Jon Peddie Research explains PC gaming versus console

[arsenicazure]

The PS3 and Wii came out in November 2006, and the Xbox 360 was introduced in May 2005  november 2005, so the 74.7 million is over several years around 3 yrs( 50 million units in 2 yrs if you discount the xbox).

From Q3 2005 till Q3 2008, 196 million gaming PCs shipped, and 10 million of them were in the Mainstream Enthusiast class—and if we include mainstream desktop and High-end high-end notebook, we could add another 187 million units—now that really is a lot.

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13654

 

U.S. PC Game Sales Up 48% So Far In 2007

According to data from research firm NPD Group, sales of PC games have risen by 48 percent on the previous year, during the first two months of 2007, with sales lead by the success of Blizzard’s World of WarCraft and its expansion The Burning Crusade.

Speaking in a feature by The New York Times, NPD’s Anita Frazier indicated that U.S. retails sales of PC games have risen to $203 million, from $136.8 million a year earlier. These figures do not include online sales or online subscriptions to massively multiplayer online (MMO) games such as World of WarCraft.

Frazier identified MMOs as the key source of the increase, in particular the January release of The Burning Crusade. During January and February role-playing game sales rose by 43 percent on the PC, largely due to the release of the expansion.

“The robust performance we’re seeing in PC game sales can be tied to several key titles across several genres,” said Frazier. “But we’d be remiss not to address the continued success of World of WarCraft.”

Overall, PC game sales increased by only 1 percent over the whole of 2006 to $970 million, from a figure of $953 million in 2005. This in turn was a fall of 14 percent from 2004’s total of $1.1 billion in revenues.

The feature offers a contrast with console game sales, which reached $4.8 billion in 2006 for the U.S., rising to $6.5 billion if portable console sales are included.

 

PC gamers must be a real tight lot with their wallets? coz i doubt someone would spend thousand(s) on their gaming rig and then not use it for playing games.. unless ofcourse its just for vista :)