PC gaming's obsession with high-end hardware is only going to get worse according to analysts

pcgamer.com:

The long-time PC gaming hardware soothsayers at Jon Peddie Research have a new note out predicting tough times for the industry in the short to medium term before returning to growth in 2025.

But there's a catch. JPR reckons mid-range gaming hardware is going to flatline while both the high-end and low-end segments experience a decent uptick in 2025.

JPR's numbers(opens in new tab) also demonstrate just how huge the hardware frenzy was in 2021. According to their numbers, the overall PC gaming hardware market turned over a massive $68.5 billion in 2021, dipping to $42 billion in 2022. 

JPR forecasts $37 billion this year, $41 billion in 2024, and then $47 billion in 2025. Drill down into those figures and it's clear just how big an impact demand for high-end hardware had in 2021.

Of that $68.5 trillion figure for 2021, JPR says fully $46 billion came from high-end hardware. That plummeted to less than half in 2022 at just under $23 billion for 2022.

Meanwhile, entry-level and mid-range hardware also dropped off, but only by relatively small amounts. JPR's forecasts for 2023, 2024 and 2025 see relatively little growth in the mid-range while both high-end and entry-level hardware looks increasingly healthy, albeit nothing on the scale of the bumper year of 2021.

As for why, at the low end JPR reckons Intel's entry into the graphics market with its Arc GPUs, including the Intel Arc A770(opens in new tab), is helping to boost that segments, along with older AMD GPUs which the research outfit says are still being manufactured.

Meanwhile, at the high-end of the PC market JPR says «a renaissance in PC gaming display development with gamers gravitating toward ultra-wide screens with High-End aspirational products now available