One thing that has always been hard to figure out has been the number of PC players in the world. We know there are lots of active PC players worldwide- so many publishers decide to put their games on PC, and even more decide to put their games only on PC. However, the exact number has always been unknown, a problem that is only exacerbated because of the overlapping services offered on PC such as Steam, Origin, and GoG, as well as the fact that none of them are actually very forthcoming with numbers.
If there is one company that would know how many PC players there are in the world, though, it would probably be the one with a handle on the PC industry at large (not just gaming)- Intel. And Intel, it turns out, estimates there to be a staggering 711 million PC players in the world. Just so you know, that is more than every single Xbox and PlayStation console so far sold put together.
Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum, Intel’s Kirk Skaugen said: “Desktop is alive and well. It’s innovating, whether it’s small form factors, all-in-ones, portable all-in-ones or extreme gaming.”
“There are 711 million PC gamers in the world today, that’s one in ten people on the planet.”
Of course, this number isn’t necessarily unlikely when you consider PC gamers don’t have to be Steam players- it’s such a vast term, it could encompass anything, from users of Steam and Origin and GoG, Battle.net, the Humble Store, and uPlay, to players of MOBAs, free to play games like Hearthstone, MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, and more casual games such as Farmville, or even someone who just plays the pre-installed Solitaire or Minesweeper on their computer. Technically, everyone is a PC gamer.
Still, if even a fraction of this number is the kind of PC gamer that we would ordinarily concern ourselves with, it’s certainly a mind blowing number.
Thanks, PCGamer.