PC Gaming Decline in Germany: User Numbers Drop to 13.1 Million, Marking a 20% Decrease Since 2019

Sure, here’s a rewritten version:

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So, here I am, flipping through this new report from Germany—yeah, the one about video gaming trends. It’s a bit of a wake-up call for those PC gamers out there, seeing the popularity nose-dive by, like, 20% since 2019. Wild, right? But meanwhile, if you’re all about gaming on your phone or tablet, nothing’s really changed. Those numbers are steady as a sleepy cat. Consoles though? They’re the real winners, creeping up in market share, year after year.

Now, Game.de isn’t some PC fan club. It’s more like this big deal in the German gaming scene. They’re all about consoles these days. Honestly, with the way things are going, consoles might just become the big cheese in Germany soon.

Anyway—oh wait, where was I? Right, that chart they’ve got? It’s like—a whole graph showing consoles just shooting up. Ignore 2023 for a sec, and you’ll see it’s a crazy incline, 13 degrees or something. Kind of like biking up a hill, but not really… if that makes sense.

So why are consoles winning the gold medal here? Game.de says it’s all thanks to the tech giants like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. They’re pushing out new stuff, all shiny and optimized. Like, think PlayStation 5 Pro or whatever Nintendo’s cooking up. And the Switch 2—I mean, let’s not bet against its sales power in 2025!

But here’s the juicy part: there are 20.5 million console users in Germany now, hot on the heels of the 22.9 million smartphone gamers. Oh, and remember when smartphones got a boost back in 2019? Well, they’ve hit a flat patch now, sort of just coasting along.

On the flip side, we’ve got PC gaming kinda slipping, with a 20% drop since 2019. Even though there were 13.1 million PC gamers by the end of 2024, it’s 400,000 fewer than the year before. And back in the day (2019), PC gamers actually outnumbered those on consoles, but now consoles lead by over 7 million! Oh, fun fact—19 million gamers in Germany juggle multiple platforms. Who knew?

The report doesn’t spill much tea on why PCs are sliding. They just say 2024 was a “growth nap” for the industry. Game sales slid by 17%, hardware by 10%, but online gaming services? Up 12%—so not all gloom and doom.

If you twist my arm for reasons, maybe it’s all those shiny component shortages, or how budget gamers don’t find new GPUs thrilling anymore. Hard to say for sure.

Can’t seem to dig up the same data for the U.S. or the world. I guess Game.de’s got special ties with YouGov for these figures. And hey, follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News for the latest buzz. Seriously, hit that Follow button!

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