A report from Digitimes shows that motherboard shipments in 2022 are down compared to 2021. The report shows sales statistics from manufacturers such as ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI.
Motherboards: Sales decline for major manufacturers in 2022
According to the Chinese source (Digitimes), motherboard shipments have declined by nearly ten million units in 2022.
The reasons for the drop in sales range from the decline in cryptocurrencies, to telecommuters returning to work, to the global economic downturn. This trend could continue through 2023, leading to “low” sales, although at this point we don’t know if there will be a recovery around 2022 or if sales will drop even further.
The report elaborates on the reasons, explaining that consumers are slow to buy new motherboards due to various changes and decisions made by Intel and AMD. For example, AMD has added a new socket, motherboards have become more expensive, and DDR5 memory is still more expensive than DDR4 modules. Intel has also added new motherboards with LGA 1700 socket, although this dates back to the Alder Lake era, so it is not as new to consumers as AM5.
These reasons, combined with a more recessionary economy and the post-pandemic phase, are affecting hardware sales in general. Overall demand is lower today than in 2021.
One of the manufacturers most affected by the decline in motherboard sales was ASRock, which saw a drop from 6 million in 2021 to just 2.7 million units sold in 2022. MSI was another manufacturer that saw a sharp decline from 9.5 million to 5.5 million units sold in 2022.
The largest manufacturer, ASUS, also saw a decline from 18 million to 13.6 million units sold in 2022.