News PC gaming figures fall again in Germany, down to just 13.1 million — marking a 20% decline since 2019

[Admin]

The latest figures out of Germany suggest that the popularity of PC gaming has declined by a fifth since 2019.

PC gaming figures fall again in Germany, down to just 13.1 million — marking a 20% decline since 2019 : Read more

 

[Pierce2623]

That seems strange when PC gaming is actually doing better than ever compared to consoles everywhere else.

 

[Notton]

My guess...
Smartphones (that can game) are offered as part of a mobile carrier plan, and you need one for the modern world anyways.
Consoles are the second cheapest option out of the bottom three luxury items.
Tablet gaming is duplicated by smartphones, and the ones with a SIM slot and excellent SoC cost a ridiculous amount.
Gaming PCs are costly, and unlike an equally costly gaming smartphone, are not subsidized by the network carrier.

But I could be totally wrong on that because the collected data is useless without details.

 

[Dr3ams]

The cost of living here in Germany is very high. Also, GPUs are expensive and so is electricity. Finding a cheaper, mobile and less power hungry platform seems like a logical next step for younger gamers. I'm 60, and I only game on my PC. I don't see that changing any time soon. Out of my three grown kids, one doesn't game at all and the other two game mostly on consoles.

 

[John Nemesh]

I'm totally sure that $3000 graphics cards had absolutely NOTHING to do with this... /s

It's just not worth it anymore to spend THOUSANDS of dollars on a high end gaming rig when a PS5 Pro can give you similar results with $700 and none of the extra effort!

 

[logainofhades]

I blame the rising costs, especially in the GPU side of things, where pricing is way higher than that of actual inflation.

 

[TerryLaze]

I'm totally sure that $3000 graphics cards had absolutely NOTHING to do with this... /s

It's just not worth it anymore to spend THOUSANDS of dollars on a high end gaming rig when a PS5 Pro can give you similar results with $700 and none of the extra effort!

$700€ are also enough for a decent PC rig, and you get games for much cheaper on many many sales as well as free games from epic every week.

 

[logainofhades]

People tend to look at the new AAA stuff, and not the plethora of titles out there, from years past. They see what is needed to run said titles well, and get turned off by the idea. I am glad I don't chase the AAA gaming scene like that.

 

[closs.sebastien]

Why pc are falling.. . easy.. just compare the price of a last xbox/playstation with a good gaming pc..
800 € for a console... more than 2000 € for a pc

 

[John Nemesh]

$700€ are also enough for a decent PC rig, and you get games for much cheaper on many many sales as well as free games from epic every week.

Yeah, I would probably spend $700 to $999 for a graphics card...but anything more expensive is right out!

But the fact that a MID grade card costs that much is ridiculous! I bought a FLAGSHIP (Asus ROG, mind you!) Vega64 for uner $700 the last time I did a build...and now "flagship" GPUs are $3k or more! Which is outrageous!

 

[closs.sebastien]

$700€ are also enough for a decent PC rig, and you get games for much cheaper on many many sales as well as free games from epic every week.

700€ a decent gaming pc ? where?

cpu - core i5 is 300 € alone..
gpu.. rtx4060 is 300 € alone..
then... mainboard 150€.. power 100 € , ssd 100 €, monitor 150 €.... dram 150 € ... Windows licence 90 €...
at very least 1000 or 1200 €

personally,
my actual gpu -rtx4070 ti- was 900 €
my previous gpu -rtx2070- was 500 €
my previous gpu -gtx970 - was 350 €....

I have always sticked to the middle range... and the middle range is much much much more costly than 10 years ago... and the average salaries/wage have not tripled.... (gpu: 300 -> 900 )

 

[logainofhades]

Why pc are falling.. . easy.. just compare the price of a last xbox/playstation with a good gaming pc..
800 € for a console... more than 2000 € for a pc

What is a good gaming PC is quite subjective. What you consider good might seem to be overkill for another.

I would consider this a good PC, that can play anything at reasonable settings, at 1080p/1440p. Those less knowledgeable see GPU reviews running at highest settings thinking that is what they have to run too in order to have an enjoyable experience. Many setting can highly impact performance, for very little improvement to visual quality. I remember a quote said by someone that High settings are for gaming, Ultra is for screen shots.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 3.6 GHz 8-Core OEM/Tray Processor (€195.89 @ notebooksbilliger.de)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE V2 88.89 CFM CPU Cooler (€45.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX V2 ATX AM5 Motherboard (€149.90 @ Alza)
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€94.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€106.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: XFX Swift OC Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB Video Card (€369.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Montech AIR 903 MAX ATX Mid Tower Case (€76.90 @ Alza)
Power Supply: Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€109.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1149.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-06-23 21:44 CEST+0200

 

[helper800]

700€ a decent gaming pc ? where?

cpu - core i5 is 300 € alone..
gpu.. rtx4060 is 300 € alone..
then... mainboard 150€.. power 100 € , ssd 100 €, monitor 150 €.... dram 150 € ... Windows licence 90 €...
at very least 1000 or 1200 €

personally,
my actual gpu -rtx4070 ti- was 900 €
my previous gpu -rtx2070- was 500 €
my previous gpu -gtx970 - was 350 €....

