We have already reported the news that sales of CPUs (opens in new tab), graphics cards (opens in new tab), and PC monitors (opens in new tab) are taking a hit. So it is not surprising that PC sales themselves are down, according to the latest data released by analysts. However, from a broader perspective, there is absolutely no need to panic. In fact, taken as a whole, PC sales have held up remarkably well.

As reported by the Verge (opens in new tab), both IDC and Canalys put PC sales in the first quarter of this year at about 30% lower than the same period in 2022. Specifically, IDC puts the figure at 29%, or 56.9 million total units shipped, while Canalys puts the figure at 32.6%, or 54 million units shipped. These figures are for PCs in general and do not specifically classify gaming PCs.

In any case, this is a significant drop compared to last year, and PC shipments have declined for four consecutive quarters. Incidentally, Apple was the hardest hit of the major PC brands, recording a 40% drop. Ouch.

Of course, the usual scenario surrounding such stories is that the drop was bound to happen after the huge increase in sales during a pandemic. However, IDC notes that the fact that sales are down from pre-pandemic levels suggests that something more is going on than just a return to normalcy. Canaris sees rising interest rates as reducing demand.

Of course, a simpler explanation is that during the pandemic, people bought a lot of PCs for work and gaming.

Similarly, going back to Q1 2019, Canalys puts PC shipments at just under 60 million units. In other words, the market has not collapsed. Rather, the small decline is striking given that shipments of 80 to 90 million units, well above the pre-pandemic trend, were growing by the quarter for about a year and a half during the pandemic.

In fact, both Canalys and IDC predict that PC sales will recover between the second half of this year and 2024. If that happens, overall unit sales over the last few years will likely be above trend overall.

In other words, everyone needs to chill out: the PC industry is not collapsing. During the pandemic, the PC industry enjoyed an exceptional boom.