Gaming PC Market Recovered in 2Q24

At approximately 10.6 million units shipped, gaming PCs saw a modest year-over-year recovery of 2.4% in the second quarter of 2024, according to IDC. Despite economic uncertainty that continues to affect key markets like China, inventory replenishment and favorable comparisons against a rough 2023 led to the first positive quarter since the first quarter of 2022.

At the same time, gaming monitor growth remained robust in 2Q24. Monitor shipments reached nearly 6.5 million units and grew 35% year-over-year as promotions and aggressive upstart vendors fueled the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year gaming monitor growth. "Excluding economic challenges, the lull in gaming PCs has also been driven by a lack of exciting hardware and investments from both consumers and suppliers in adjacent markets such as handhelds," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Even with further market recovery in the coming quarters, the volume of gaming PCs will remain below that seen in 2021 as some consumers use other methods of gaming in conjunction with or instead of traditional gaming PCs."

"Gaming monitors hit a couple of milestones in the second quarter," said Jay Chou, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Client Devices Trackers. "The 6.5 million units shipped is the highest on record since IDC began tracking in the market in 2016. In addition, the share of gaming within the total monitor market hit a record 20%. Continued price declines and diverted budgets from a slowing gaming PC landscape also helped. The average gaming display is now well below $300."

IDC forecasts the gaming market for PCs and monitors will recover in 2024, after unit contractions in both 2022 and 2023. Gaming volume is expected to hit 69.3 million in 2024, or 9% higher than in 2023. Gaming desktops, a key segment for high-end gaming and monitors, are expected to recover in 2025 as new GPUs land in stores. Gaming penetration is also expected to take an increased share going forward, with gaming taking 20% of the total PC and Monitor market by 2028.