I have always sticked to the middle range... and the middle range is much much much more costly than 10 years ago... and the average salaries/wage have not tripled.... (gpu: 300 -> 900 )

The PS5 Pro has performance roughly equivalent to a 2700 CPU with a 7700 XT. A PC like the one below has more storage, more RAM, a much faster CPU, and about 50-60% more graphics performance with newer features. This does not include perks of a PC like getting games for much cheaper than console, only being able to play games for the specific console you bought it for, a PC can be used for much more than a console, every part is upgradeable, warranties on each part that are the same or many years longer than a console, repairability, no expensive subscription to play games online with others, can be used years after its gaming usefulness to do many other things, resell value is greater for PCs than it is for consoles, et cetera, et cetera.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor ($178.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($35.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B850 Pro-A WiFi ATX AM5 Motherboard ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Venom 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: SK Hynix Platinum P41 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 9070 16 GB Video Card ($599.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 TT Premium 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1418.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-06-23 16:24 EDT-0400

1418 USD roughly equivalent to 1225 euros. So 525 euros more for way more of everything. In my opinion consoles are a racket, and console exclusive games are a dying breed, unless you want another 20-30 Nintendo games that are nearly identical to their prior titles with few exceptions.

 

[hotaru251]

not a shock.
given the cost of equivalent fidelity as console...its not worth the $ anymore.
I loathe consoles, but even then its a clear reason.

Its a lot easier for most people to pay less now and more long term than an insane amount up front even if cheaper over time.

also power in many countries are not as cheap and thus a console saves $ on that side as well.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

You can get an entire console for the price (or less than the price) of a gaming GPU. Issue solved.

 

[helper800]

You can get an entire console for the price (or less than the price) of a gaming GPU. Issue solved.

Your right, sell your PC for a console, its way better anyway, am I right?

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Big shout out to Nvidia and AMD for this.

 

[elbutchos]

Put the graph of the PC sales change next to the population change of Germany and you will have the answer.

 

[rambo919]

Uhm.... these are just sales figures not "gaming figures"..... how is it not predictable that these figures would fall given how inflated the hardware costs have become?

People are not giving up on anything, they are just keeping their current hardware for longer than providers like them to.

 

[dalek1234]

With PC GPU's being overpriced for years now, people switching to consoles shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

 

[Pierce2623]

I'm totally sure that $3000 graphics cards had absolutely NOTHING to do with this... /s

It's just not worth it anymore to spend THOUSANDS of dollars on a high end gaming rig when a PS5 Pro can give you similar results with $700 and none of the extra effort!

Just for the record a PS5 Pro’s GPU is more in line with the 7800xt I bought last year for $430.

 

[Pierce2623]

With PC GPU's being overpriced for years now, people switching to consoles shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

For years now? In 2024 the 7900xtx people are paying over $1000 for right now(yes it’s still going for the same price as a 9070xt because it’s more powerful and has more VRAM) were under $800…

 

[aberkae]

Because brute forced hardware is getting more expensive. Epic has no choice but to improve efficiency instead of relying on brute forced hardware that is getting more expensive thanks to ai. If their potential demographic can't run hardware they have to appeal to the lowest common denominator imo.

 

[aberkae]

Just for the record a PS5 Pro’s GPU is more in line with the 7800xt I bought last year for $430.

It's crazy how their is such a huge gap between the 9070 and 9060xt where the old 6800xt and 7800xt still have better rasterization.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asus-radeon-rx-9060-xt-prime-oc-16-gb/31.html

 

[spongiemaster]

I'm totally sure that $3000 graphics cards had absolutely NOTHING to do with this... /s

It's just not worth it anymore to spend THOUSANDS of dollars on a high end gaming rig when a PS5 Pro can give you similar results with $700 and none of the extra effort!

This doesn't really apply except the last couple of years. Looks more like Germany just lost interest in PC gaming collectively. This goes all the way back to 2019. Since then, we've had the ethereum bubble and Covid both of which were huge boom periods for the gaming industry and PC sales in general. There were no upward spikes for either in the article chart, just a steady decline year after year.

We have not seen a 20% drop in Steam usage since 2019 and Nvidia's gaming division continues to set revenue records. Someone is buying these cards, and it isn't all just AI. Market as a whole seems fine. It's just Germany seeing this downward trend.