So did Apple give up on gaming?

[Wildkraut]

The data simply does not back this up. In 2025, gaming laptops are set to outsell gaming desktops by more than double.

The steam hardware survey supports the same, that most gamers have mid-range GPUs from laptops.

The "PC Master Race" nerds who build their own computers and buy high end GPUs are the niche.

View attachment 1875510

Global Gaming PC and Monitor Market Hit New Record High in 2020, According to IDC

IDC examines consumer markets by devices, applications, networks, and services to provide complete solutions for succeeding in these expanding markets.

www.idc.com

? to these as usual "incomplete" statistics and forecasts.
"Do not trust any statistics you did not fake yourself."

2019 and 2020 the Laptop sales went up (yes true), but just because of Corona and mainly bought for Home Schooling and for Home Office (BYOD). In other words, mainly lower spec Laptops were sold, reflected in the stats you posted.
A low spec $762 PC offers much more hardware performance than a low spec $1,041 badly cooled plastic bomber Laptop that throttles after 30 min of gaming, don't forget we are still talking about the average here.

Of course these People installed Steam, Epic and GOG Stores on their new shiny low spec Laptops.
This doesn't mean their Laptops were equally to >=2000€$ Laptops able to match the "recommended" requirements of todays AAA games. Remember, these Stores also offers many casual games, playing AAA games on minimum requirements is a torture, and no fun at all. Anyway, these Laptops are fine for casual games only.

Sadly i didn't find a hardware spec breakdown linked to store revenue and game titles, this would show you what i mean.

Again, most parents with a "normal income" won't buy their kids a 2800€$ Notchbook, or even a such expensive Windows Laptop. AAA Games is a league Apple will never get their feet into, simply because they are too expensive and not extendable. Btw. on most Windows Laptops you still can extend RAM,SSD, usually by opening 2-4 screws.

The ones who plays todays AAA games titles have consoles or >=1500€$ PCs (excluding the Display).
Kids usually have consoles...

Cloud Gaming might come to the rescue, but in many parts of the world the internet connection still sucks, this will take a while.

 

[Melotz]

No, it doesn't.
Baldur's Gate 3 supports arm macintosh when there are only M1 Macbooks

 

[Sophisticatednut]

OS X does NOT “run” BootCamp. BootCamp puts the hardware in a state where it can boot into other OS’s. If you’re booted into another OS, you’re not booted into OS X. You may be confusing BootCamp with virtualization?
The vast majority of Macs sold never had BootCamp installed, so BootCamp is also NOT required for OS X to work.

You are well aware of how boot camp works. It’s the fact you could install windows or whatever operating system you want is what’s compelling as 99% of games and other obscure programs was on windows. Boot camp didn’t do anything but install drivers to simplify the installation. Just a simple user interface.

The first year Apple sells fewer than 5 million Macs, OS X WILL end in obscurity. I mean, it’s eventually going away, just as sure as the Apple II went away.

They already are on their way. Why do you think mac sales peaked in 2015? And we have added almost 2 billion more people on the planet since 2002 and apple are still stuck on less than 20 million macs. I do wonder why.
2019- 18.5 million
2020- 15 million…
They are back on 2010/11 numbers….

I agree with you that they should do like they did with the iPhone and not have the Mac run other OS’s.

Well they will just kill their market even more by arbitrary stupid decisions.
If they want less people to buy their computer then I won’t stop them, I’ll just cry in the corner as OSX dies by neglect

 

[Sophisticatednut]

? to these as usual "incomplete" statistics and forecasts.
"Do not trust any statistics you did not fake yourself."

2019 and 2020 the Laptop sales went up (yes true), but just because of Corona and mainly bought for Home Schooling and for Home Office (BYOD). In other words, mainly lower spec Laptops were sold, reflected in the stats you posted.
A low spec $762 PC offers much more hardware performance than a low spec $1,041 badly cooled plastic bomber Laptop that throttles after 30 min of gaming, don't forget we are still talking about the average here.

