> Phones have them beat, however.

But phones sadly don't have games. They only have predatory gambling apps with game skins.

genshin is fun on its own but a friend of mine spends so much money on it that it's honestly terrifying, puts me off of playing it all that much. i would love it if it were $60 and everything was unlockable with a reasonable time investment, or even if it were a sub model like a lot of MMOs

... which is exactly what I was saying.

i misread your intent then, to me at least "gambling apps with game skins" and "fun games with predatory monetisation" are distinct :>

In what way? Gaming on Steam is now: 'search for game', click buy, click play. In 'big picture mode' the entire system becomes console style and all of this can be completely controlled with a controller which is quite handy for couch play! Of course you still have the option of going and fidgeting with config files, installing mods, and tweaking things to your heart's content, but none of this is mandatory.

Most people don't even want to do that (and it is vastly improved from the old days).

I can't find exact numbers, but I would bet that Hogwarts Legacy sold more on consoles (combined) than on PC.