PC gamers spent $4.5 billion on gaming hardware and accessories in 2020

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To say that 2020 has been a good year for the gaming industry would be a vast understatement. In fact, it did way better than just “good.”

According to data aggregated and crunched by NPD, a US-based market research group, consumers spent $4.5 billion on gaming accessories and hardware in 2020.

Compared to 2019, that’s an increase of 62%. PC gaming content also increased by 19% and reached $7.5 billion in 2020. Furthermore, growth was recorded in almost every PC-gaming category, such as keyboards, monitors, and audio headsets.

Stephen Baker, an adviser at NPD, credits this momentum to the coronavirus pandemic. He believes that due to the lockdowns and movement restrictions in 2020, consumers searched for ways to entertain themselves while staying at home.

Mat Piscatella, a video analyst at NPD, shared the same sentiment with their colleague and said that PC gaming is one of the most accessible forms of gaming as almost every household owns a laptop or a desktop computer.

He supported his claim by citing another study stating that nearly 40% of all US adults played PC games in 2020. That’s a 4% increase compared to 2019. Plus, PC gamers spent 14% more time on PC gaming in 2020 compared to 2019. Therefore, more people played PC games over longer periods in 2020 compared to 2019.

Simultaneously, the analysts at NPD also believe that the PC gaming hardware and accessories industry won’t experience the same growth in 2021. Baker and the other analysts that are part of the NPD predict a 3% growth for this segment of the gaming industry. Even though that’s a sharp decline compared to what the industry experienced in 2020, they remain confident that the gaming industry has a bright future.

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Deep Ballu