A recent study by DFC Intelligence reveals that over 3 billion people on the planet play video games, which is about 40% of the world's population. Of those people, a whopping 1.5 billion are PC gamers, proving the enduring popularity of non-console and non-mobile play.
With almost half the world playing video games, it makes sense that there would be a variety of platforms that different people enjoy, given the variety in tastes and experiences in the global population. However, a significant portion of gamers, 48%, show their preference for PCs as their primary video gaming platform. That doesn't mean almost half of all gamers only play on PC, as this number includes people who also play on console or mobile.
According to the data, console-exclusive players make up a small minority of the worldwide gaming population, with only 8% of gamers primarily playing on console. However, PC gamers are more likely to be "casual" gamers, since video game console sales makes more money as console gamers spend more on average. That explains why PC games, while popular, don't always get as much hype as new consoles or console games as the big money just isn't in PC gaming.
1.42 billion of the world's gamers are in Asia, and the video games industry in Japan is growing especially fast. However, a large portion of these gamers play primarily on mobile, taking up most of the world's population. Still, PC gaming has a significant holding in Asia. The next largest portions of gamers are in Europe, Latin America, MENA, and North America. Mobile gaming is the fastest-growing gaming demographic, and may even eventually overtake PC as the popular platform of choice.
PC gamers play a wide variety of games, with everything from first-person shooters to indie text-based games available on Steam and other popular game stores, so there's something for everybody. Fall Guys is the current craze for both PC and PS4 users, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare continues to be popular. Those two games are incredibly different in terms of tone, visuals, style, and genre, but their popularity proves that PC gamers have widely varied taste.
Most American households have at least one gamer, and many of them are adults, and while many older age demographics game on console and mobile, PC gaming in popular for a variety of ages. PCs aren't portable, and many of them can't run bigger games, but their appeal to so many types of gamers has given this platform the popularity it has.