Want to be a gamer? Filipinos need more than P100,000 for basic hardware, report says

Building a gaming PC (personal computer), complete with all components and peripherals necessary for a gamer, costs 1.4 times the average wage in the Philippines, according to a recently released report by Picodi.com, an international e-commerce platform.

A full gaming PC set in the Philippines is priced at $1,768, or P101,670. This accounts for 1.4 times the average wage of P72,051 net, landing the country in 21st place out of the 50 countries surveyed in terms of PC-price-to-average-wage ratio.

The cost for a comparable PC set in Argentina is $4,238, the highest price globally, taking about 12.4 average net wages for an Argentinian gamer to afford. Citizens of Pakistan and Indonesia are the runners-up for least favorable ratio, costing $1,685 (or 10.4 average wages) and $1,713 (or 8.7 average wages).

Meanwhile, the most favorable ratios are enjoyed by gamers in Switzerland, with a PC set costing $1,653, or 0.3 of average wage, followed by the United States ($1,562 or 0.4 of average wage) and Australia ($1,610 or 0.4 of average wage).

In addition to the one-time expense on gaming hardware, gamers also must spend on the newest games on a regular basis. Assuming an average of one game purchase a month, Filipino gamers will have to spend P29,520 annually.

Picodi.com used the average prices of popular computer components, gaming peripherals (mouse, keyboard, headset and monitor), and video games based on data from digital gaming store Steam. The report took average wage data from national statistics sites and used Google Finance’s exchange rates from this November. — B. H. Lacsamana