The competition of games pushes the limits of hardware day by day

The need to upgrade computers to play games explodes

The global gaming market is exploding in every segment and region of the world. Mobile gaming continues to expand, consoles are growing rapidly, while streaming and esports are slowly transitioning from PC to cross-platform. The global gaming market now leads software revenue this year with $116 billion, 10% more than last year. Game hardware systems and game accessories will generate at least $23 billion in additional profits. According to recent reports, hardware has become an integral part of gaming culture and is the most profitable segment of manufacturers.

In the latest trend, PC gaming is pushing the minimum configuration to a new level. Competitive gaming has become the norm and is combining skill-based multiplayer games with traditional single-player titles. PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege are three prime examples of the ability to be cross-platform, requiring a lot of gamers to upgrade their machines.

Using Newzoo’s PC hardware tracking technology, we find out how this affects games and hardware brands. More than 20 technology parameters are tracked, the GPU is the part worth learning the most. We then break them down into the lowest parameters required to play these games to see how many qualified players are and what opportunities it creates for the affected groups. Finally, we will see how laptop brands perform among gamers with different configurations.

New configuration requirements for competitive games and other games

In recent releases, such as PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS (PUBG) and Battlefield 1, high-end hardware is required to play. For example, PUBG requires a GPU of at least 2GB of VRAM, according to official information from the company, while the shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is playable with 512MB of VRAM. The minimal hardware of long-lived titles is also being pushed up. For example, the original World of Warcraft released in 2003 required only 32MB of VRAM, now with the latest update Legion requires at least 512MB of VRAM. The recommended configuration is now much higher than before. Typically, PUBG requires a Geforce GTX 1060 or higher Nvidia GPU series. For competitive or esports games that require smoothness and precision, achieving the recommended configuration becomes more important, as the GPU affects not only the graphics in the game but also the accuracy in mobile shooters. fast transfer.

While the GTX 1060 is more than enough to run games at full settings at 1080p, we’re also seeing steady growth in the Nvidia 1070 and 1080 series cards, in part due to the need to take advantage of the GPU’s power. Gamers are looking for higher resolutions at 1440p and 4K for a better experience, where the 1060 can no longer run games that hit 60 frames per second (FPS). In addition, competitive games need higher FPS to maximize accuracy. 60 FPS used to be the standard for gaming, but now gamers are looking to hit at least 120 FPS for titles like Counter-Strike, Overwatch, and Dota 2.

Data from Newzoo shows that the Nvidia GTX 1070 has become quite popular among desktop PC gamers in the US, with 11.1% of users in October, posting a growth of +4.8% compared to July. Even though 1080 not used much (6.8%), but has a growth rate of nearly +14%.

The adoption rates of the next-generation high-end GPUs vary markedly depending on the games they play. The growth rate in GeForce 1060 market share was +18.1% of PUBG gamers, while World of Warcraft (WoW) gamers only achieved +11.5% growth. This is similar to the GTX 1080, which grew 2x faster for PUBG gamers (+10.7%), compared to WoW (+5.4%) gamers from July to October. We see the complete opposite. all with 900-generation cards. For WoW gamers, the 970’s growth market share drops to -2.6%. This number is -11.9% for PUBG gamers. These numbers are almost similar to the 960, showing that gamers with high configuration requirements are gradually getting rid of older cards compared to gamers who do not have too high demand for game configuration. As for the GeForce 660 card, which lagged behind (that’s the lowest configuration to play PUBG), it dropped twice as fast for PUBG gamers (-22.4%) than WoW gamers (-10.2%).

So what about those who are playing below even the lowest configuration of the game?

While core gamers are upgrading their hardware to play the latest titles, not everyone is ready to follow this rule. The tracking department shows that 10.1% of desktop PC gamers in the US played PUBG in October and did not meet the minimum configuration to play PUBG. The rate increases to 20% if laptops are included. By comparison, 7.7% of desktop users in the US who played Battlefield 1 did not reach the lowest configuration. With WoW, this figure is only 5.6%. Russia has the highest share of PUBG gamers playing under ‘lowest configuration’ at 21.8%, compared to 14.0% for Battlefield 1 and only 5.6% for WoW. When we take the recommended configuration as a starting point, the share of gamers benefiting from the GPU upgrade increases markedly. Most PUBG gamers play under the recommended configuration, even in the US. This rate reaches 25% with League of Legends or WoW gamers in the US.

The fact that there are PUBG gamers with device configurations lower than the minimum (or recommended) configuration is largely due to the popularity of this game in recent months. PUBG entered the list of the most played PC games by gamers in May at 7th place, the game quickly entered the top 5 after that. On the other hand, 77.5% of PC gamers in the US who don’t play PUBG can play this game at PUBG’s lowest configuration. Meanwhile, in European countries like Sweden, this rate is close to 80%. This is a great opportunity for Bluehole Studio to gain more users if it focuses on this group. With the remaining 22.5% of gamers who do not play PUBG, they do not reach the lowest configuration to play the game. This type of analysis will aid the collaboration between hardware vendors and publishers to properly prioritize their advertising campaigns.

Which laptop brand is best for gaming?

For the most part, PUBG is played on the desktop. When looking at Sweden, more than 97% of PUBG players were playing on desktop in October. In Eastern and Central European countries, a large number of users play with gaming laptops. In Austria and the Czech Republic, 21% played PUBG on a laptop in October, while the figure in the US was 14%. League of Legends gamers often play on laptops, reaching 25% in the US, because this game has a lower required configuration.

User groups also vary by laptop brand. While ASUS laptops are used by the vast majority of PUBG and League of Legends gamers, PUBG gamers prefer to use branded gaming laptops. In the US, 17.7% of PUBG players using laptops are MSI, followed by Alienware at 15.1%. For League of Legends gamers, HP and Dell ranked 2nd and 3rd with usage rates of 16.9% and 12.2% respectively.

Source: newzoo