A new Xbox One, PS4, or graphics card: Study shows hardcore gamers plan to upgrade this year

The transition to new consoles is only just begun, and a huge number of gamers are expecting to spend money on hardware this year.

Nearly three out of four who play games on both PC and console games plan to buy either a Xbox One or a PlayStation 4 or upgrade their PC hardware at some point in 2014, according to a study by the PC-gaming service Raptr. The company, which provides an integrated social network for players, polled nearly 5,600 of its members that game on both computers and consoles. Raptr found that around a quarter of these consumers have already purchased an Xbox One or PlayStation 4. The study suggests that the new consoles haven’t come close to tapping out the most dedicated audience yet, and Raptr claims that as these hardcore gamers adopt new hardware, they will influence others. Game spending reached $15.39 billion at retail in the U.S. last year, and that number doesn’t include digital sales.

“Gamers who play on both the PC and video game consoles are the core of the gaming market,” Raptr chief executive Dennis Fong said. “They not only represent the vanguard of the video games market, they also significantly influence the second- and third-tier gamers who make up the rest of the video games consumer base.”

In addition to asking gamers about their hardware-spending intentions, Raptr polled them about their most anticipated games. In terms of multiplatform releases, Watch Dogs dominated the results. More than 40 percent said that the Ubisoft open-world hacking game was their most-wanted game, followed by BioWare fantasy role-player Dragon Age: Inquisition at 19 percent.

That result, which came in before Watch Dogs debuted May 27, reflects the game’s strong sales. Ubisoft reported that its new property was its fastest-selling game over the first 24 hours of release in the publisher’s history.

“The Raptr user survey highlights the vibrancy of both the PC and console gaming markets, which collectively represent a nearly $50 billion game software business annually and an audience of more than 1.1 billion consumers globally,” DFC Intelligence senior analyst David Cole said. “We think with the new console launches, the pipeline of triple-A content for both console and PC is looking very strong and we expect core gamers to react positively.”

This study comes as Raptr pulls back from trying to integrate with console systems. The social network is totally focused on offering communities and tracking for PC games since Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have closed off their consoles from third-party services like that.

Raptr released an infographic that details the results of the poll, which you can find below:

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