The XT came out in 1983, it was a real piece of shit by 1989 standards
Not to mention, the PC was a pretty, uh, "challenging" platform for video games. It amazes me someone managed to port something as graphically sophisticated as PoP to an 8088 with CGA.
The XT was significantly more powerful than the Apple II in every way except color depth.
PCs were incredibly expensive at the time, though, and barely useful. Most people didn't buy a new one every two years, despite the fast progress in hardware development. So many people, especially kids, were stuck with "ancient" hardware. I had friends who had an 8088 PC or an Apple II in the late 90s.