Latest Report Shows The PC Gaming Hardware Market Is Exploding Again
The market for PC gaming hardware, including systems and accessories, is projected to grow by 35% in 2025 by Jon Peddie Research. This data is considered "conservative in relation to total PC hardware expenditure", and is attributed by the firm to the forced migration to Windows 1, due to Windows 10's pending End of Life in October. Another factor possibly at play here is PCs and smartphones being limited from tariffs currently, which are driving up the prices of gaming consoles and peripherals. The PC market has been kept in a healthy condition in spite of tariffs and a general economic downturn thanks to those exemptions. The need for users to migrate to Windows 11 with new TPM 2.0-supported hardware, however, may be the most significant motivating factor.
Another factor not mentioned by Jon Peddie Research is the ever-increasing hardware requirements of modern games. Games with real-time ray-tracing don't only require more powerful GPUs, but also more powerful CPUs and more RAM to keep things running smoothly. This applies especially to games that are fully path-traced. For PC gamers to continue chasing medium and high settings without needing to resort to Frame Generation— and often still needing to use it anyway—there's a clear push within the industry for higher-end hardware.
Jon Peddie Research "bearishly" forecasts that there's an anticipated 13% decrease in the entry-level PC gaming population. JPR's expectation is that these users will migrate to other platforms or to more powerful hardware, and the increasing system requirements issue we just discussed is likely a significant contributing factor. Since game developers seem to be demanding more performant hardware and Unreal Engine 5 remains the dominant industry standard, we wouldn't be surprised to see the entry-level continue to shrink. Though, there's always something to be said for lighter eSports titles, older games, and well-priced value hardware. Perhaps the entry-level market won't decrease as much as JPR thinks.
