for PC. (GDC / Industry surveys)

2. PC Gaming Revenue & Market Size

• The global PC gaming market (hardware, software, and peripherals) grew from $76.7 billion in 2024 to an estimated $86.1 billion in 2025. (Fortune Business Insights)
• PC gaming software alone generated approximately $43.2 billion in 2024, representing 23% of the total $187.7 billion gaming market. Mobile captured 49% ($92.6B) and console took 28% ($51.9B). (Newzoo / industry estimates)
• The gaming PC hardware market was valued at $61.84 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $129.93 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.5%. (Grand View Research)
• Asia-Pacific leads the global PC gaming market with 46.7-52% market share, driven by massive gaming populations in China and India. (Grand View Research / Quantumrun)
• North America accounts for approximately 19.2% of the global gaming PC market, characterized by strong premium hardware adoption. (Grand View Research)
• Desktop gaming PCs command 73.4% of the gaming PC market in 2025, while gaming laptops hold 26.6%. However, gaming laptops are growing faster at a 15.4% CAGR compared to desktops at roughly 12%. (Icon Era)

3. Steam Platform Statistics

• Steam set an all-time concurrent user record of 41.7 million on October 12, 2025, coinciding with the Battlefield 6 launch and Steam Next Fest. (SteamDB)
• Steam first crossed the 40 million concurrent user threshold on March 2, 2025. Peak concurrent users have more than doubled since 2019 (18.8M). (SteamDB)
• The platform has 132 million monthly active users, a 10% increase from the 120 million recorded in 2024. Daily active users reached 69 million. (Valve / SteamDB)
• Steam's estimated revenue hit an all-time high of $10.8 billion in 2024, a 24% increase from $8.7 billion in 2023. (Industry estimates)
• The most-played game on Steam is Counter-Strike 2 with roughly 764,000 average concurrent players, followed by Dota 2 at ~454,000. (SteamDB, early 2026)
• The all-time peak concurrent player record for a single game belongs to PUBG at 3.2 million, followed by Black Myth: Wukong at 2.4 million. (SteamDB)

4. GPU Market Share (NVIDIA vs AMD)

• NVIDIA dominates the discrete GPU market with 92% share as of Q3 2025. Its share peaked at 94% in Q2 2025 — the highest ever recorded. (Jon Peddie Research)
• AMD's discrete GPU share dropped to just 6% in Q2 2025 before recovering slightly to 7% in Q3 2025. (Jon Peddie Research via WCCFTech)
• Intel reached 1% share of the discrete GPU market in Q3 2025, the first time it hit that milestone with its Arc graphics cards. (Jon Peddie Research via Tom's Hardware)
• In Q2 2025, approximately 10.9 million NVIDIA GPUs were sold compared to just 0.7 million AMD Radeon units. (Hardware Times)
• Among Steam gamers, NVIDIA GPUs are found on 73% of all systems (including integrated graphics). The five most popular GPUs on Steam are the RTX 3060, RTX 4060 Laptop, RTX 4060, RTX 3050, and GTX 1650. (Steam Hardware Survey, 2025)
• The most common GPU VRAM capacity among gamers is 8 GB at 33.66%, followed by 12 GB at 19.22%. (Steam Hardware Survey)

5. CPU Market Share (AMD vs Intel)

• AMD reached a record 33.6% share of the desktop CPU market in Q3 2025, a gain of 5.2 percentage points year-over-year. (Mercury Research)
• Intel now outsells AMD roughly 2:1 in desktop CPUs, down dramatically from 9:1 in 2017 — showing a massive competitive shift. (Mercury Research via Tom's Hardware)
• Among Steam gamers specifically, AMD CPUs have reached approximately 47% share, narrowing Intel's lead to roughly eight percentage points — the smallest gap ever recorded on the platform. (Steam Hardware Survey, late 2025)
• AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D dominates high-refresh-rate gaming benchmarks, contributing to AMD's momentum among performance-focused gamers. (Tom's Hardware)

6. What Hardware Do Gamers Actually Use?

The Steam Hardware Survey tracks what's actually inside gamers' PCs. Here's what the data shows:

Component	Most Common	Share	Trend
RAM	16 GB	41.88%	Declining; 32 GB closing in at 39%
GPU	NVIDIA RTX 3060	#1 on Steam	RTX 40-series rising steadily
VRAM	8 GB	33.66%	12 GB growing at 19.22%
CPU Vendor	Intel	~55%	AMD narrowing gap fast (~47%)
OS	Windows 11	~53%	Linux at all-time high on Steam
Resolution	1080p	52.83%	1440p growing rapidly (20.79%)

• 16 GB is still the most common RAM among gamers at 41.88%, but 32 GB+ configurations have surged to 39.07%, gaining more than 2 percentage points in a single month. (Steam Hardware Survey)
• DDR5 adoption reached an estimated 45-50% of DRAM shipments by late 2025. The price gap between DDR4 and DDR5 has effectively vanished. (PCSP / industry reports)
• Linux reached a new all-time high on the Steam Hardware Survey in November 2025, driven partly by Steam Deck's continued popularity. (Steam Deck HQ)
• Windows 11 holds approximately 50.73% of the Windows desktop market as of December 2025, while Windows 10 retains 44.68%. (StatCounter)

