3 ms·

Curious as to what the average total spend per active user is. I suspect it's considerably lower than that of active console users.

cgrealy 4y ago
Hard to say. There are all kinds of factors at play here, none of which I have any concrete data on. First up, there are probably way more console users than pc users. However, a percentage (not a majority, but certainly significant) of those would be kids whose parents buy them one or two games a year. OTOH, PC gamers tend to have more disposable income (based on the fact that they have at least a pretty decent PC). Plus, steam sales come up all the time and lots of PC gamers have massive libraries of games they bought cheap and never played. All of these (sometimes conflicting) factors make it hard to tell who spends more.
- paxys 4y ago
  A very tiny percentage of PC gamers have the kind of rigs you are envisioning. According to Steam's data (https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...), the most common GPU in use is the GTX 1060, which was the entry level Nvidia card released in 2016. Most gamers have a <2.7Ghz processor and are on a 1080p screen.
  - ccrush 4y ago
    Mostly because crypto idiots abused them to run hashing functions on pseudorandom numbers in hopes of winning the script kiddie lotto.
  - girvo 4y ago
    I believe the 3060 has taken the 1060's crown: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-rtx-3060-begins-its-reign-as-the-most-popular-gpu https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-rtx-3060-begins-its... Especially once we take into account that the "1060" is actually a merging of multiple 1060 SKUs (including mobile) with pretty different performance
  - duped 4y ago
    Another reading of that data is that about half of gamers are on laptops and the other half upgrade their GPUs every 5-6 years.
  - cgrealy 4y ago
    > A very tiny percentage of PC gamers have the kind of rigs you are envisioning. I'm not talking about the people buying i7s and 4090s. 100% agree they are a tiny minority. I'm talking about the same modest setups you are. Even a 1060 (or it's modern equivalent) with an i3 and a 24 inch 1080p panel is more expensive than a PS5/Xbox. And I think it's becoming increasing rare for a family to have a desktop pc unless it's for gaming.
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  > First up, there are probably way more console users than pc users. > OTOH, PC gamers tend to have more disposable income (based on the fact that they have at least a pretty decent PC). If we're talking about on average it's probably the exact reverse of this. I'd be surprised if more than 25% of Steam users were in North America. Not because Steam isn't huge in NA, but because getting a console and games is way harder in most other countries than running what you can on the family PC. For example (at least before the sanctions) Russia makes up the largest portion of CS:GO and DOTA2 players. At least for DOTA2 it's more then double the number of American players.
pclmulqdq 4y ago
I assume that spend per user is higher than console users, since most steam users spent about $1000 on their computer compared to $300-500 on a console. However, the population of PC gamers is probably a lot smaller than console gamers given the money and knowledge barriers to entry.
- ekianjo 4y ago
  you dont need a gpu to game on PC. you have thousands of games, old and new, that run fine on integrated graphics.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  Alternatively, after having streteched their budget for a PC, many gamers may have less money for games to play on it. Also, many PC gamers simply play on a family PC, not some dedicated machine.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
foolfoolz 4y ago
the biggest reason for this is the big games that people spend money on today are free. the 30% platform fee doesn’t matter to fortnite, apex legends, overwatch, dota2/cs would be here if valve didn’t own it. the big cash making games have gone around the market place by being the marketplace themselve: gta online. and that trend will continue. i bet without cs and dota steams revenue per user has been in decline over the past 5 years as money moves from paid libraries to paid addons in free games
- inhumantsar 4y ago
  GTA might be a bad example here. GTA Online sells cash cards via Steam and I'd imagine that makes up a large % of overall cash card sales
  - foolfoolz 4y ago
    if pc gta made any significant chunk of their revenue it would get its own standalone launcher and marketplace. they have thousands of developers
    - scheeseman486 4y ago
      It already does, it's just available on other platforms (Steam, EGS) in addition to Rockstar's own.

cgrealy 4y ago

Hard to say. There are all kinds of factors at play here, none of which I have any concrete data on. First up, there are probably way more console users than pc users. However, a percentage (not a majority, but certainly significant) of those would be kids whose parents buy them one or two games a year. OTOH, PC gamers tend to have more disposable income (based on the fact that they have at least a pretty decent PC). Plus, steam sales come up all the time and lots of PC gamers have massive libraries of games they bought cheap and never played. All of these (sometimes conflicting) factors make it hard to tell who spends more.

paxys 4y ago
A very tiny percentage of PC gamers have the kind of rigs you are envisioning. According to Steam's data (https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...), the most common GPU in use is the GTX 1060, which was the entry level Nvidia card released in 2016. Most gamers have a <2.7Ghz processor and are on a 1080p screen.
- ccrush 4y ago
  Mostly because crypto idiots abused them to run hashing functions on pseudorandom numbers in hopes of winning the script kiddie lotto.
- girvo 4y ago
  I believe the 3060 has taken the 1060's crown: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-rtx-3060-begins-its-reign-as-the-most-popular-gpu https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-rtx-3060-begins-its... Especially once we take into account that the "1060" is actually a merging of multiple 1060 SKUs (including mobile) with pretty different performance
- duped 4y ago
  Another reading of that data is that about half of gamers are on laptops and the other half upgrade their GPUs every 5-6 years.
- cgrealy 4y ago
  > A very tiny percentage of PC gamers have the kind of rigs you are envisioning. I'm not talking about the people buying i7s and 4090s. 100% agree they are a tiny minority. I'm talking about the same modest setups you are. Even a 1060 (or it's modern equivalent) with an i3 and a 24 inch 1080p panel is more expensive than a PS5/Xbox. And I think it's becoming increasing rare for a family to have a desktop pc unless it's for gaming.
squeaky-clean 4y ago
> First up, there are probably way more console users than pc users. > OTOH, PC gamers tend to have more disposable income (based on the fact that they have at least a pretty decent PC). If we're talking about on average it's probably the exact reverse of this. I'd be surprised if more than 25% of Steam users were in North America. Not because Steam isn't huge in NA, but because getting a console and games is way harder in most other countries than running what you can on the family PC. For example (at least before the sanctions) Russia makes up the largest portion of CS:GO and DOTA2 players. At least for DOTA2 it's more then double the number of American players.

pclmulqdq 4y ago

I assume that spend per user is higher than console users, since most steam users spent about $1000 on their computer compared to $300-500 on a console. However, the population of PC gamers is probably a lot smaller than console gamers given the money and knowledge barriers to entry.

ekianjo 4y ago
you dont need a gpu to game on PC. you have thousands of games, old and new, that run fine on integrated graphics.
tsimionescu 4y ago
Alternatively, after having streteched their budget for a PC, many gamers may have less money for games to play on it. Also, many PC gamers simply play on a family PC, not some dedicated machine.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

foolfoolz 4y ago

the biggest reason for this is the big games that people spend money on today are free. the 30% platform fee doesn’t matter to fortnite, apex legends, overwatch, dota2/cs would be here if valve didn’t own it. the big cash making games have gone around the market place by being the marketplace themselve: gta online. and that trend will continue. i bet without cs and dota steams revenue per user has been in decline over the past 5 years as money moves from paid libraries to paid addons in free games

inhumantsar 4y ago
GTA might be a bad example here. GTA Online sells cash cards via Steam and I'd imagine that makes up a large % of overall cash card sales
- foolfoolz 4y ago
  if pc gta made any significant chunk of their revenue it would get its own standalone launcher and marketplace. they have thousands of developers
  - scheeseman486 4y ago
    It already does, it's just available on other platforms (Steam, EGS) in addition to Rockstar's own.