The Surge in Gaming PC and Monitors Expected to Remain Strong Through 2025, According to IDC

[AleksandarK]

According to the latest forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Gaming Tracker, worldwide shipments of gaming PCs and monitors continue to grow at rates faster than their parent markets. For gaming PCs, which includes both desktop and notebook PCs, unit shipments are expected to grow from 41.3 million in 2020 and to 52.3 million in 2025. Similarly, the gaming monitor market is expected to jump from 14.2 million units shipped to 26.4 million during the same time frame. This equates to the two product categories having five-year compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) of 4.8% and 13.2% respectively.

The solid growth projection is based on strong recent trends. Despite high logistics costs as well as shortages of components affecting both PCs and displays, shipments in 2021 have remained brisk. The second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) ended with combined shipments of 15.6 million gaming monitors and PCs, an increase of 19.3% compared to the same quarter in 2020.



"The gaming market was on fire for years leading into the start of the pandemic in 2020 and things only accelerated as most people were spending more time at home and in front of screens," said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "At this point the global supply shortage is well known and continues to be a moving target, yet demand for gaming hardware (PCs, consoles, monitors, etc.) and titles continues to surge. Many have speculated that as reopening slowly begins around the world this growth could be in jeopardy, but we are just not seeing that."

Overall, the value of the combined gaming PC and monitor markets is expected to grow from $43 billion in 2020 to just over $60 billion in 2025 with a five-year CAGR of 7.4%. Despite this growth, slightly different average sales price (ASP) trends are expected to emerge across the two categories. For gaming PCs, IDC expects ASPs to grow from $925 last year to $1007 in 2025, despite the recent introduction of lower cost gaming desktops and notebooks. In comparison, gaming monitors were at $339 last year and are expected to drop to $309 in 2025.

"Increasingly accessible price points and the ability to handle a variety of tasks outside of gaming are just some of the reasons we expect the gaming PC market to remain healthy in the coming years," said Jay Chou, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Monitor Tracker. "However, even within this performance-focused segment of the market, portability is still important, and that means gaming desktops need to innovate to compete against gaming notebooks."

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[Space Lynx]

people love that high refresh nom nom.

I been doing high refresh 1440p QNIX since 2012, catch up boys yeeeeehaaaa

 

[TheLostSwede]

people love that high refresh nom nom.

I been doing high refresh 1440p QNIX since 2012, catch up boys yeeeeehaaaa

75Hz?

 

[Space Lynx]

75Hz?

nope, 110hz was my max overclock on my very first 1440p 27" qnix in 2012 or 2013, can't remember exact year but it was good times... been hooked on high refresh ever since.

 

[Chomiq]

I'm sure it will continue if people are already not able to buy graphic cards because they are either out of their price range or completely unavailable.

 

[P4-630]

nope, 110hz was my max overclock on my very first 1440p 27" qnix in 2012 or 2013, can't remember exact year but it was good times... been hooked on high refresh ever since.

So what monitor are you using in 2021?

 

[TheDeeGee]

So what monitor are you using in 2021?

EIZO CX240 still, because of no IPS Glow.

Only alternative would be OLED which lasts maybe a year until you get burn-in effects.

Sadly MicroLED is very far away.

 

[Ruru]

Oh great. Been thinking of a new primary monitor but damn.

 

[The King]

Maybe finally time to upgrade from my Samsung 17" CRT.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

I will say this, I'm absolutely sick of TN panels, which is what my laptop uses. Not bad for gaming, but it sucks when I'm doing anything that requires color accuracy/consistency. And we're all still waiting for a monitor that can do both: high refresh rate for gaming + color accuracy /w wider viewing angles vs. TN panels.

 

[Broken Processor]

I must be the cheapest gamer on the planet when my 1080p monitor went a few months back I got my old 720p monitor out and I've been gaming happily on it since.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I will say this, I'm absolutely sick of TN panels, which is what my laptop uses. Not bad for gaming, but it sucks when I'm doing anything that requires color accuracy/consistency. And we're all still waiting for a monitor that can do both: high refresh rate for gaming + color accuracy /w wider viewing angles vs. TN panels.

VA panels offer significantly better color accurancy then TN panels while also offering high refresh rates without the cost associated with true 144hz IPS panels.

 

[s3thra]

VA panels offer significantly better color accurancy then TN panels while also offering high refresh rates without the cost associated with true 144hz IPS panels.

None of that IPS glow and bad contrast ratio either. I love my VA for the rich blacks and ease on my eyes in my dark room.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Corsair just came out with a new 1440p 165hz IPS monitor that I cant wait to see reviews on. $800 though. But it's still going to sell.

 

[Space Lynx]

So what monitor are you using in 2021?

Acer Nitro 165hz Rapid IPS 23.8" 1080p. while I prefer 1440p, I am still waiting on higher quality panels. most of them are hot garbage. this little 1080p one that cost $160 beats most of them in color accuracy, brightness, backlight bleed issues, and smearing. high refresh is pointless if you get smearing imo, or dark scenes in games don't look well dark... QNIX was way ahead of its time, but I had to say goodbye to the korean monitors, because I require gsync/freesync these days, as that feature enhances gaming to much to be ignored.

I'm waiting on the LG 42" OLED 120hz 4k next year. hopefully it will be $899. that will become my main screen for everything when it comes out.

Corsair just came out with a new 1440p 165hz IPS monitor that I cant wait to see reviews on. $800 though. But it's still going to sell.

hardware unboxed already reviewed it and said its not as good as other options in similar price range.

