Study: How much do gamers worldwide have to work to afford a gaming PC or console?

Gaming is an expensive bout, but even “expensive” is a relative term when you compare average incomes around the world with the fixed prices of gaming hardware.

Study introduction

With today’s economic uncertainty, to say the least, I thought it would be appropriate (or rather inappropriate) to see how much gamers around the world have to work in order to buy a gaming station. By ‘gaming station’ I mean a mid-range gaming PC (which I will mock up below) or a gaming console such as the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X or Nintendo Switch. Obviously, in some parts of the world buying a PS5 is a month’s income, while in other parts it’s a few days. But let’s dig deep and see how much time we gamers spend at work to support our gaming habits.

Research methodology

With the introduction out of the way, let’s set the ground rules. First, we’ll take data measuring the average monthly net income per country in the world. Then, with a bit of Excel trickery, we’ll work out how many days (or hours) we gamers have to work to afford:

1. A “mid-range” gaming PC worth $2000.
2. A “high-end” gaming console worth $500 (PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X).
3. A “mid-range” gaming console worth $300 (Nintendo Switch).
4. Bonus: A triple-A video game, priced at $60.

*The $2000 gaming PC configuration mockup: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, Nvidia RTX 4070, 32 GB DDR4, 1TB M.2 SSD, 720W PSU, plus everything else… Being a PC gamer is especially expensive if you couldn’t already tell, not to mention the monitor, peripherals, and so on.

A big disclaimer is that the data set we’re about to use may not be 100% accurate. There could be small, medium, or even large differences between these figures and the actual monthly net income for each individual country, but we can get a rough idea of the data available. Although the figures given for Romania, the country I live in, are pretty accurate. If you don’t see your country on the list, it’s because of a lack of data from that region. The data source for this study is WorldData. Some countries have a huge average net income because of their ‘tax haven’ laws, but we know who they are and that’s another discussion for another time, so we can ignore them for the time being.

The formulas for the results you’re about to see were created using the following logic: Gaming PC, PS5, Xbox One X, and Nintendo Switch columns were divided by how many working days (monthly income divided by 21 days – which is the average working days per month) a gamer would need to input to afford one of the 4 gaming stations. As for the 5th column, the AAA game, this was divided by a working day (8 hours) to see how many hours we have to work to afford one of those bloody blockbuster games that we only play for a few hours and then forget about in our physical or digital game library…