Of course these People installed Steam, Epic and GOG Stores on their new shiny low spec Laptops.
This doesn't mean their Laptops were equally to >=2000€$ Laptops able to match the "recommended" requirements of todays AAA games. Remember, these Stores also offers many casual games, playing AAA games on minimum requirements is a torture, and no fun at all. Anyway, these Laptops are fine for casual games only.

Sadly i didn't find a hardware spec breakdown linked to store revenue and game titles, this would show you what i mean.

Again, most parents with a "normal income" won't buy their kids a 2800€$ Notchbook, or even a such expensive Windows Laptop. AAA Games is a league Apple will never get their feet into, simply because they are too expensive and not extendable. Btw. on most Windows Laptops you still can extend RAM,SSD, usually by opening 2-4 screws.

The ones who plays todays AAA games titles have consoles or >=1500€$ PCs (excluding the Display).
Kids usually have consoles...

Cloud Gaming might come to the rescue, but in many parts of the world the internet connection still sucks, this will take a while.

Here you go. 95% uses directx 12 capable GPU. 95%+ use a CPU with 4,6 or 8 cores
90% have 8GB ram or more.
90% use windows 10 64bit. And 95%+ use a 64bit os.
70% uses 4GB or more VRAM etc etc

Gamers have likely just upgraded a part of their system instead of building a new one.
Source steam

 

[netromac]

2020- 15 million…

Your numbers are wrong. Apple sold about 22,5 million macs in 2020.

 

[falainber]

I am not sure one can say that Apple gave up on gaming since they have not really been into gaming ever to begin with.

 

[Digital_Sousaphone]

Apple could have snapped up one of the many titles that came off the console exclusive list this year to show the power of their new computers...but they didn't. A lot of new titles coming to PC, not so much Apple. It's almost like there is no interest in the Mac ecosphere.

 

[JouniS]

Apple could have snapped up one of the many titles that came off the console exclusive list this year to show the power of their new computers...but they didn't. A lot of new titles coming to PC, not so much Apple. It's almost like there is no interest in the Mac ecosphere.

That would have never happened, because Apple is too secretive about its hardware. If you want exclusives in 2021, you have to tell developers what to expect in 2017-2018 and give them developer kits in 2019.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

If they want less people to buy their computer then I won’t stop them, I’ll just cry in the corner as OSX dies by neglect

Eh, I wouldn’t cry for an OS, but you do you.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

It's almost like there is no interest in the Mac ecosphere.

You’re right, there’s not.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Your numbers are wrong. Apple sold about 22,5 million macs in 2020.

Yeah, more accurate numbers are found here.

Apple Mac shipments worldwide by quarter 2024 | Statista

In the third quarter of 2024, Apple Mac shipments stood at 5.65 million units worldwide, a decrease from the 6.27 million Mac shipments that were recorded in the third quarter of the previous year. Apple Mac products Apple first launched the Macintosh, commonly known as Mac, in 1984.

www.statista.com

 

[Melbourne Park]

Your numbers are wrong. Apple sold about 22,5 million macs in 2020.

Overall, numbers of unit sales don't tell the real story.

The other issue with sales volumes, is that they should be multiplied by sale price, which would equal total sales revenue for Macs. This is relevant because Macs sell for premium prices. Also with PC sales, some of their sales prices include MS software OS charges, which come out of the revenue from the computer sales price. With Apple, OSX is a sunk cost, so there is no revenue for the Operating System cost to Apple when they sell a Mac.

Further the difference between wholesale price and retail is much greater with PC sales. Apple controls its wholesale pricing and the difference is quite narrow compared to PC sales. So Apple gets more profit from its sales than x86 producers, especially in the notebook market.

One can then add the revenues Apple gains from a Mac sale, both in their direct software sales, but more importantly, their cross selling of both services (such as iCloud) and also their cross selling of hardware (such as iPhones and iWatches, Apple Tv, home-pods etc).

Another issue with PC notebook sales, is that they are attractive compared to a home built gaming PC, because they are more reliable. In addition, they are more reliable because they are made by a brand. Being a brand, they come with service knowledge availability. Second hand or home built PCs are less reliable. So sales of PC notebooks are growing, and many can play games at a mid level.

