What is the real size of the market of gamers who upgrade with every new generation of hardware? I've gotta say, I know many gamers (though no professional ones), and none of them upgrade that often. It's more like once every 2-3 years at the most.
Hardcore gamers are not a great source of income however a great marketing resource for nvidia. They are very influential on others when choosing products. They also represent a large portion of the review industry online.
Having the crown for best graphic card even translates to sales on low end laptops.
Exactly, especially in the Twitch.tv and eSport era. Sponsored players flaunt their hardware, often linking to Amazon product pages or giving hardware away in their Twitch channels. These professional players have tens of thousands of viewers, and thousands of subscribers, on Twitch. There's a lot of marketing to be had.
It just seems like a bit of a sensational claim..