The dominance of mobile gaming over console and PC continues to grow, and the perennial question of whether the age of consoles is reaching a natural end rumbles on. We will save the discussion on that for another day. Right now, let’s take a look at the third most popular platform after mobile and console, which is PC gaming.
While final figures are yet to be confirmed, it is estimated that the global gaming market will generate around $200 billion in 2022. More than $100 billion is generated each year by mobile users, but about $40 billion is from PC gaming.
Australia – a vital market
It’s a trend that stands out with extra clarity when we look at the Australian market. Australia is rapidly becoming a key player in the gaming landscape. A range of both government and private funding initiatives have seen literally hundreds of game studios launch over the past couple of years, and gaming revenue is growing down under significantly faster than the international average.
Of particular interest is the fact that although Australia saw the same surge in mobile gaming as the rest of the world between 2018 and 2022, the mobile market has slightly stagnated over the past year, while the PC gaming market has continued to grow.
The platform for purists
It is often said that everyone is a gamer these days. That is certainly so in Australia, where the events of 2020 and the government’s uncompromising reaction saw millions of Australians at a loss for something to do. While anyone can pick up a mobile for a quick game to while away five idle minutes, serious gaming has traditionally been played on PCs. And Australia has more than its share of serious gamers and serious games.
You can see that by scrolling through the top Australia releases of the past couple of years. Yes, there are opportunities to shoot things and jump over things, activities that work equally well on other platforms. But the top-ranked games are cerebral adventures like Apartment, Unpacking, and Umurangi Generation. Sure, you could play some of these games on mobile, just as you could watch Avatar via a streaming platform on your phone. But you would be missing a lot of the nuance that makes the experience so special and unique by doing so.
The preferred choice for casino gamers
Any discussion of gaming in Australia needs to contemplate iGaming. Casino gaming is, after all, one of the most important gaming niches in Australia. Australians love to gamble, and real money online pokies are among the most popular gambling games. Just about every online casino has a mobile version these days, but many casino gamers prefer to play on PC.
A big clue as to why this might be emerges when you look at the average demographic profile of casino gamers in Australia. The age range with the greatest participation is 50-65, and the 65-80 range is only a fraction lower than 35-50. In other words, most online casino players are in their 50s and 60s. This age group typically has a mobile phone but is more likely to use it for its traditional purpose – making phone calls. Older users tend to find the user experience superior on a PC, relying on a traditional mouse instead of a fiddly touchscreen and preferring the clarity of a full-size monitor.