When did PC gaming become mainstream? The factors that produced the wider recognition and adoption that PC gaming enjoys today reached critical mass around 2019. The tailwinds of PUBG and Fortnite behind it, this was the year where so many things seemed to coalesce, from Sony’s surprising move to publish most of its games on PC, Discord’s dominance as a chat app that also works on your phone, crossplay, and the continued outperformance of small-studio games like Slay the Spire.
Now what?
The trends that produced this age are still in play, and to my eyes, don’t show signs of disappearing. Supported by modders and independent developers, PC will continue to be the place where new genres are born—colony sims, extraction, roguelike deckbuilders, prox-chat co-op horror—made possible by highly-moddable PC exclusives like Arma 4. The Steam Deck is a strangely cheap entry point to PC gaming at a time when inflation means every dollar counts. PC’s proximity to streaming and the wider internet will make it the natural choice for the people who are most passionate about gaming.
Small studios will continue to enjoy parity with the biggest publishers in the world, partly because their development timelines allow them to react to trends more quickly. There will be a steady beat of unexpected hits—more Balatros, Valheims, Vampire Survivors, and Lethal Companies. The still-increasing accessibility of the tools used to make and publish those games will continue to invite the 20-year-olds of the world to make Scary Thomas The Tank Engine FPSes.
We will look back on Helldivers 2 as a significant moment for PC gaming, and perhaps not for the reasons you’d think. Yes, it’s eyebrow-raising that a PlayStation game will be one of the best, and best-selling, PC games of 2024. But what I notice is how systems-driven Helldivers 2 is, a historically rare quality for a blockbuster and something spiritually associated with PC gaming. The unknowable firing behavior of the Arc Thrower. The way that Terminid limbs can be severed and, guided only by ragdoll chaos, seconds later fall from the sky and decapitate you without warning. The way that new enemies and weapons have appeared in-game for a handful of players, and are then publicly, playfully disavowed by the studio. Perhaps the biggest DNA-level connection to PC gaming is Helldivers 2’s “game master” overseer Joel, a descendent of Lord British and other MMO admins and folk heroes.
All this stuff will sustain PC gaming’s booming popularity. As a set of trends, they aren’t surprising, but they are heartening. I mean, I don’t need a Marvel movie star to profess their lifelong love for StarCraft in order to know that I’m playing games in the best place, but I won’t complain.
