Despite the negative and outright disastrous effects of the global pandemic, the spread of COVID-19 has brought with it some opportunities in the consumer electronics industry. With many people stuck at home, the gaming market has benefited from new interest. As a result, global shipments of gaming PCs and monitors are expected to increase 16.2% year over year to 49.6 million units in 2020, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Gaming Tracker.
This growth is expected to continue into 2024 as shipments rise to 61.9 million units with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.7%.
“Though the first half of 2020 faced supply issues when it comes to hardware, spending on gaming software and services has continued to rise along with hours played,” said Jitesh Ubrani research manager for IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “The next six to twelve months is when we expect a real surge in gaming PCs as new GPUs from veterans Nvidia and AMD and underdog Intel are expected to drive prices down and performance up. Moreover, new game titles and support for ray tracing on existing titles will drive additional hardware refreshes.”
Beyond gaming hardware, new console launches and game streaming from cloud services such as Luna, Stadia, and Xbox Game Pass are expected to have a positive impact on gaming PCs and monitors as these services are likely to whet the appetite of aspiring gamers. “New GPUs, increased time spent on gaming, and new game developments have renewed the need for capable gaming monitors that can keep up,” said Jay Chou, research manager for IDC’s Worldwide PC Monitor Tracker. “The market has responded with many attractive displays for PC gaming. Burgeoning developments such as cloud gaming should help entry-level PC owners to dip their toes into gaming and with some time this development could further benefit the monitor market as some users will opt to buy a gaming monitor for a more competitive experience.”
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Gaming Forecast by Product Category, 2020-2024 (shipments in millions) |
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Product Category |
2020 Shipments* |
2020 Average Selling Price* |
2024 Shipments* |
2024 Average Selling Price* |
2020-2024 CAGR |
|
Desktop |
14.8 |
$699 |
15.8 |
$671 |
1.6% |
|
Monitor |
12.4 |
$348 |
16.0 |
$341 |
6.4% |
|
Notebook |
22.3 |
$967 |
30.2 |
$955 |
7.9% |
|
TOTAL |
49.6 |
61.9 |
5.7% |
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Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Gaming Device Tracker, September 30, 2020 |
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Table Notes:
• All figures represent forecast data.
• IDC identifies Gaming PCs as desktops or notebooks that have a Premium or Performance grade GPU. This includes the mid-range and high-end offerings from Nvidia and AMD. Professional grade GPUs such as the Quadro or Radeon Pro are excluded from IDC’s gaming PC definition. Similarly, IDC identifies Gaming Monitors as those with a refresh rate of 100 Hz or higher.