Dataset and results

Country	Yearly income	Gaming PC	PS5 / Xbox Series X	Nintendo Switch	AAA game
Switzerland	$75,931	7 days	2 days	1 day	2 hours
Luxembourg	$61,866	9 days	3 days	2 days	2 hours
Singapore	$60,682	9 days	3 days	2 days	2 hours
United States	$55,951	10 days	3 days	2 days	3 hours
Iceland	$52,449	10 days	3 days	2 days	3 hours
Qatar	$49,728	11 days	3 days	2 days	3 hours
United Arab Emirates	$43,531	12 days	3 days	2 days	3 hours
Netherlands	$42,554	12 days	3 days	2 days	3 hours
Denmark	$42,507	12 days	3 days	2 days	3 hours
Norway	$41,971	13 days	4 days	2 days	3 hours
Australia	$40,335	13 days	4 days	2 days	3 hours
Germany	$36,758	14 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
Hong Kong	$36,417	14 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
Canada	$36,362	14 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
Ireland	$35,914	15 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
United Kingdom	$35,740	15 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
New Zealand	$35,503	15 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
Finland	$35,407	15 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
Belgium	$32,015	16 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
Sweden	$31,874	16 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
Kuwait	$31,854	16 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
Austria	$31,602	16 days	4 days	3 days	4 hours
South Korea	$30,335	17 days	5 days	3 days	4 hours
Israel	$30,238	17 days	5 days	3 days	5 hours
France	$30,234	17 days	5 days	3 days	5 hours
Japan	$27,809	19 days	5 days	3 days	5 hours
Oman	$26,517	20 days	5 days	3 days	5 hours
Puerto Rico	$25,703	20 days	5 days	3 days	5 hours
Saudi Arabia	$24,442	21 days	6 days	4 days	5 hours
Spain	$23,676	22 days	6 days	4 days	6 hours
Italy	$20,639	25 days	7 days	4 days	6 hours
Czech Republic	$19,675	26 days	7 days	4 days	7 hours
Taiwan	$19,392	26 days	7 days	4 days	7 hours
Estonia	$18,171	28 days	7 days	5 days	7 hours
Cyprus	$18,072	28 days	7 days	5 days	7 hours
Malta	$17,907	29 days	8 days	5 days	7 hours
Slovenia	$16,665	31 days	8 days	5 days	8 hours
South Africa	$15,499	33 days	9 days	5 days	8 hours
Poland	$15,432	33 days	9 days	5 days	8 hours
Lithuania	$14,817	35 days	9 days	6 days	9 hours
Portugal	$13,484	38 days	10 days	6 days	9 hours
Croatia	$13,286	38 days	10 days	6 days	10 hours
Slovakia	$12,924	39 days	10 days	6 days	10 hours
Latvia	$12,805	40 days	10 days	6 days	10 hours
Uruguay	$12,716	40 days	10 days	6 days	10 hours
China	$12,104	42 days	11 days	7 days	10 hours
Hungary	$11,572	44 days	11 days	7 days	11 hours
Greece	$11,060	46 days	12 days	7 days	11 hours
Costa Rica	$10,446	49 days	13 days	8 days	12 hours
Bulgaria	$9,960	51 days	13 days	8 days	13 hours
Malaysia	$9,791	52 days	13 days	8 days	13 hours
Romania	$9,497	54 days	14 days	8 days	13 hours
Trinidad And Tobago	$9,447	54 days	14 days	9 days	13 hours
Panama	$9,225	55 days	14 days	9 days	14 hours
Mexico	$9,156	56 days	14 days	9 days	14 hours
Montenegro	$9,127	56 days	14 days	9 days	14 hours
Chile	$8,091	63 days	16 days	10 days	15 hours
Bosnia And Herzegovina	$7,840	65 days	17 days	10 days	16 hours
Serbia	$7,758	65 days	17 days	10 days	16 hours
Jamaica	$7,754	65 days	17 days	10 days	16 hours
Palestine	$7,678	66 days	17 days	10 days	16 hours
Jordan	$7,530	67 days	17 days	11 days	17 hours
Armenia	$7,493	68 days	17 days	11 days	17 hours
India	$7,225	70 days	18 days	11 days	17 hours
Russia	$6,739	75 days	19 days	12 days	18 hours
Thailand	$6,714	76 days	19 days	12 days	19 hours
Kazakhstan	$6,638	76 days	19 days	12 days	19 hours
Belarus	$6,582	77 days	20 days	12 days	19 hours
Iraq	$6,538	78 days	20 days	12 days	19 hours
Ecuador	$6,184	82 days	21 days	13 days	20 hours
Guatemala	$6,074	83 days	21 days	13 days	20 hours
Mauritius	$5,902	86 days	22 days	13 days	21 hours
Georgia	$5,900	86 days	22 days	13 days	21 hours
Albania	$5,806	87 days	22 days	14 days	21 hours
North Macedonia	$5,571	91 days	23 days	14 days	22 hours
Vietnam	$5,491	92 days	23 days	14 days	23 hours
Brazil	$5,286	96 days	24 days	15 days	23 hours
Kosovo	$5,160	98 days	25 days	15 days	24 hours
Argentina	$5,080	100 days	25 days	15 days	24 hours
Ukraine	$5,009	101 days	26 days	16 days	25 hours
Peru	$4,968	102 days	26 days	16 days	25 hours
Morocco	$4,806	105 days	27 days	16 days	26 hours
Dominican Republic	$4,680	108 days	27 days	17 days	26 hours
Turkey	$4,661	109 days	28 days	17 days	26 hours
Bolivia	$4,617	110 days	28 days	17 days	27 hours
Azerbaijan	$4,504	112 days	28 days	17 days	27 hours
Kenya	$4,377	116 days	29 days	18 days	28 hours
Colombia	$4,136	122 days	31 days	19 days	30 hours
Uzbekistan	$3,943	128 days	32 days	20 days	31 hours
Indonesia	$3,932	129 days	33 days	20 days	31 hours
Philippines	$3,769	134 days	34 days	21 days	33 hours
Libya	$3,695	137 days	35 days	21 days	33 hours
Tunisia	$3,596	141 days	36 days	22 days	34 hours
Iran	$3,284	154 days	39 days	24 days	37 hours
Algeria	$3,249	156 days	39 days	24 days	38 hours
Bangladesh	$3,064	165 days	42 days	25 days	40 hours
Nepal	$2,519	201 days	51 days	31 days	49 hours
Sri Lanka	$2,213	228 days	57 days	35 days	55 hours
Venezuela	$2,200	230 days	58 days	35 days	55 hours
Pakistan	$1,875	269 days	68 days	41 days	65 hours
Egypt	$1,759	287 days	72 days	43 days	69 hours

So there you have it, some of us gamers have it easier, while others have it harder. I didn’t take into account the living expenses, rent, and so on, these are the raw work days or hours we need to input to afford one of the mentioned gaming stations. The actual numbers could be significantly higher if we account for these living expenses as well.

As a resident of Romania (and in relation to the cost of video games), I can say for a fact that video game piracy has always been popular among the gaming community due to the lower income. It’s only recently, since the country’s economic rise, that the trend of buying legitimate copies of games has become a thing, and that’s partly thanks to third-party cd-key type websites that offer games for a fraction of their retail price.

When it comes to buying gaming PCs and consoles, we Romanians are used to buying them via “monthly installments”, which means you get a small bank loan that you pay monthly (for 12 or 24 months) in order to get that precious PC, Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo. Of course, there is an interest rate involved. The sacrifices we gamers make… #worthit

If you found this study interesting and are interested in more data-driven gaming articles, take a look at my other original research studies:

• Study: Most searched smartphones of 2022
• Study: Most searched CPUs in 2022
• Study: Most searched GPUs in 2022