Another reason why game capable notebooks are increasing in sales, is that they have more utility due to mobility.

Importantly, notebooks are cheaper to produce than desktops. There used to be a huge premium on notebook computers. Nowadays the lighter a piece of IT hardware is, the cheaper it should be. Cost of hardware from supply to retail outlet, is directly related to weight. Manufacturers charge premiums for new technology (which also pays for their R&D). At the end of the day though, the lighter it is, the cheaper it is to produce. So notebooks sales can make more money.

This new M platform for Apple suggests they have a window of higher profits for a given level of performance. That Apple have not either shown interest or desire to get high end gaming onto their new M platform notebooks or desktops for that matter, is disappointing for some. As to how many that is, or what percentage of sales have been lost to X86 notebook sales, who knows? It's quite possible the availability of the M Pro and M Max based computers, will be based upon the bottleneck of processor production for some time to come. If that is the case, then the lack sales to disappointed gamers will not cost Apple any profits.

It's also likely that Intel will reply with a common memory chip that will not require a separate GPU. When that happens, Apple's current M architecture may be inferior to the big jump Intel (& AMD?) will make. If that takes two years, would it be worth game producers sinking investments into a platform that has only a two year competitive advantage, and a platform that has never seen to be greatly interested in playing graphic intensive games?

 

[0423MAC]

The mac has never been a hardcore gaming platform. Apple tends to provide updates to allow for some casual gaming across all it's platforms, but to get serious and get a bigger slice of that market it would require a significant number of SKUs and start eating into profit margins to cater to that coveted $500-$600 price sensitive consumer.

 

[Wildkraut]

Here you go. 95% uses directx 12 capable GPU. 95%+ use a CPU with 4,6 or 8 cores
90% have 8GB ram or more.
90% use windows 10 64bit. And 95%+ use a 64bit os.
70% uses 4GB or more VRAM etc etc

Gamers have likely just upgraded a part of their system instead of building a new one.
Source steam
View attachment 1876113

Yeah, thx, this one is much better than the statista and idc crap he posted. It’s sadly not linked to game titles and sales, too. I’ve clicked around and didn’t find any steam pre chip shortage and corona statistics, it does not go that far back :/. At the moment graphics cards have a limited availability and they are too expensive, else these numbers would be even higher and show system part upgrades even more.

Anyway, this is probably a bad year for statistics to show trends and forecasts, same goes probably for 2020. We need steam statistics of 2017/2018 pre chip shortage and corona.

 

[diamond.g]

Overall, numbers of unit sales don't tell the real story.

The other issue with sales volumes, is that they should be multiplied by sale price, which would equal total sales revenue for Macs. This is relevant because Macs sell for premium prices. Also with PC sales, some of their sales prices include MS software OS charges, which come out of the revenue from the computer sales price. With Apple, OSX is a sunk cost, so there is no revenue for the Operating System cost to Apple when they sell a Mac.

Further the difference between wholesale price and retail is much greater with PC sales. Apple controls its wholesale pricing and the difference is quite narrow compared to PC sales. So Apple gets more profit from its sales than x86 producers, especially in the notebook market.

One can then add the revenues Apple gains from a Mac sale, both in their direct software sales, but more importantly, their cross selling of both services (such as iCloud) and also their cross selling of hardware (such as iPhones and iWatches, Apple Tv, home-pods etc).

Another issue with PC notebook sales, is that they are attractive compared to a home built gaming PC, because they are more reliable. In addition, they are more reliable because they are made by a brand. Being a brand, they come with service knowledge availability. Second hand or home built PCs are less reliable. So sales of PC notebooks are growing, and many can play games at a mid level.

Another reason why game capable notebooks are increasing in sales, is that they have more utility due to mobility.

Importantly, notebooks are cheaper to produce than desktops. There used to be a huge premium on notebook computers. Nowadays the lighter a piece of IT hardware is, the cheaper it should be. Cost of hardware from supply to retail outlet, is directly related to weight. Manufacturers charge premiums for new technology (which also pays for their R&D). At the end of the day though, the lighter it is, the cheaper it is to produce. So notebooks sales can make more money.

