4 ms·

The worst opening ever "Demands from mobile users continue to grow.". I stopped reading bullshit

chromehearts 18d ago
This is probably not about "mobile users" as in Android Phones & iPhone users .. but about the current (trendy) rise of handheld consoles ? Atleast that's what I think
mrheosuper 18d ago
Why is it bullshit ? Just because you dont need does not mean it’s not real
f6v 18d ago
What's up with that? Younger generations don't even play on PCs anymore.
- pjmlp 17d ago
  What I find funny is the whole "PC gaming is growing" kind of speech, as some generations abandon consoles for PCs. I and most of my peers have been playing home computers, since the 8 bit days, eventually moved into PC gaming with a 386SX in 1991. While I owned a few consoles, the PC remained the main gaming platform. Do agree that younger generations are mostly playing mobile games.
  - SideQuark 16d ago
    PC sales peaked 15 years ago, and have been declining ever since. Most of the best selling PC games are from 15-30 years ago.
    - pjmlp 16d ago
      Laptops are also PCs. Yeah, that is why no one uses Steam, only old games there.
      - SideQuark 15d ago
        Laptops are already counted in PC sales, since they are PCs.
    - gilbetron 16d ago
      PC game revenue hasn't been declining: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/video-game-industry-revenues-by-platform/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/video-game-industry-revenue...
      - SideQuark 15d ago
        Games doubling in price hides less copies bought, much like movies selling far less tickets yet having higher revenues. No matter how you count it, PC gaming has been in decline for a long time.
        gilbetron 15d ago
        I think your maybe counting just physical sales? 15 years ago was the start of the shift to digital sales, which have greatly grown. Just steam (which is the bulk of digital PC sales): Steam units sold: 402M (2019) → 704M (2024), up 21% in 2024 alone. Steam peak concurrent users: 3.52M in January 2011 → 42,042,778 on January 11, 2026. Roughly twelvefold, directly measured from Valve's API. Valve's own disclosed number, which isn't an estimate by anyone: between August 2024 and August 2025, Steam averaged 109,000 people making their first ever purchase every day. That's about 40 million brand-new paying customers in one year. Games released on Steam: ~8,100 in 2019 → 20,282 in 2025. Steam gross revenue: $4.5B (2019) → roughly $16.9B (2025). Some of the best selling games did come out roughly 15 years ago, but that's because they've been selling consistently ever since. Like Minecraft, the Witcher, etc.
        SideQuark 12d ago
        Not counting physical, which certainly died. Games released is not indicative of revenues: 80% of steam games make < $5k, and median steam game makes at most a few hundred $. So that doesn't really tell much about sales. Recent data seems available in reports from Newzoo: their The PC & Console Gaming Report 2025 states there was 1.2% total PC growth 2021-2024 in nominal dollars (40.5B to $40-42B). In real dollars that is around -15%, so enough shrinkage that many industries would really feel the pain. In smaller sections, their 2014, 2017, 2024 reports show PC share of global games spend fell 17%. They (and SuperData) data show premium PC fell a few percent (nominal, more in real $). Playtime per player fell 26% (Newzoo 2024, 2025). Also, around 50-60% of revenue, which is nice, is not new game sales, but microtransactions, and these are extremely weighted to the largest few games. Of the remaining, around 10-15% is subscription fees, also not new sales. Using Steam as a proxy for the whole industry hides losses if more title % moved to Steam, since then the numbers you posted are not comparing like to like. Some Newzoo data is easily found, use AI to find copies of their closed reports floating around the internet.
mobelkh 18d ago
the switch, steam deck and competitors will likely look into ARM, the cheaper ones already use it, flagship and gaming phones, the latter is bigger than you think, normal mobile gaming is big in third world countries and china, and emulation continuous to get better, I can ToTK and The Witcher 3 (windows version) on my phone, and it's a few years old flagship
SideQuark 16d ago
As someone making mobile apps used by billions, demands from mobile users certainly grow and want this class of hardware capability. We spend significant effort trying to figure out how to deliver features asked for by our users for high end phones and cutting edge hardware, while not alienating the wider user base without these capabilities. Competitors do exactly the same.

