Well in 2016 "Consumer Market" (assuming this is console?) only had PS4 & XBO as platforms Capcom were putting their big games on, maybe a couple smaller 3DS releases here and there. You notice that once Switch came out, "Consumer Market" was growing at a faster pace than Capcom's PC market (which is mainly relegated to Steam) for every single year thereafter?
You are also talking about one market segment, consoles, with a fairly predictable install base standard, at least until recently with Xbox shitting their entire bed. Meanwhile, Steam can just persist through generations on a product whose install base is technically in the billions. Considering those metrics....the few times in that graph where PC was the lead is honestly not very impressive considering there are no generational resets with Steam and PC as a gaming market is at least 10x the amount of addressable devices as all three console makers combined (and that's at the end of a generation, let alone near the first few years where PC's advantage is even greater).
So as usual, you need to have the fuller context of numbers and the market in order to explain why some data may look the way it does, and put it all into perspective.
Okay? That doesn't answer my question tho? where is this idea that PC Gamers are only pirates that I see so much lately? Maybe you can argue that PC gamers mostly pirate Sony PC games but clearly pirating is not much of an issue overall for most third party games or all these games wouldn't be coming to PC like they are.
Anyway I think you kinda contradicted yourself. You said the console market is fairly predictable but who the hell saw the Wii U selling less than 15 million after the Wii sold over 100 million? Capcom literally dropped Wii U support after Resident Evil revelations HD massively underperformed on that platform.
Don't expect to see Resident Evil 6 staggering its way toward the Wii U anytime soon. While Mass Effect 3, Darksiders 2…
www.gamesindustry.biz
Who saw the 3DS doing only half of what the DS did?
The Console market is very hard to predict. Like nobody right now knows if the PS5 will outsell the PS4, I think it will but anything can happen between now and when the PS5 has it's last unit come off the production line. Kaz Hirai was certain PS3 could sell 150 million units like PS2 two years into the PS3's lifecycle:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/kaz-hirai-sets-150m-lifetime-target-for-ps3
Lastly I want to put in more context is some of the stuff you brought up.
1. In 2016 it wasn't just PS4/XB1/ and 3DS. They released RE0 on PS3 and 360 in 2016 and just the year before They released Revelations 2 and RE1 Remake on PS3 and 360 as well and those games still sell to this day so you can't just limit the install base of consoles to just current gen in 2016 as they made their games available on the previous gens as well.
(EDIT - I just realized they also re-released Zack and Wiki on the Wii U eShop as a Wii Classic so they technically released a new game on the Wii U in 2016 so you have to include the Wii U install base for this year.)
2. I don't get why you think just because there are billions of PC out there that every PC out there can just run the RE Engine and the upcoming REX engine Capcom has coming out.
Just cause PC's don't have a generational reset like some consoles. (Don't forget RE2, RE3 Remakes on PS4 are still selling into the PS5 generation.) Doesn't mean a PC from 2009 can run next years Monster Hunter Wilds even on low settings.
It wouldn't surprise me if some Desktops from just a decade ago won't be able to run some of Capcom's newer titles. Just like how the Switch can't run the RE Engine Resident Evil games, Street Fighter V or VI, Devil May Cry V, and others.
You are also forgetting that it is pretty new for Capcom to be releasing games day and date on PC. RE6 came out on PC nearly half a year later than on 360 and PS3. RE5 and Street Fighter IV got PC releases months after it released on Consoles.
It wasn't until 2015 where they finally got a hold of getting PC releases to come out alongside console versions of the games and even then it wasn't 100% of the time. Monster Hunter World came out on PC about 8 months after it came out on PS4 and Xbox One. Yet that version was the only one that exploded again in player count when Monster Hunter Wilds was announced at the game awards last year:
Monster Hunter World has always performed really well, but this month, after five years out, its playercount is somehow increasing.
www.forbes.com
Imagine what Monster Hunter Wilds will do on PC if it released day and date or maybe they try to delay it to get double dippers?
