This marks the biggest annual growth in years and analysts expect revenues to stay above $40 billion through to 2028.

The growth is fuelled by Microsoft’s hardware mandates for Windows 11, which require CPUs that more than 100 million gamers do not own. That has forced platform-wide upgrades including new motherboards and memory.

JPR senior analyst Ted Pollak said: “Never before in the history of the Microsoft Windows operating system has there been a forced hardware migration requirement."

Most players are reportedly buying new prebuilts rather than trying to hack old rigs into compliance, though DIY gamers are also building fresh machines alongside existing Windows 10 boxes to keep gaming until their new builds are complete.

AAA titles running on Unreal Engine 5 are adding extra pressure. Frame generation and upscaling are only properly supported on newer GPUs, making older 8GB cards look increasingly obsolete.

Meanwhile AMD’s 3D V-Cache processors have nudged many towards full CPU platform upgrades, boosting the mid-range and high-end hardware markets.

JPR reckons the entry-level PC gaming segment will shrink by 13 per cent in the next five years, with some 10 million gamers shifting to consoles, handhelds or mobile. Even so, many budget players are expected to move up the ladder instead, where margins are fatter and sales more lucrative for hardware makers.

The cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street will see the revenue numbers and declare PC gaming as “alive and well,” but the real story is that Microsoft has engineered one of the largest forced upgrade cycles in the industry’s history. For hardware vendors, it is Christmas come early.