However you seem to be making arguments as to why the number would actually be lower on the assumption that a significant proportion of those users who own an expensive gaming GPU and have the worlds biggest gaming client installed on that PC are not using the PC for gaming.
Not quite, let me clarify.
Firstly I think it depends on the question. If you're asking which platform has more gamers now, PC or PS4, then I'd say PC by sheer numbers but also because PC have a far larger indie scene. The question is, are you counting any type of game or are people more interest in choice of PC and PS4 (or any console) for the type of games common to both, like AA and AAA and at console equivalent quality - which is itself subjective.
If you're looking at the former, it's somewhat easier in terms of numbers because there are the Steam install base numbers but in terms of the choice of PC/console, it's more complicated because many games aren't available for consoles. Plus you can't reliably measure intent of the user, i.e. was gaming a significant consideration to the purchase or was gaming something do because they can. I didn't buy my MacBook Air 11" to game, but was surprised that I could run StarCraft 2. But I do play some Minecraft on it and more typical indie titles like Pixel Piracy, Project Zomboid, FTL, The Long Dark, Sunless Sea, Winward and so on. This is also an apples or oranges comparison.
If the latter then you have the complex technical assessment as what combination of PC hardware constitutes console quality and, for those PCs with modern graphics, you still don't know if those PCs are actually being used for games that are selling on consoles. Many of the low-resource indie titles I play on my MacBook Air I also play on my MacBook Pro (Quad i7, 16Gb RAM, 2Gb GF650M) and iMac (Quad i7, 16Gb RAM, 4Gb GF780M). And while I consciously bought machines with GPUs that "didn't suck" so I could game if I wanted too, a bigger part of the decision for those GPUs was OpenCL performance.
I'd say there's at least as much likelyhood that someone would buy an XBO for it's TV/communication capabilities without caring about games as someone buying a high end gaming (as opposed to pro) GPU, then installing Steam on that PC and not using that PC for games.
I agree. As above, it depends on whether the question is focussed on the common games or any games.
That sounds like an assumption to me
It does but it's based on the fact that in most markets, the low-end of the market (i.e. the number of people who buy the cheapest solution to a given problem) outnumbers the high-end. The PS3 was, for some time, both the best and cheapest Blu-ray player on the market and sales the PS3 dovetailed with increasing sales of Blu-ray discs, ergo there is considerable evidence that a number of people bought the console for it's movie playback capabilities. Whether that was their primary reason, or just a significant reason, is another question!
