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Personal computer videogaming may not have the front spot in the public’s mind when it comes to gaming – where people often think of the high-profile consoles from Sony (NYSE:SONY), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Nintendo (OTCPK:NTDOY). But PC gaming spending joined in the industry’s banner year in 2021.
Consumers laid out $5.74 billion on PC gaming hardware and accessories last year, according to a report from the NPD Group, a jump of 25% from 2020. And 2020 had seen its own 62% increase on that measure, year-over-year.
The growth in dollar terms was led by desktop computers (up 38%), notebook computers (up 29%) and PC microphones (up 25%).
In unit terms, PC microphones sold 27% more; monitors, 17% more; and notebook computers 16% more.
Those hefty two-year gains in dollar volumes in hardware and accessories, driven heavily by some pandemic pull-forward, are likely to lead to a downturn of 4% in 2022, NPD says.
As for PC game content, spending also grew there by 5%, to $7.9 billion. And time spent playing those games was up as well, NPD says: Game players averaged 7.7 hours of gameplay per week last year, up from an average of 6.7 hours in 2020.
Commenting on the record spending and engagement, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella says “PC gaming continues to offer a wide variety of content, across numerous genres, coming from developers around the world. It remains the home of game innovation, while providing players myriad ways to engage with the medium.”
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