It’s been a tough start to the year in the gaming market, but the trend every year is for a slow Q1, with May often being the worst month for sales growth. In that respect, seeing revenue sales below the index line for headsets, keyboards and keypads, monitors, desktops, mice, notebooks, and graphics cards shouldn’t be too concerning. There’s plenty to be optimistic about, especially in the graphics card and monitors market.

Vendors Start to Differentiate

As of May 2024, the graphics card category was approaching -60 on the revenue trend index. In most major markets, the trend is of growth lower than the previous two years. However, there are pockets of optimism dotted about, most notably the UK, which is trending above the index baseline on our Index Revenue Trend, meaning performance is outpacing the past two years.

In terms of sub-segments, the mid-range continues to outperform high and low-end graphics card sales. Revenue sales growth of QHD-capable cards is roughly at the same level as in 2023, close to the index line. We’re expecting some major announcements in Q3 as all three major graphics card vendors deliver a new generation of products. We expect NVIDIA to focus on the high-end segment of the market, AMD to take on the mid-range, and Intel to concentrate on entry-level products.

Good News for Monitors

There’s also positive news in the gaming monitors space. The category is performing better than in 2023 and 2022 in every major market. In the UK, revenue sales so far this year have not exceeded those of 2022 but are beating 2023 figures, while in Italy, performance exceeds both prior years. We expect this positive performance to continue to the end of the year.

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