PC gaming is growing, but it isn't because of Dota 2 and Fortnite

It’s no secret that the games industry is in a bit of a weird spot. There have been mass layoffs, AI is on the rise, and costs have increased across both premium and multiplayer games. From an outside perspective, you could argue that it’s all falling apart and that the glowing beacon of the GTA 6 release date can’t come quickly enough. I, however, think that gaming is simply undergoing a transformation. Triple-A has largely grown stagnant, meaning that people more and more people are turning to double-A and indie-level games. There’s a flourishing diversity that doesn’t detract from all the bad bits, but hints at a more creative gaming landscape going forward.

Per Newzoo’s annual PC and Console Gaming Report for 2026, PC gaming is set to eclipse console as the frontrunner in terms of revenue by 2028. It’s easy to see why: it’s the exclusive home of some of the biggest cash cows in gaming, including League of Legends, Dota 2, and World of Warcraft. Yet, as analyst Tianyi Gu notes, 56% of PC gaming’s overall revenue in 2025 came from games outside of that top 20.

We’ve seen a general fluctuation in revenue generators over the course of four years, with 2022 seeing the top 20 pull 52% of the sector’s earnings. This rose in 2023 to 57%, and then dropped in 2024 down to 51%. In 2025, however, that number has hit a low of 44%, with the remaining 56% of revenue coming from other, non-top 20 titles.

“This means the long tail is not only becoming more visible in engagement terms. On some platforms, most notably PC, it is also becoming more commercially meaningful,” she writes, supporting the idea that PC is becoming the place to play games. Across console, PlayStation and Xbox’s top 20 still contribute over 60% of their respective revenues; 62% and 66% respectively in 2025.

Total PC gaming playtime is also up by 14% across the 2022 to 2025 period, with a 44% increase across non-top 20 games. “On PC, the space below the top tier is capturing more attention, but also more spend,” Gu notes, perhaps a result of most double-A and indie games costing around $30. “At the same time, the top of the market remains highly entrenched.”

Players largely seem to be trending towards RPGs and adventure games, with Gu stating that older titles like Skyrim, Elden Ring, and Red Dead Redemption 2 are mixed in comfortably with newcomers like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. It’s a similar story on PlayStation, with mainstays like The Last of Us Part 2 meshing with games like Ghost of Yotei.

Interestingly, RPGs and adventure games beat out shooters on PC and PS5, but FPS games are still topping the charts on Xbox, no doubt in part thanks to Call of Duty being available via Game Pass. It’s a phenomenon I’ve noticed over the years – there seems to be some serious fatigue around hero shooters, battle royales, and the genre as a whole. While the likes of Arc Raiders have poked their head above the water, the high-profile flops of Concord, XDefiant, and, most recently, Highguard prove that the genre isn’t as dominant as it once was.

It’s worth noting, however, that the industry moves in cycles. I remember when everything was a roguelike deckbuilder, then a survival game, and I expect more turn-based, Expedition 33-esque games in the wake of Sandfall’s success. FPS games aren’t dead – far from it, look at CS2 and Valorant. They’re just on the back bench for now.

You can read Newzoo’s revenue article here, and download the full 2026 report if you want to. It’s well worth a read.

It’s also a welcome reminder that gaming isn’t dead. It’s easy to get bogged down in the heaviness these days: trust me, I do too. But PC gaming is an amazing space to be in – it’s the center of videogame innovation. That, right there, is why I’m so excited to see how 2026 pans out.