The analyst firm IDC has said that it expects gaming PC and gaming monitor shipments to lag this year following a decline in shipments in 2022. The analyst says that the inventory from 2022, which was not sold, is now being carried over into 2023 and hampering re-orders of the newest generation of gaming PCs. Once you add in economic challenges and a perceived lack of meaningful upgrades, shipments won’t be very good this year, at least according to IDC.
In the short term, the market for these products is expected to be a bit lacklustre but through 2027 these will outperform overall PC and monitor markets. It expects that the total volume of gaming products will rise from 58.8 million in 2023 to 75.1 million in 2027.
Jay Chou, a research manager from IDC said that gaming monitors contracted in 2022 for the first time since it began watching the market in 2016. He said that a couple more quarters will see inventory stocks come down to normal amounts. As this happens, Chou expects we’ll see a recovery of gaming monitor shipments in the latter part of the year.
The pandemic saw a large increase in technology sales as people were forced to work from home. As these purchases were made relatively recently, people don’t need to upgrade just yet and budgets are also under pressure as a result of rising interest rates. As inflation gets brought under control, interest rates could start to fall again, making the sale of things like gaming PCs and monitors easier.