As observed by our own Evan Lahti earlier this year, PC gaming is now part of the mainstream. It is no longer a niche segment of the industry—PC stands as a formidable challenger to consoles, with several of the most significant successes in recent years being PC-first titles, like Baldur’s Gate 3.
One fact is irrefutable: PC gaming continues to be remarkably eccentric.
After countless years of being told repeatedly that PC gaming was extinct, there is a genuine joy in witnessing it thrive like never before. Being acknowledged as a legitimate platform ushers in more major games, with even PlayStation exclusives increasingly making their way to PC, and additional support being provided for the PC adaptations of those titles.
However, this evolution comes with its own set of anxieties, particularly for those who have been PC gamers for a long time. To a significant degree, the essence of PC gaming is its niche identity. As it becomes more mainstream, attracting a growing level of interest from major corporations, there is concern that what renders it peculiar, unique, and distinctive may be polished away. The potential ‘consoleification’ of the hobby sometimes feels imminent.
Yet earlier in 2024, I had the delight of being a participant on PCG’s official podcast, Chat Log—I was invited to discuss Steam’s top wishlist rankings, and what they reveal about the current landscape of PC gaming. Scanning that compilation of 100 of the most awaited titles on the platform, one fact was indisputable: PC gaming is still remarkably eccentric.
Strange and marvelous
While console charts are primarily composed of the largest releases, PC’s most favored storefront continues to resemble a wild west. On any given day, the top 10 most wishlisted titles almost always includes:
- An exceptionally glitchy survival game
- An indie inception showcasing an alluring gimmick
- A painstakingly intricate strategy game
- Hollow Knight: Silksong… still
- The latest overly-anticipated multiplayer zombie title
- Something completely unfamiliar, that no gaming site has ever highlighted, which is inexplicably astonishingly popular
If you keep scrolling through the top 100, you’ll uncover an amazing variety of games, covering a multitude of unusual genres and specific aesthetics, and ranging from indie projects created by a solo developer in their bedroom to expansive AAA titles from enormous teams, and everything in between. It is never straightforward to forecast what will appear on this list—seemingly obvious upcoming releases can be entirely absent, while obscure games from unknown developers or small projects with no marketing can soar to the top.
This trend is reflected in this year. When we reflect on the most significant stories and the key games of 2024 for us as a platform, it presents a diverse collection. This is the year a survival game featuring knock-off Pokémon attracted 25 million players within two months. One of the most acclaimed and discussed games was a poker roguelike. Stalker 2, a sandbox FPS developed under the most challenging circumstances, finally launched, and turned out to be even glitchier and more fascinating than we had anticipated. A new Valve title leaked, began cultivating an active player base before the developer even acknowledged its existence, and emerged as one of the year’s most popular and eagerly discussed titles without ever officially launching.
Our discussions regarding the Game of the Year awards turned surreal, as we evaluated the merits of a title focused on a small Yorkshire lemon hanging out with Matt Berry against another where players strive to survive in the depths of Half-Life’s Black Mesa. Considerable time was dedicated to a predominantly text-driven dungeon crawler where players battle quantum lampreys and befriend a psychic gorilla. We invested as much time in our meetings attempting to determine what genres the games fit into to assign them into categories, as we did appraising their quality.
This is to say: PC gaming is, in ways, both more mainstream than ever and stranger than ever, simultaneously. It resembles a diverse local band that has reached fame, yet remains intensely devoted to its trumpet-based acid folk roots. (We appreciated their talent before the mainstream took notice.)
It remains a platform that satisfies everyone, not by offering a limited selection of universally liked items, but by creating an environment for an abundance of things that cater to every conceivable peculiar interest. Whatever your passion might be, it’s available on Steam somewhere, featuring its own innovations and a devoted community far larger than you anticipated. Even the significant console-first releases, now more prevalent than ever on PC, feel like just another aspect of that tapestry rather than displacing it—another genre among many to appreciate.
Occasionally, from within that mix of oddities, a genre previously considered extinct will unexpectedly emerge from obscurity to capture the public’s attention once more—if you foresaw in 2023 that the hot topic would be an isometric RPG, you possess stronger intuitive abilities than I do. At other times, entirely novel concepts will take us by surprise with ideas that seem glaringly obvious in hindsight. Naturally, a dungeon crawler centered around arcade claw machines, why didn’t I conceive that?
For decades, PC gaming has preserved its distinctive character in the face of increasing challenges. It was never destined to be wiped out by burgeoning successes. And thank goodness for that—this remarkable pastime of ours continues to be a sanctuary for the unusual and the unexpected, and each day at this job presents new and perplexing surprises. May it remain thus—we should celebrate its growing accessibility and popularity, but that doesn’t imply we can’t keep PC gaming peculiar.