Overklocked Gaming: Edmonton’s only PC gaming café and its growth in the gaming community

By Nick Petlock on December 11, 2023

PC gaming cafés is a familiar term for gamers, but it’s something new for those who don’t play as much. It’s an internet café primarily focused on offering services that allow customers to play games on the best computers at the fastest internet speed.

Overklocked Gaming is the only one of its kind in Edmonton. The PC gaming café has been operating since 2011. They’ve brought the community together through tournaments and events but when the pandemic hit in 2020, the customer base changed.

“A huge portion of our customer base before the pandemic were people that didn’t own computers. And then the pandemic, you know, a lot of people bought computers,” said Tim Cooper, owner of Overklocked Gaming.

Overklocked Gaming on a slow Monday afternoon.

It took Overklocked Gaming a year to recover from the pandemic, but the change in customers showed growth in the community. Cooper has seen an increase in female gamers although men continue to dominate the gaming community.

“That’s been a very interesting trend to observe. Like when we first opened, I’d say probably about like 2% of our customer base were women. And now it’s easily 10 to 15%. So that’s a significant level of growth in a pretty short period of time.”

One of the rooms at Overklocked Gaming that offers a secluded space inside the café.

One of the gamers at Overklocked Gaming plays Valorant, a competitive 5v5 FPS online game.

South Korea continues to be one of the biggest markets for PC gaming cafés even after the pandemic. However, Cooper doesn’t think that PC gaming cafés in Canada would grow to be the same.

“I think that there is a big cultural aspect there where in Korea, they don’t game at home as often. So like in North America, it’s very common for families to have one or two computers in their household … But in Korea, it’s a little, it’s a lot less like that. They’re more studious as well, too, culturally and stuff like that. So I think that naturally lends itself more to doing the gaming away from the household, which, you know, fosters the internet cafe or PC bang market, as they would call it.”

However, some gamers prefer the comfort of their own home despite PC gaming cafés offering games and computers for them to play.

“I wanted to be close to home. So I don’t have to walk or travel to the computer shops, then travel again going back home. So I wanted to be more at home and be more accessible for me. So I don’t have to go pay for transportation or walk towards a shop. At least this time I could just get up from bed and just go into my setup,” said Josh Oliver, a local home gamer.

Oliver now has a set up at home where he games when he’s back from his full-time job. Although he misses the social space that PC gaming cafés provide, especially when he’s outside with his friends.

“I do miss that … It really brings a different point of view of just staying at home, just opening up Discord and just talking. While being there, like physically there, doing LAN parties, playing with your friends in the computer shop is more fun because you can actually see their reactions.”

Cooper shares the same sentiment, “There is an element of the social aspect that is involved with coming out to a café that is growing.”

Overklocked Gaming offers a space with seating and a screen for an in-person viewing of gaming tournaments.

Overklocked Gaming also offers Playstation 5 for those interested in console gaming.

Cooper hopes that Overklocked Gaming will expand its market to cities outside of Edmonton. He also hopes to see the continuous natural growth of Alberta’s gaming community, especially eSports that’s been happening more in schools and colleges.

Overklocked Gaming is open late throughout the whole week and the regular hourly rate starts at $6.

Yearly memberships are available as well at $42, which can be purchased in person at Overklocked Gaming’s front desk.