This new M platform for Apple suggests they have a window of higher profits for a given level of performance. That Apple have not either shown interest or desire to get high end gaming onto their new M platform notebooks or desktops for that matter, is disappointing for some. As to how many that is, or what percentage of sales have been lost to X86 notebook sales, who knows? It's quite possible the availability of the M Pro and M Max based computers, will be based upon the bottleneck of processor production for some time to come. If that is the case, then the lack sales to disappointed gamers will not cost Apple any profits.

It's also likely that Intel will reply with a common memory chip that will not require a separate GPU. When that happens, Apple's current M architecture may be inferior to the big jump Intel (& AMD?) will make. If that takes two years, would it be worth game producers sinking investments into a platform that has only a two year competitive advantage, and a platform that has never seen to be greatly interested in playing graphic intensive games?

Intel had a deal where they had on package Vega M GPU from AMD. As far as I know no OEMs seemed interested in it. So Intel killed that chip pretty quickly.
It will be interesting to see how Rembrandt does in a year, even though we don’t know the exact GPU configuration it will use.
We will also see how big Intel will go with Xe. I am not sure either company will go with big GPU parts like Apple did on their CPU, even with chiplet or MXM designs.

 

[Sophisticatednut]

Yeah, thx, this one is much better than the statista and idc crap he posted. It’s sadly not linked to game titles and sales, too. I’ve clicked around and didn’t find any steam pre chip shortage and corona statistics, it does not go that far back :/. At the moment graphics cards have a limited availability and they are too expensive, else these numbers would be even higher and show system part upgrades even more.

Anyway, this is probably a bad year for statistics to show trends and forecasts, same goes probably for 2020. We need steam statistics of 2017/2018 pre chip shortage and corona.

Here you go steam Archie and this

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Overall, numbers of unit sales don't tell the real story.

Unit sales tell the main story of importance to developers and publishers, though. “How many of these are being sold? How many actual system owners are there to potentially buy a product i might consider releasing.” They don’t care about how much money Apple is making, they care about how much money THEY could make.

Right now, the iPad range brings in a little less revenue than the Mac range. In unit sales, though, the iPad buries the Mac. As a result, the developer focus on the iPad is much greater than developer focus on the Mac.

 

[Sophisticatednut]

Eh, I wouldn’t cry for an OS, but you do you.

Well I wouldn’t but it’s still sad to have to stay with windows. Only games actually stops me from having a Mac.

iOS games I can play on my phone

 

[Ethosik]

iOS supports bluetooth keyboards. Only the iPad supports a mouse, apparently, but the touch interface can mimic a mouse quite well.

That is a niche market on top of a niche audience. So its not really beneficial to create an iOS game that absolutely CANNOT operate without the extra accessories.

 

[diamond.g]

That is a niche market on top of a niche audience. So its not really beneficial to create an iOS game that absolutely CANNOT operate without the extra accessories.

If you don't mind me asking, what kind/genre of game are you making?

 

[Slartibart]

The problem is macOS itself is extremely hostile to the gaming industry and not profitable.

1. There aren't many Mac gamers.
One of the biggest reason why PC games aren't being ported to macOS. Literally, only 3% from Steam are Mac players with Intel Mac. Imagine if it was Apple Silicon Mac.

2. The market size of macOS is too small.
Since there aren't many Mac gamers, the market size for macOS is too niche. Also, the OS share already proves that Mac users are way more less than Windows users. Velheim developers explained that there aren't many Mac users so not profitable.

3. macOS is now ARM, not x86.
Most games are x86 based. That explained a lot. At least Intel Mac had no problem to port PC games to Mac cause they were all x86. But not any more. You may say what about Nintendo? Well, they have their own IPs to attract players such as Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Poketmon, and more.

4. There aren't any killer titles.
Both Xbox and Playstation's performance isn't great and yet there are quite a lot of players because they have killer titles such as God of War, Halo, Gears of war, and more. Do macOS have any of those? Not at all. It's like Final Cut Pro X is the reason why people use Mac and macOS.