7. Gaming Resolution Statistics

• 1920x1080 (1080p) remains the dominant gaming resolution at 52.83% of Steam users, though it dropped 3.15 percentage points during 2025. (Steam Hardware Survey)
• 2560x1440 (1440p) is the fastest-growing resolution segment, rising from roughly 15% to 20.79% during 2025. By January 2026, it reached approximately 21.3%. (Steam Hardware Survey / Windows Forum)
• 4K gaming (3840x2160) remains niche at under 3% of Steam users, concentrated among enthusiasts with high-end GPUs and displays. (Steam Hardware Survey)
• Roughly 18% of Steam gamers still use resolutions at or below 1366x768, reflecting the large base of budget and laptop gamers. (Steam Hardware Survey)

8. Gaming PC Cost Statistics

• A typical gaming PC costs between $800 and $1,200. Mid-range builds that handle modern games well run $1,200 to $2,000. (Tom's Hardware / CyberPowerPC)
• Budget gaming PCs designed for esports titles and older games at lower settings start at $700 to $900. (Tom's Hardware)
• High-end builds targeting 4K or competitive high-refresh-rate gaming cost $2,500 to $4,000+. (Tom's Hardware)
• Component prices shifted in late 2025: RAM and storage costs rose significantly in Q4, driven by anticipated memory price hikes and manufacturer production cuts. (Tom's Hardware / PCSP)
• Consumer SSD prices reached $0.06-$0.08 per GB in 2024, down from $0.10 per GB in 2022, making large NVMe drives more accessible for gaming builds. (Industry reports)

Build Tier	Price Range	Target Resolution
Budget	$700 - $900	1080p medium-high settings
Mid-Range	$1,200 - $2,000	1080p ultra / 1440p high
High-End	$2,500 - $4,000+	1440p ultra / 4K

9. PC Gamer Demographics

• The average age of a PC gamer is 38 years old in the United States. Globally, the average gamer (across all platforms) is 36. (ESA / Statista)
• Among U.S. gamers aged 8+, 53% identify as male and 46% as female. The gender gap is narrowing, especially among older demographics. (ESA)
• The largest age group among U.S. gamers is 30 to 39 years old at 28%, followed by ages 20-29 at 24%. (Statista)
• Console and PC gamers average 9.7 to 10 hours per week of gaming, with individual sessions lasting 1-4 hours. Young adults (18-29) average the most at 10-20 hours per week. (ESA / industry surveys)
• 60% of adults (18+) play video games every week, and 83% of Generation Alpha (ages 5-12) play weekly. (ESA)

10. Esports Statistics

• Esports viewership is projected to surpass 640 million by the end of 2025, with over 56% watching from mobile devices. (Newzoo / industry estimates)
• Global esports revenue is estimated at approximately $3.0-3.1 billion in 2025, representing roughly 19-20% growth from 2024. (Precedence Research)
• Sponsorships and media rights account for nearly 65% of total esports industry revenue. (Industry reports)
• Asia-Pacific dominates esports viewership at 57% of the global audience, while the United States is the single largest revenue generator at an estimated $1.24 billion. (Industry reports)
• The League of Legends 2024 World Championship drew a peak audience of 6.86 million viewers, the highest for any esports event that year. (Esports Charts)
• Counter-Strike 2 set a peak concurrent record of 1.86 million on Steam in April 2025, surpassing CS:GO's previous record of 1.82 million. (SteamDB)

Sources

All statistics on this page are sourced from the following organizations and reports:

• Steam Hardware & Software Survey — PC gamer hardware configurations, resolution, RAM, GPU, CPU data (monthly survey, store.steampowered.com)
• SteamDB — Steam concurrent users, player counts, and game statistics (steamdb.info)
• Jon Peddie Research (JPR) — Discrete GPU market share data (quarterly reports, as reported by Tom's Hardware, TechSpot, and WCCFTech)
• Mercury Research — x86 CPU market share data (quarterly reports, as reported by Tom's Hardware and PC Gamer)
• Newzoo — Gaming industry revenue, player counts, and market segmentation
• Fortune Business Insights / Grand View Research — PC gaming and gaming PC market size and projections
• Statista — Gamer demographics, platform data, and industry metrics
• ESA (Entertainment Software Association) — U.S. gamer demographics and habits
• StatCounter — Desktop operating system market share (gs.statcounter.com)
• Precedence Research / SQ Magazine — Esports market size and viewership data

Citing this page: You're welcome to reference any statistic from this page. If you do, we'd appreciate a link back to https://knowledge.computerinfobits.com/pc-gaming-statistics as the source. This page is updated regularly to reflect the latest available data.