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:
- A “mid-range” gaming PC worth $2000.
- A “high-end” gaming console worth $500 (PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X).
- A “mid-range” gaming console worth $300 (Nintendo Switch).
- 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:
