The articles are all from 2014. Let's keep this in front here.
First article:
Forbes is trying to back-up David Cole of DFC's claim PC gaming sales are surpassing consoles on a
global scale.
Consoles are becoming more like all-in-1 devices, causing more gamers to flock more towards PC...especially in
Europe.
A lot of people are playing games on different PC devices - tablets, laptops, desktops, etc.
They cite Hearthstone as an example.
IMHO, Hearthstone is a good example of this: it's F2P works on many different types of PC's (low-end + high-end) & devices (Windows, iOS, Android, etc).
Competitive nature of sales of digital stores such as Steam, GMG & Origin are driving PC game sales WAY UP b/c they're fighting for selling games w/ trying to have the best price which leads to lots of copies sold (high volume).
IMHO - I'm not sure about the Origin part, but the other 2 sounds legit to me.
People on
Raptr playing PC games are WAY up. 900 million PC users are on that service + players' PC game times there are WAY up.
Freedom of game-control on PC helps - i.e. many games now support both KB-mouse + gamepad nowadays.
Also read
embedded article from David Cole, which has a lot more points of what PC games are selling well + being heavily played:
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/pc-games-have-surpassed-console-games-globally/033849
Embedded Article:
F2P games, MOBA's, MMO's, strategy games, FPS's are selling very well, being played a lot & are very popular on PC.
DOTA 2 + League of Legends are dominating.
Day-Z, Rust, Hearthstone are doing very well.
Europe's playing a big part in this b/c of the
global scale thing.
IMHO - they've
always helped PC sales for games globally, but looks like it's catching on even more so now.