2022 has likely been a bad year for PC manufacturers, who have seen motherboard sales drop by more than 10 million units compared to the previous year.
In 2021, PC sales had exploded, in particular because of the various confinements which forced many people to telecommute or take their courses from home. However, this trend did not continue as the world recovered from the pandemic last year, as indicated by motherboard sales.
According to a DigiTimes report, motherboard shipments by Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock dropped by around 10 million units in 2022. It is therefore the first time after three years of growth that manufacturers are faced with a drop in sales.
PC sales plummet, but could rise again at the end of the year
In its report, DigiTimes announces for example that Asus had sold more than 18 million motherboards in 2021, against “only” 13.6 million in 2022, a decrease of 25%. Gigabyte hasn’t been spared either, with sales also dropping 14%, from 11 million to around 9.5 million in 2022.
MSI and ASRock were the most impacted in 2022, with declines of 42% and 55%, respectively. Their sales have fallen from 9.5 million to 5.5 million units in 2022, and from around 6 million to 2.7 million.
These figures therefore corroborate other reports that showed a 29% drop in annual PC sales in 2022. With the end of the global shortage of components, sales were expected to pick up again. . However, we imagine that successive confinements prompted most Internet users to change their computer in 2021and therefore it was no longer necessary to change again in 2022.
DigiTimes had announced in a separate report that Taiwan-based motherboard and graphics card makers expect sales to drop up to 50% sequentially in the first quarter of 2023, growth not expected to resume before the second half of 2023. We will of course keep you informed.