LONDON, July 18, 2024: New insights from Omdia’s Desktop Monitor Intelligence Service show the gaming monitor market, featuring refresh rates over 120Hz, is expected to grow by 9% YoY to 24.7 million units in 2024. Meanwhile, the smart monitor market, equipped with operating systems and streaming service portals, is projected to expand by 63% YoY to 1.2 million units.

In 1Q24, desktop monitor shipments hit 30.7 million units, a 5% increase year-on-year (YoY). The industry has been growing steadily since 3Q23, overcoming post-pandemic logistical disruptions. Notably, the gaming monitor market and smart monitors are expanding rapidly. This growth is driven by added value and high functionality, particularly in both monitor categories.

Amid this, the market for gaming monitors with refresh rates exceeding 120Hz and smart monitors equipped with OS and streaming service portal apps like TVs has been expanding rapidly.

According to Hidetoshi Himuro, Senior Principal Analyst at Omdia, “Monitors are following the same trajectory as TVs in becoming smarter. The focus is on maximizing the content they can handle and broadening the user experience in the B2C market for gaming and smart monitors.”

Samsung and LGE from South Korea currently dominate smart monitor shipments. Acer is following, with other brands from Taiwan, the US, and China expected to enter the market soon. In the gaming monitor sector, there is potential for non- gaming monitors to emerge featuring refresh rates exceeding 120Hz. Consequently, the shipment performance of gaming monitors, defined by their maximum refresh rates, is anticipated to rise.

Omdia forecasts that the gaming monitor market will expand to 27.4 million units by 2028, and the smart monitor market will grow to 2.1 million units, including demand from B2B applications.

In 2024, the smart monitor market is projected to reach 1.2 million units in 2024 driven primarily by TV system-on-chip due to the integrated operating systems, setting them apart from traditional desktop monitors. MediaTek, Novatek, and Realtek were the leading TV SoC vendors in 2023. Their combined market share is expected to rise to 84% in 2024, up from 83% in 2023.

“There are distinct issues in the smart monitor market depending on the vendor type. We anticipate that four operating systems - Tizen, WebOS, AOSP China, and Google will become key players in 2024‒25. Additionally, Wi-Fi experience and new user interfaces, such as remote control, are crucial factors in this evolving market,” concludes Himuro.