Gaming Monitor Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Noah Mc | Last updated: September 27, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
OLED monitor shipments nearly doubled in Q2 2026 (+98% year over year, TrendForce), yet 50.52% of Steam players still game on a 1920×1080 primary display (Valve, August 2026). Axis Intelligence Research measures that mismatch with a new metric, the Display Headroom Gap (DHG): 12.53 percentage points of the Steam base own a 12GB+ GPU without a 1440p-class screen.
Quick Answer
According to Axis Intelligence Research, about 2.04 million OLED monitors shipped worldwide in the first half of 2026, up 88.6% on the first half of 2025 (reconstructed from TrendForce growth rates). The gaming install base moves slower: 1080p holds 50.52% of Steam primary displays and 1440p holds 21.86%. U.S. prices for computers and peripherals, which include monitors, rose 8.43% year over year in August 2026 (BLS CPI).
Key Findings
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, the Display Headroom Gap stood at 12.53 percentage points in August 2026: 49.15% of Steam systems carry 12GB or more of VRAM, but only 36.62% run a 1440p-class or higher primary display.
- TrendForce reports that global OLED monitor shipments reached 2.735 million units in 2025, up 92% year over year, and forecasts 51% growth in 2026.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, OLED monitor shipments in H1 2026 totaled an estimated 2.04 million units, which is 49.4% of the full-year volume implied by TrendForce’s forecast.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, the average Steam primary display pushes 2.966 megapixels in August 2026, 43% more pixels than a 1080p panel.
- The top five OLED monitor brands held 66.0% of shipments in Q2 2026, down from 76.5% for full-year 2025, according to an Axis Intelligence Research sum of TrendForce brand shares.
How Many Gaming Monitors Are Sold Each Year?
The whole monitor market is flat; the premium tier inside it is not. TrendForce puts post-pandemic global monitor shipments at roughly 125 to 130 million units a year, and in November 2025 it cut its 2026 outlook to a 0.4% decline as memory costs pushed up PC retail prices. IDC’s longer-range view, published in 2024, had annual volume stabilizing at 132 to 135 million units beyond 2025. The two trackers use different scopes, so Axis Intelligence Research publishes both ranges side by side rather than averaging them.
The last public read on the gaming slice specifically comes from the same IDC release: gaming monitors reached 20% of all monitor shipments in Q2 2024, the highest share since IDC began tracking in 2016. That figure is [older data]. IDC has not released a newer public gaming-share number that our research could locate, and we deliberately did not multiply a 2024 IDC share by a 2026 TrendForce total. Different trackers, different definitions, different years: the product of those two numbers would look precise and mean nothing. That declined calculation is logged in the CSV as a retracted row.
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global monitor shipments (annual range) | 125 to 130 million units | June 2026 | TrendForce |
| 2026 global monitor shipment forecast | -0.4% | Nov 2025 forecast | TrendForce |
| Gaming share of monitor shipments | 20% | Q2 2024 | IDC |
| Long-range monitor volume outlook | 132 to 135 million units | 2024 forecast | IDC |
| Implied 2025 monitor base (Axis estimate) | 130.2 million units | 2025 | Axis Intelligence Research from TrendForce inputs |
The Axis estimate in the last row divides TrendForce’s 2.735 million OLED units by its stated 2.1% OLED penetration rate. It lands at the top of TrendForce’s own range, which is a useful consistency check rather than a new market size.
The software side of the same audience, revenue and player counts, is covered in Axis Intelligence Research’s PC gaming statistics; this page tracks the hardware those players look at.
Noah Mc: A flat box count hides the real story. Brands are not fighting for more desks; they are fighting for the same desk at a higher ASP. When the total market goes sideways and one panel type nearly doubles, that is a mix shift, and mix shifts are where the margin lives.
