Shipments of Personal Computing Devices for Gaming Forecast to Deliver Solid Growth

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The global market for gaming desktops, notebooks, and monitors is expected to grow 8.2% year over year in 2019 to 42.1 million devices shipped, according to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Increased consumer interest, the rising popularity of competitive esports, and new hardware from GPU vendors will help drive growth throughout the forecast period. By the end of 2023 the market is expected to balloon to 61.1 million units with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8%.

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, when it comes to monitors, IDC identifies Gaming Monitors as those with a refresh rate of 100 Hz or higher.

In 2019, IDC anticipates 15.5 million gaming desktops will be shipped worldwide. Though desktops will face a year-over-year decline of 1.9% in 2019, IDC expects a rebound in 2020 and beyond as newer games embrace the latest graphics technologies such as Ray Tracing and as game-related content creation continues to proliferate. Meanwhile, gaming notebooks are forecast to grow 13.3% year over year to 20.1 million units in 2019 and gaming monitors will grow 21.3% year over year to 6.4 million units.

"With game streaming on the horizon and the continued rise of mobile gaming, the PC gaming market will face new challenges but also opportunities," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Mobile Device Trackers. "There are plenty of reasons for optimism as issues around latency and bandwidth requirements will likely limit the success of gaming streaming services in the short term. And in contrast to mobile gaming, PC gaming has a larger library of so-called hardcore games, appealing to a different type of gamer."

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker provides insightful analysis, quarterly market share data, and a five-year forecast by country for the global personal computing device market. It offers total market size and vendor share for the following technology areas: product category; product type; screen-size band; user segmentation; and channel. Additional technology splits are available to subscribers.

About IDC Trackers

IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading media, data and marketing services company that activates and engages the most influential technology buyers.