5. macOS lacks gaming support.
Almost all games developed from PC and there are many supports that macOS do not have such as ray tracing, direct storage, DLSS, and more. Metal itself is not widely use and only for Macs. Since many PC/Console games are PC based, dont expect to compete with PC/Console.

6. Apple's main focus is mobile gaming, not PC/Console games.
The total revenue of mobile game is more than PC+Console and Apple is dominating that market. Why would they spend their time and money one PC games?

any iOS or iPadOS game runs on MacOS now - and vice versa… if the developer allows it… if.the.developer.ALLOWS.it. … if this isn’t an incentive, well… oh… but who actually cares? I assume the M1 Max audience who wants it for gaming is minuscule… why care?

 

[sunny5]

any iOS or iPadOS game runs on MacOS now - and vice versa… if the developer allows it… if.the.developer.ALLOWS.it. … if this isn’t an incentive, well… oh… but who actually cares? I assume the M1 Max audience who wants it for gaming is minuscule… why care?

Not at all. If is not an answer and there arent any popular iOS/iPadOS games on AS Mac. Also, mobile games aren't PC/Console games and their market is totally different and therefore, totally meaningless to compare.

 

[Slartibart]

Not at all. If is not an answer and there arent any popular iOS/iPadOS games on AS Mac. Also, mobile games aren't PC/Console games and their market is totally different and therefore, totally meaningless to compare.

1. why meaningless? 2. three words (and a number ?): Divinity Original Sin 2. - is it allowed on AS?

back to 1.) please enlighten me: why is something like e.g. Genshin, Oceanhorn 2, Fantasian not real gaming? They look like similar console counterparts, they play like it… I mean if it quacks and looks like a duck, then… why isn’t it any of various swimming birds (family Anatidae) in which the neck and legs are short, the feet typically webbed, the bill often broad and flat, and the sexes usually different from each other in plumage? ??

3. if you want AAA gaming according to whatever your definition is, use a different platform. Neither Apple or the majority of MacOS users is really interested… I mean, whatever reasons a developer has to develop for a specific platform… if it’s just unit numbers, well… e.g. at the beginning of 2016 XBox had sold 40 million units. that’s roughly the double of Mac units sold in 2020 (check statista.com). So there might be hope for you ?.

 

[JMacHack]

Not at all. If is not an answer and there arent any popular iOS/iPadOS games on AS Mac. Also, mobile games aren't PC/Console games and their market is totally different and therefore, totally meaningless to compare.

True scotsman fallacy.

 

[sunny5]

1. why meaningless? 2. three words (and a number ?): Divinity Original Sin 2. - is it allowed on AS?

back to 1.) please enlighten me: why is something like e.g. Genshin, Oceanhorn 2, Fantasian not real gaming? They look like similar console counterparts, they play like it… I mean if it quacks and looks like a duck, then… why isn’t it any of various swimming birds (family Anatidae) in which the neck and legs are short, the feet typically webbed, the bill often broad and flat, and the sexes usually different from each other in plumage? ??

3. if you want AAA gaming according to whatever your definition is, use a different platform. Neither Apple or the majority of MacOS users is really interested… I mean, whatever reasons a developer has to develop for a specific platform… if it’s just unit numbers, well… e.g. at the beginning of 2016 XBox had sold 40 million units. that’s roughly the double of Mac units sold in 2020 (check statista.com). So there might be hope for you ?.

1. How many NATIVE games are there? So far, there aren't many and most of them are old games. Do we even have latest games at all? Baludr's gate 3? That's only one, dude.

2. Those are MOBILE games, not PC/Console games. They mainly focused on mobile devices and you even included Apple Arcade which supports my claim. Also, Genshin is not even available on Mac despite your claim too.

3. "if you want AAA gaming according to whatever your definition is, use a different platform" You already proven failure as you say that. PC can do the same thing since a long time ago. You want games on Mac but no AAA games? Really? How ironic. Not all Macs can play games in 2020 and most of them are not even support Apple Silicon. You dont realize that the performance difference is huge cause most of them are PC friendly.

As of Apple Silicon Mac, the gaming market is already doomed and I dont think Mac will rise again for gaming industry as they are focusing on mobile games.