OLED Gaming Monitor Market Statistics
OLED is the growth engine of the category, and the refresh-rate race runs through it. TrendForce credits 27-inch 240Hz QHD models and new 280Hz launches for the 2025 surge, and its insight report places OLED mainly in the mid- to high-end gaming and professional segments.
| Year | OLED monitor shipments | Growth | OLED penetration of all monitors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | n/a | n/a | 0.1% | TrendForce |
| 2024 | 1.42 million (Axis estimate) | n/a | n/a | Axis Intelligence Research from TrendForce 2025 growth |
| 2025 | 2.735 million | +92% | 2.1% | TrendForce |
| 2026 (forecast) | about 4.13 million (implied) | +51% | 3.18% (Axis estimate) | TrendForce forecast; Axis calculation |
| 2028 (forecast) | 6.893 million | n/a | 5.4% | TrendForce |
At the 2028 forecast, OLED volume would be about 2.5 times the 2025 level. Penetration would still sit near one monitor in twenty. That is the honest scale of the transition: explosive growth off a small base, not a takeover of the desk.
OLED Monitor Shipments by Quarter (Axis Reconstruction)
TrendForce publishes quarterly growth rates but not every quarterly unit count. Axis Intelligence Research reconstructed the series by chaining the published rates to the one anchor TrendForce did publish in units: 644,000 OLED monitors in Q3 2025, up 12% on Q2 2025.
| Quarter | OLED units (thousands) | Basis | Source of inputs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 507.2 | Q1 2026 / 1.78 | TrendForce (+78% YoY) |
| Q2 2025 | 575.0 | Q3 2025 / 1.12 | TrendForce (+12% QoQ) |
| Q3 2025 | 644 | Reported | TrendForce |
| Q4 2025 | 1,014.4 | Q1 2026 / 0.89 | TrendForce (-11% QoQ) |
| Q1 2026 | 902.9 | Q2 2026 / 1.261 | TrendForce (+26.1% QoQ) |
| Q2 2026 | 1,138.5 | Q2 2025 x 1.98 | TrendForce (+98% YoY) |
The test of any reconstruction is whether it adds back up. Our four 2025 quarters sum to 2,740.7 thousand units against TrendForce’s reported 2,735 thousand, a 0.21% difference. That tight fit gives us confidence to publish two derived figures:
- H1 2026 OLED shipments: about 2.04 million units, up 88.6% on H1 2025 (1.08 million).
- H1 2026 covers 49.4% of the implied full-year 2026 forecast. Hitting TrendForce’s +51% requires roughly 2.09 million units in H2, a softer ask than it sounds because Q4 is the promotional quarter.
One source discrepancy is published rather than smoothed over: in November 2025, TrendForce projected 2.62 million OLED units for 2025. The final figure published in March 2026 was 2.735 million. We use the final number everywhere and keep the superseded projection in the CSV.
Noah Mc: Q4 2025 is the tell. Over a million OLED panels shipped in one quarter, then TrendForce itself says the holiday promos pulled demand forward. If Q4 2026 repeats that shape, the +51% forecast clears without drama. If memory prices keep eating the PC upgrade budget, the monitor is the cheaper win, and that argues for a strong holiday, not a weak one.
Who Makes the Most OLED Gaming Monitors? Brand Market Share
ASUS took the lead in 2025 and has widened it every quarter since. Samsung is the story going the other way.
| Brand | 2025 share | Q1 2026 share | Q2 2026 share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASUS | 21.6% | 24.0% | 23.1% | TrendForce |
| Samsung | 19.3% | 16.4% | 13.1% | TrendForce |
| MSI | 13.1% | 12.2% | 12.8% | TrendForce |
| AOC / Philips | n/a | 12.1% | 8.6% (AOC) | TrendForce |
| LG Electronics | 12.6% | 9.1% | 8.4% | TrendForce |
| Dell (Alienware) | 9.9% | n/a | n/a | TrendForce |
| Top five combined (Axis) | 76.5% | 73.8% | 66.0% | Axis Intelligence Research |
Samsung lost 6.2 percentage points of OLED share between full-year 2025 and Q2 2026. TrendForce attributes the Q2 drop to Samsung’s gradual withdrawal from the Chinese market, which cost it the 618 shopping festival, while ASUS rode the same event plus strong demand from Chinese internet cafés.
The more important number is the one at the bottom of the table. According to Axis Intelligence Research, top-five concentration fell by 10.5 points in six quarters. TrendForce notes that improved panel supply is letting emerging brands ship faster. In practice that means the QD-OLED panel is becoming a commodity input, and brand power is shifting from “who can get panels” to “who can price a 27-inch QHD model aggressively.” AOC/Philips built its Q1 2026 position on aggressively priced entry-level 27-inch QHD models, which is exactly that playbook.
