Over the last 30 years or so, the media has repeatedly pronounced PC gaming, and, by extension, gaming PCs dead. This doom-mongering reared its head in the 90s with the popularity of home consoles like the NES and PlayStation, in the 2000s with the rise of piracy and console prioritization by developers, and in the 2010s with the explosion of mobile gaming. Even the last five years have been filled with declarations of gaming PCs finally losing to consoles due to terrible PC ports and unaffordable hardware.

While there is always a shred of truth in whatever trend sparks these pronouncements, they're always short-sighted or fail to read the room. The PC wasn't defeated by consoles or mobile phones, nor did piracy or unoptimized titles seal its fate. The current dark age of PC gaming might feel like it's the worst it has ever been, but gaming PCs will weather the storm like they always have.

5 1990s - Nintendo and PlayStation make gaming PCs obsolete

NES, SNES, and PlayStation

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was one of the biggest reasons the video game market recovered from the crash of 1983. The console's launch in late 1985 ended a two-year recession that saw home video game revenue fall from $3.2 billion in 1983 to just $100 million in 1985. However, the other reason was the resurgent popularity of home PCs like the Commodore 64. The demand for personal computers wasn't going anywhere.

By the time the 1990s came around, the launch of Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991 and Sony's first-gen PlayStation in 1994 prompted many to proclaim that the days of gaming on PCs were numbered. The standardized hardware and lower prices of consoles were considered the primary reasons for the eventual obsolescence of gaming PCs. However, as we know, FPS games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D sparked a never-ending interest in PC gaming, and the rest is history.

4 Early 2000s - Piracy kills PC gaming

Broadband, BitTorrent, and blame games

For the uninitiated, software piracy was a thing even in the 1970s, albeit in rudimentary ways like copying files onto floppy disks. As home internet access and the popularity of CDs started to grow in the 1990s, these became the new medium for game piracy. The real golden age of piracy, however, started in the 2000s, when peer-to-peer file-sharing programs like BitTorrent became commonplace, making it easier than ever to download games illegally. Gamers blamed the rising costs of games as a justification for pirating them.

This legitimately spooked industry analysts and game developers who considered the superior anti-piracy measures of consoles like the PlayStation 2 and Xbox would mean the death of PC gaming. While piracy was a real concern, it fortunately didn't grow into the behemoth many feared; the launch of Steam revolutionized the digital distribution of games and DRM software became more sophisticated. Piracy didn't disappear, but it didn't kill anything, let alone gaming PCs as an industry.

3 Mid-to-late 2000s - Gaming PCs become an afterthought

The era of consolization

The era of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was a weird time for PC gamers. It's not that great gamers weren't coming out for PC, but many developers started prioritizing console releases. The larger console market incentivized development for Sony's and Microsoft's platforms, and devoting additional resources and money to quality PC ports began taking a backseat. In fact, games like GTA IV, Resident Evil 4, and Dark Souls received awful PC ports, and many popular games never received one at all.

Some public statements from developers like id Software added fuel to the fire, popularizing the belief that the industry was moving toward consoles for good. As we know, that didn't happen. PC ports improved over time, community mods fixed most of the limitations of poorly optimized ports, and the indie scene thrived, thanks to Steam.

Consoles and gaming PCs have continued to co-exist, and while exclusives, and more recently, timed exclusives, have motivated many to stick to consoles, it isn't a zero-sum game. Console gamers can be PC gamers too, and vice versa.

2 2010s - Mobile gaming kills gaming PCs

Free-to-play convenience

The next "death" for gaming PCs came at the hands of the mobile gaming revolution. The arrival of smartphones after Apple's original iPhone paved the way for larger high-resolution screens, faster internet speeds, and higher-quality mobile games. What started with Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga, Subway Surfers, and Temple Run 2 exploded by the time PUBG Mobile and Fortnite took the world by storm.

The free-to-play nature of most mobile games and the unprecedented convenience for consumers convinced many experts to proclaim yet another demise of PC gaming. Positing that gamers will no longer invest in expensive gaming PCs when they could play games anywhere on their smartphone, analysts declared that gaming PCs will soon become irrelevant. By 2015, iPhone sales were breaking records, and gaming PC sales were declining. Besides, consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One had made giant leaps in performance and visuals.

Alas, all of these factors together couldn't end PC gaming, like many thought they would. Free-to-play games like Dota 2 and League of Legends thrived on PC too, and gamers continued to enjoy games on both their smartphones and gaming PCs.

1 2020s - Broken PC games and overpriced GPUs destroy gaming PCs

Dawn of the dark ages

And finally, we come to the present decade. The year 2020 set new records in terms of GPU prices, even before the crisis worsened due to the pandemic-induced shortage. Then, we got one of the worst video game launches in history with Cyberpunk 2077. The sky-high expectations set by CD Projekt Red crashed and burned as bugs and performance issues marred what could have been a landmark in gaming history. The worst part was that this trend continued with The Last of Us Part 1, Hogwarts Legacy, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Starfield.

In fact, almost every major release on PC came out a broken mess, which even overpriced GPUs couldn't salvage. Another nail in the coffin of gaming PCs was the ballooning budgets of AAA game development, forcing studio closures in the event of a title performing even slightly worse than phenomenal. "Gotcha" games like The Day Before, and comments from studios like Ubisoft over ownership of games further tanked consumer confidence.

Spoiler alert: gaming PCs are still not irrelevant, as proven by the ever-growing demand for CPUs and GPUs, and the astounding success of games like Cyberpunk 2077 (once it was fixed), Elden Ring, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Black Myth: Wukong. A lot needs to be fixed in the PC gaming and hardware industry, but in case anyone is still in doubt, gaming PCs aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Is PC gaming too big to fail?

Over the last 30 years, people have been quick to presume the demise of gaming PCs due to a shiny new toy every 5 years or so. First, it was consoles, then piracy, then mobile phones, and even PC gaming handhelds. PC gaming not only survived, but thrived, and continues to grow every year. The arrival of a new gaming device doesn't mean that gaming PCs will lose their appeal. They're still fabulous machines that gamers love to use for countless other things. Besides, console and mobile gamers can be PC gamers too — it's not an either-or situation.