A few years ago, some reports claimed that games on PC were at risk of extinction. Today, however, we can say that, gaming on PC is far from dead, and that the reports issued years ago were completely wrong.

As recently reported by the GDC 2015 State of the Industry Survey, the PC is in fact the most popular platform for developers. The 56% of the 2,000 plus North American development team interviewed had claimed that the games on which they are currently working, will see their debut on PC, while 29% said that their title will be released on Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 4 and only 24% were developing a game for the current console from Microsoft, Xbox One.

In terms of digital sales and growth, 29% of profits stemmed from direct sales to consumers or digital sales; 21% said micro-transactions were their primary source of profit; 13% said the majority of profits came from retail sales; 19% said saw no profits; were non-profit; didn’t know; 41% noted higher profits in 2014; 9% said profits were higher in 2013; 40% of developers saw profit rise and staff expand; and 44% hired more staff in 2014.

PC gaming is not dead yet

The latest GDC State of the Industry report shows the number of videogame developers working on Xbox One and PS4 roughly doubled in 2014 to 22% and 26%, respectively, since 2013. However, going further into the numbers tabulated from over 2,000 industry attendees who attended the GDC 2014 reveal PC development is still holding a long lead over consoles at 56%.

The number of PC games is not only greater than the percentage of titles currently in development for both the Xbox One and PS4 combined, it grew by 3% compared to last year. This shift comes at a time when consoles are selling faster than ever. Sony recently revealed that 18.5 million PS4s have been sold to consumers worldwide, and while the Xbox One is also catching up with PS4.

More than 26% of developers surveyed said they’re currently working on a PS4 game; up from 14% in 2013, 22% are currently working on an Xbox One game, up from 12% in 2013; 56% of respondents said their current game will be released on PC; 29% expect their next game to be on PlayStation 4, compared to 20% in 2013; 24% expect the project to release for Xbox One, compared to 17% last year; and 53% expect their next game to release on PC.

Microsoft is very interested in the world of gaming on PCs, in fact recently Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, has officially stated that one of the objectives of the Redmond company is to make Windows 10 the best operating system that the company has ever created for games on PC.

Now with the introduction of Xbox app and game streaming directly into the Windows 10 platform and Microsoft’s investment in appealing developers to create universal apps for all platforms, it is likely that the PC gaming market is likely to increase further in coming months.

Esports a factor in 2014 and 2015

In 2014, things have changed—developers are no longer ignoring esports. They’re embracing it: 78 percent of the 2,000 plus North American developers believe esports is a sustainable business. Of those polled, 12 percent are working on games that they call esports and 79% perceive esports to be a long-term, sustainable business. That is, perhaps, a wide umbrella, but it’s also indicative of a shift in the industry as titles like League of Legends, World of Tanks, and Dota 2 have become popular.

Competitive multiplayer gaming works: developer’s don’t need to cater a game to a decidedly casual audience to draw in business. That’s good news for fans of esports games, because it means more games tailored to their competitive desires will hit the market than ever before.

photo credit: Ben Andreas Harding via photopin cc; and Samchurchill, Flickr.