This is probably not about "mobile users" as in Android Phones & iPhone users .. but about the current (trendy) rise of handheld consoles ? Atleast that's what I think

mrheosuper 18d ago

Why is it bullshit ? Just because you dont need does not mean it’s not real

f6v 18d ago

What's up with that? Younger generations don't even play on PCs anymore.

pjmlp 17d ago
What I find funny is the whole "PC gaming is growing" kind of speech, as some generations abandon consoles for PCs. I and most of my peers have been playing home computers, since the 8 bit days, eventually moved into PC gaming with a 386SX in 1991. While I owned a few consoles, the PC remained the main gaming platform. Do agree that younger generations are mostly playing mobile games.
- SideQuark 16d ago
  PC sales peaked 15 years ago, and have been declining ever since. Most of the best selling PC games are from 15-30 years ago.
  - pjmlp 16d ago
    Laptops are also PCs. Yeah, that is why no one uses Steam, only old games there.
    - SideQuark 15d ago
      Laptops are already counted in PC sales, since they are PCs.
  - gilbetron 16d ago
    PC game revenue hasn't been declining: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/video-game-industry-revenues-by-platform/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/video-game-industry-revenue...
    - SideQuark 15d ago
      Games doubling in price hides less copies bought, much like movies selling far less tickets yet having higher revenues. No matter how you count it, PC gaming has been in decline for a long time.
      - gilbetron 15d ago
        I think your maybe counting just physical sales? 15 years ago was the start of the shift to digital sales, which have greatly grown. Just steam (which is the bulk of digital PC sales): Steam units sold: 402M (2019) → 704M (2024), up 21% in 2024 alone. Steam peak concurrent users: 3.52M in January 2011 → 42,042,778 on January 11, 2026. Roughly twelvefold, directly measured from Valve's API. Valve's own disclosed number, which isn't an estimate by anyone: between August 2024 and August 2025, Steam averaged 109,000 people making their first ever purchase every day. That's about 40 million brand-new paying customers in one year. Games released on Steam: ~8,100 in 2019 → 20,282 in 2025. Steam gross revenue: $4.5B (2019) → roughly $16.9B (2025). Some of the best selling games did come out roughly 15 years ago, but that's because they've been selling consistently ever since. Like Minecraft, the Witcher, etc.
        SideQuark 12d ago
        Not counting physical, which certainly died. Games released is not indicative of revenues: 80% of steam games make < $5k, and median steam game makes at most a few hundred $. So that doesn't really tell much about sales. Recent data seems available in reports from Newzoo: their The PC & Console Gaming Report 2025 states there was 1.2% total PC growth 2021-2024 in nominal dollars (40.5B to $40-42B). In real dollars that is around -15%, so enough shrinkage that many industries would really feel the pain. In smaller sections, their 2014, 2017, 2024 reports show PC share of global games spend fell 17%. They (and SuperData) data show premium PC fell a few percent (nominal, more in real $). Playtime per player fell 26% (Newzoo 2024, 2025). Also, around 50-60% of revenue, which is nice, is not new game sales, but microtransactions, and these are extremely weighted to the largest few games. Of the remaining, around 10-15% is subscription fees, also not new sales. Using Steam as a proxy for the whole industry hides losses if more title % moved to Steam, since then the numbers you posted are not comparing like to like. Some Newzoo data is easily found, use AI to find copies of their closed reports floating around the internet.

mobelkh 18d ago

the switch, steam deck and competitors will likely look into ARM, the cheaper ones already use it, flagship and gaming phones, the latter is bigger than you think, normal mobile gaming is big in third world countries and china, and emulation continuous to get better, I can ToTK and The Witcher 3 (windows version) on my phone, and it's a few years old flagship

SideQuark 16d ago

As someone making mobile apps used by billions, demands from mobile users certainly grow and want this class of hardware capability. We spend significant effort trying to figure out how to deliver features asked for by our users for high end phones and cutting edge hardware, while not alienating the wider user base without these capabilities. Competitors do exactly the same.