PC Gaming: Why Make the Change?
If you are anything like me, you love video games. Prior to the introduction of the Magnavox Odyssey, games were primarily played in arcades. From then, home consoles were more popular, such as the newly released, PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X. The game console system is a staple of the average gamer who is looking to play in their free time. However, more recently we have seen a shift of “average gamers” making the switch to PC gaming. In today’s day and age, the “PC gamer” is considered more hardcore and dedicated than your average consumer. Now, this begs the question, why the sudden change?
An image from Avira - top 5 affordable gaming PCs
My team and I at The Crusader sent out a school-wide Microsoft Form to the students at Moeller High School, wondering how many PC gamers are really out there, and among those gamers, how many managed to build their PC themselves.
Of the 254 Moeller students who filled out the survey, 74 of them own and game on a PC. However, of the 74 PC gamers, 51 of them claim that PC is indeed the master race, with the other 23 PC owners saying that they still prefer their console.
Of those 51 consistent PC players, there is a 1:2 (17 to 34) ratio of students who bought their PC pre-built, to students who built it themselves. In a recent study conducted by EEDAR (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research), a videogame industry that reports recent and upcoming news, they claim that 67% of the American population play games, whether that is mobile, PC, console, etc, making for 211.2 million gamers in the nation. Also from this survey, EDDAR claims that 35% of Americans that play video games consistently are PC gamers. When comparing the statistics from Moeller students and the data from EDDAR’s survey, the number of PC gamers is nearly par, with 30% of Moeller students (who filled out the survey), compared to the nation’s 35%.
Keeping the statistics in mind, let’s look at why such change is happening. The first on the list is the customization that PC gaming offers. PC gamers are constantly upgrading their parts in their system. If you want more memory, buy more SSD. If you want better graphics, go out and spend hundreds of dollars on the latest GeForce RTX 3600. If you want a faster PC, upgrade to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900x or the Intel Core i9-10900 for a rough $900. You get the point. Now, as for new gaming consoles such as the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X, yeah you can game in 4k at 120 FPS, but you are maxed out there; there is no upgrading the system. This gives great appeal to dedicated gamers who are looking to game at the highest quality possible.
Another reason that PC gaming is taking the world by storm is the influence of streamers across the internet. Professional streamers such as Ninja, Nickmercs, TimTheTatman, and many more, are all gaming on the highest quality PC’s money can buy. Teenagers, like myself, notice these top dollar gaming PCs and want them for ourselves. Now, in order to be able to stream and play games at the same time, you will need a recording software, such as Elgato or OBS; this requires a high-end PC that will most likely be a couple of thousand dollars.
An image from Gamers Nexus - How to build a gaming PC for beginners
The final reason for such change is the abundance of games that PC gamers are able to get their hands on. With access to platforms like Steam or Unreal Engine, PC users are able to play just about any game imaginable at a higher quality than consoles can, with the exception of sports games, such as NBA 2k, Madden, MLB the Show, NHL, etc. More recently in the world of gaming, we have seen the transition of “free to play games”, that are also cross-platform, such as rocket league, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and many more. PC players are able to play with players on PlayStation and on Xbox, whilst maintaining all aspects that PC gaming has to offer.
Overall, we can conclude that if you are willing to spend the money and are serious about gaming, investing in a gaming PC should be in your sights. However, if you do not want to part ways with $1000 cash, you can buy a cheap prebuild PC, and slowly upgrade as you need to. If you won’t take it from me, take it from gaming enthusiast, Android Authority, “Instead of having to upgrade to the inevitable PS5 Pro in five years to get the very best console hardware, with a PC, you can just swap out your graphics card, or even your CPU and motherboard if you’re fixing up a really old rig. A top-tier gaming PC will always be more powerful than any games console, and that’s just a fact”.