During today’s Games Retail 2020 event in London, market analyst and research giant Juniper Researched unveiled its predictions for the future of the gaming industry in the UK. Leading this was the claim that PC will be the most lucrative games platform in the UK by 2019, outstripping both console and smartphone gaming to be the most popular destination for players.

The total projected revenue of the PC and console games markets is estimated to be $41.2 billion by 2019, with both consoles and PCs combined accountable for well over half the market. Gaming looks to be an area of entertainment that’s still on the up, and Juniper believes it’s PC gaming that’s going to lead the way heading into the next decade.

More and more money is expected to be splashed on PC gaming in the coming years.

Despite the rise and rise of smartphones and mobile gaming, Juniper believes PC will be the number one gaming platform, following by smartphones, and finally traditional console gaming. Juniper Research speculates that handheld console gaming will essentially already be dead by 2019, accounting for less than 2% of the total gaming market in 5 years’ time.

The latest generation of consoles might still be in their diapers, but Juniper also had time to discuss the next-generation of consoles, which it expects to arrive by 2019 at the earliest. This would be around 6 years after the launches of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but it’s thought Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will have to adapt to the threat of cheaper and more regularly updated gaming devices such as Amazon’s Fire TV or the potential Apple console, releasing more regular, iterative updates. Do you agree with Juniper, will PC gaming be on top in 5 years’ time? What does the future hold in store for traditional games consoles?