Newzoo, the market research giant, projects that revenue from the PC gaming market is growing faster than revenue from console games. In a newly published report, Newzoo explains that the current trajectory could lead to PC gaming revenue surpassing console gaming by 2028.
In its 2026 PC and Console report, Newzoo found that PC revenue grew more rapidly in 2025 than console revenue, and forecasts indicate that the annual growth rate for PC gaming (~6.6 percent) will continue to exceed that of consoles (~4.4 percent) through the late 2020s. This shift follows years in which consoles dominated software sales.
The latest reports highlights how the PC gaming market is expanding, especially in regions like China where the number of PC gamers far exceed console. Newzoo estimates that PC players will exceed one billion by 2028, and this growing userbase is a factor in the rising revenue trend for the platform.
- The PC player base is projected to exceed one billion players by 2028 and regional momentum is a key factor: China grew 11.7% YoY in 2025. We also expect continued growth tied to expanding PC ecosystem penetration and storefront adoption
- PC monetization remains structurally microtransaction-led. In 2025, microtransactions accounted for 48% of PC revenue ($20.6B), while premium game sales represented 29% ($12.5B).
- Premium games were the main PC growth driver in 2025 (+11.8% YoY), supported by a dense slate of premium releases across AAA, AA, and indie segments, many in the $30-$50 price range.
- In major Western markets, PC free-to-play revenue per playing hour increased 10% year-on-year, reaching nearly 2× PlayStation and 3× Xbox.
- Engagement is becoming more distributed. Between 2022 and 2025, the share of PC playtime generated by games outside the Top 20 titles increased from 33% to 42%, reflecting growing ecosystem breadth beyond the largest franchises.
At the same there is a major shift in how PC gamers spend their money compared to console players. Evidence shows PC players that premium full priced $60 games are less dominant in driving PC revenue growth. In the 2024 data, PC premium game sales actually declined year‑over‑year while microtransactions and downloadable content contributed a large majority of PC revenue.
According Newzoo’s figures, micro tractions accounted for 58% of PC gaming revenue in 2024, while revenue from traditional premium game sales declined. This means most PC gamers prefer spending on in-game purchases or smaller, cheaper transactions rather than buying big upfront $60 titles.
This mid-price segment is expanding as players experiment with finding the best cost/fun ratio between indie pricing and $70 releases.
- ARC Raiders stands out as a huge success across all platforms. It follows in the footsteps of HELLDIVERS 2, which launched on Xbox this year to incredible success once more.
- This price range could be utilized by many upcoming multiplayer games, remakes/remasters, and AA games such as Mafia. Increasing the price at the high end created opportunities here to offer great value to players without committing to the full price.
- The number of games priced below $30 generating more than $5 million in revenue increased from 17 in 2024 to 26 in 2025, reflecting the commercial impact of breakout titles and viral indie hits.
Tradtionally, consoles have driven more revenue due to strong AAA franchises, exclusives, and high visibility game launches. Console revenue was previously projected to remain higher than PC through most of mid-2020s and led by major releases on GTA 6.
But the latest data indicates that PC is growing faster and it could flip that balance by 2028. At that point, continued growth from PC player spending, driven by microtransactions, DLC, subscriptions, and the expanding player base, may push PC revenue ahead of the combined console software market, despite ongoing investment and popular releases on consoles.
