Just seeing how much hardware has grown exponentially this year is just mind-boggling.
It's a sad shame that the circumstances surrounding its rise are... unfavorable, to put it lightly... But on top of people who were potentially holding off on their purchases for a later date deciding to jump on board now, given the circumstances.
I also hypothesize that it's a sizable portion of that casual, smartphone/mobile audience that helped make the Wii and DS rise to such gargantuan heights in the mid-late 00s, but then promptly abandoned those systems, and dedicated gaming altogether once mobile gaming rose to prominence. But with the lockdowns and quarantines keeping those people indoors 24/7, with all that time on their hands, mobile gaming is going to get very old, very fast. So now, they're looking for bigger grander, more ambitious, and immersive experiences to truly take a large chunk of their newly acquired free time, so they're coming back to consoles after all these years.
Hardware Comparison Threads:
Current Thread
Is Hardware Getting TOO Powerful?
Older Threads:
PlayStation/Xbox/Switch: 2022 Edition
PlayStation/Xbox/Switch Hardware Battle: 2021 Edition!
PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch: 2019 vs. 2020
PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch: 2018 vs. 2019
PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch: 2017 vs. 2018
PlayStation 4: 2015 vs. 2016 vs. 2017