We have heard time and time again that the PC market is somehow ‘in trouble’, with declining sales and fewer customers to sell to. While that might be true for OEM systems from the likes of Dell and HP, it certainly isn’t the case for PC gaming hardware as the market has boomed in 2016, generating over $30 billion for the first time in history.

According to researchers working at analyst firm Jon Peddie Research, PC gaming hardware sales shot past the $30 billion mark in 2016 for the first time ever. Previously, the PC gaming hardware market wasn’t expected to hit this point until 2018, which shows how the market is growing faster than anticipated.

As the report notes, consumers “continue to embrace the PC platform for video games due to multiple factors”. The report goes on to praise higher graphical fidelity and greater control options as key reasons gamers choose to switch to desktop PCs: “The desktop is popular because the display distance offers increased detail when using HD and UHD monitors. Additionally, there is superior control with mouse and keyboard interfaces”.

The research report then goes on to break down PC gaming hardware sales into entry-level, mid-range and high-end categories to see which sector is generating most of the cash. It turns out that high-end PC gaming parts pulled in over $13 billion, accounting for 43 percent of sales in 2016. The mid-range category pulled in $10.6 billion or around 35 percent of sales in 2016. Entry-level sales accounted for $6.7 billion or around 22 percent of sales throughout last year.

KitGuru Says: PC gaming is alive, well and growing faster than ever before, which is great to see. It will be interesting to see if PC gaming can continue to break records in 2017 and beyond. When did you guys first start gaming on PC?

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