None of that IPS glow and bad contrast ratio either. I love my VA for the rich blacks and ease on my eyes in my dark room.

VA is nice sometimes, I couldn't stand the smearing on the ones I tried though so I gave up on it... apparently the new VA panels like the Samsung 240hz, don't have smearing issues anymore... so maybe if that one ever goes on sale again for $499 I will consider it... I don't think it's worth more than $499 though at this point.

 

[defaultluser]

None of that IPS glow and bad contrast ratio either. I love my VA for the rich blacks and ease on my eyes in my dark room.

sorry man, not so many of us have all day to wait for their VA pixels to transition. Just because a monitor runs at 144hz Hz doesn't mean you won't see every blurry pixel transition when your high-contrast image is moving.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/hadu9t
My OLED (HTPC) and TN (hardcore gaming)_ both do it much more fluidly (all without any IPS Glow)

VA is only appropriate for old people who can't read without their glasses on - anyone else with remotely-clear vision can see that shit.

TVs are ok using this tech, as the focus is already going to be blurry thanks to 24fps movies pre-blurred-fest, but in any gaming scenario, you're going to notice this transition lag.

 

[Space Lynx]

sorry man, so me of don't have all day to wait for their VA pixels to transition. Just because a monitor runs at 144hz Hz doesn't mean you won't see every blurry pixel transition when your image is moving.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/hadu9t
My OLED (HTPC) and TN (hardcore gaming)_ both do it much more fluidly (all without any IPS Glow)

VA is only approiate for old people who can't read without their glasses on - anyone else with remotely-clear vision can see that shit.

just an fyi, there is no IPS glow at 23.8" with the new Rapid IPS panels. its the main reason I gave on 27" 1440p panels. waiting on the tech to get better. but honestly LG 42" OLED 120hz 4k is my future, so monitors will be a thing of the past for me... in less than 6 months hopefully.

 

[Tom Sunday]

Picked up an Alienware 34-inch curved monitor with 3440 x 1440 and a 120Hz refresh at Amazon Warehouse for $680 and with a 100% return guarantee. Had a few scratches on the housing and no manual. But very happy overall. I am pleased to see that the overall gaming PC market is being thought off to staying healthy in the years to come. However, it does appear that gaming laptops are included in the gaming PC (desktop) market projections and which skews the real forward looking picture. I for one like to see all the individual cards on the table and look at what laptops, consoles and PC desktops for the entire marketplace (besides their future growth or decline) look like for each segment.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Corsair just came out with a new 1440p 165hz IPS monitor that I cant wait to see reviews on. $800 though. But it's still going to sell.

Corsair won't catch me with that BS. 1440p 165hz. Pretty standard these days and those offers are $400-500. Not fucking $800. Even 1440p 240Hz IPS screens are cheaper @ $600-700

 

[R-T-B]

Only alternative would be OLED which lasts maybe a year until you get burn-in effects.

Mine missed that memo. I'd better take it offline before it finds out.

 

[dayne878]

I guess the surge is good for the long-term health of PC gaming. Seeing more console-exclusives coming to PC would be a good thing (looking at you, Sony), as well as continued innovations coming to PC.

I'm glad I built my PC in June 2020, because this year it would have been way more expensive. Even then I had to use my older 2080ti as the graphics card and I haven't been able to find a 3080 at anywhere close to MSRP to replace it. Not that I need to replace it when only playing at 1440p, really. But if this shortage lasts another couple years, eventually my card will give out and I'll be stuck paying scalper prices for anything close to the 2080ti performance (at least a 3070).

Then there's the consideration of eventually my kids will need/want PCs and I will want to build them ones (within 5 years for the first, I'd say). I guess I'll just have to start saving up for new PC hardware at elevated prices.

 

[Am*]

No offense but this article is complete BS. First of all, units shipped doesn't equate to units sold. Secondly, they seem to be throwing together the numbers for PCs and laptops (every gaming laptop technically comes with a "gaming monitor"). Secondly, literally nobody is buying gaming monitors anymore because of how much of an overpriced ripoff they have become -- I bought my ultrawide 1600p LG IPS for £900 over 3 years ago and today they are basically still the same price. It's now much smarter to buy an OLED for gaming and content consumption and a cheap monitor or two to go alongside it for any static content (streaming/editing etc) and that's what everyone seems to be doing now (rightfully so). Speaking to 2 of my friends who work at the hardware stores near here which sell TVs and monitors, they sell about 100 OLEDs for every 2-5 monitors. TVs were light years behind monitors when I bought mine (unless you were spending a few thousand on an OLED back in the day), but today it's the exact opposite -- why the hell would I spend £1500 on something like a 38" IPS with fake HDR, glowing/severe backlight bleed, ghosting and overdriven to the max with horrible QC and failure rates vs a shiny new £900 48" OLED that has about 95% of those issues completely eliminated with plenty of spare change for a GPU or a couple of more monitors? Albeit, OLED has its own major drawback with burn in -- but not with any sort of content consumption, only in static workloads (for which you could get way cheaper monitors that cost next to nothing).

I hope Crapsair, Asucks and the rest of the ripoff merchants get to sit and collect dust on all of that shipped inventory and that the IDC continue to preach this -- then hopefully, we can get an oversupply of gaming hardware around 2023 and get prices come back to planet earth for PC gamers, because PC gaming has become little more than a scam these past few years (with the most hilarious part being, the same people who were lecturing me on spending £750 on my brand new top of the range Titan X back in the day 6 years back now claiming they're "galaxy brained" for paying the same cost or more for their garbage 3060s/3070s and eating it up like some deal of the century).