LG Electronics is running a different game: ultrawide models were 40% of its OLED shipments in Q1 2026, and TrendForce describes its hold on 39-inch and 45-inch OLED as near-monopolistic.
What Resolution Do Most Gamers Use in 2026?
This is where shipment headlines meet reality. Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey for August 2026 is the largest public read on what PC gamers actually run.
| Primary display resolution | Share of Steam users | Change vs July 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 x 1080 (1080p) | 50.52% | -0.58 pts | Valve |
| 2560 x 1440 (1440p) | 21.86% | +0.40 pts | Valve |
| 2560 x 1600 | 5.71% | +0.61 pts | Valve |
| 3840 x 2160 (4K) | 4.98% | +0.03 pts | Valve |
| 3440 x 1440 (ultrawide) | 3.14% | n/a | Valve |
| 1920 x 1200 | 2.76% | n/a | Valve |
| 1366 x 768 | 2.23% | n/a | Valve |
| 5120 x 1440 (super ultrawide) | 0.41% | n/a | Valve |
| Other | 3.26% | n/a | Valve |
1080p vs 1440p vs 4K Gaming Monitor Share
Axis Intelligence Research grouped every listed resolution by pixel count against the 1440p threshold (3,686,400 pixels):
- Below 1440p class: 60.15% of Steam primary displays.
- 1440p class or higher: 36.62%, including 16:10 laptop panels such as 2560×1600 (the fastest riser in August, common on the machines in our gaming laptop rankings) and ultrawides such as 3440×1440.
- Unclassified “Other”: 3.26%.
The share-weighted average Steam primary display renders 2.966 megapixels, according to Axis Intelligence Research. That is 43% more than a 1080p panel (2.07 MP) and still well short of 1440p (3.69 MP). The “average gamer” sits between the two standards, not on either.
1080p fell from 51.10% in July to 50.52% in August, the slow slide continuing. At that pace the format loses its outright majority within months, but it keeps the plurality for a long time after.
Noah Mc: 4K is the resolution everybody benchmarks and almost nobody runs: under 5% of Steam. The real fight is 1080p versus 1440p, and the survey says 1440p is winning by inches per month, not by leaps. Anyone selling you “4K is mainstream now” is reading the review charts, not the install base.
The Display Headroom Gap (DHG): Axis Intelligence Research’s Upgrade Metric
Definition. The Display Headroom Gap (DHG) measures how much of the PC gaming install base has the GPU memory to drive a higher-resolution monitor but has not yet bought one.
Formula. DHG = (share of Steam systems with 12GB+ VRAM) minus (share of Steam primary displays at 1440p class or higher)
Inputs (Valve, August 2026). VRAM tiers of 12GB (12.99%), 16GB (26.92%), 20GB (1.37%), 22GB (1.12%), 24GB (5.41%) and 32GB (1.34%) sum to 49.15%. Displays at 1440p class or higher sum to 36.62%.
Reading. DHG = 49.15 minus 36.62 = 12.53 percentage points. Put as a ratio, there are 1.34 Steam systems with a 12GB+ GPU for every system running a 1440p-class screen.
According to Axis Intelligence Research, that 12.53-point gap is the addressable upgrade pool for 1440p and OLED monitors: players whose graphics card is already past the usual 1440p memory threshold while their screen is not. The 12GB line is an Axis methodological choice, disclosed so anyone can rerun the number with a different threshold.
Why it matters for the industry: the 16GB VRAM tier grew 1.02 points in a single month, the fastest-moving tier in the August survey. Every point of GPU headroom that lands without a matching display upgrade widens DHG. A widening DHG is a leading indicator for 1440p and OLED monitor demand; a narrowing DHG means monitor upgrades are catching up with graphics card upgrades.
The flip side is just as telling. 46.35% of Steam systems still run 8GB of VRAM or less. For that half of the market, a 1440p OLED is not a monitor purchase; it is a GPU purchase first, which is why our graphics card rankings are organized around the display each card can drive.
Noah Mc: This is the number I would hand a monitor brand’s planning team. Roughly one in eight Steam players has already paid for the graphics card and is still looking at a 1080p screen. That player does not need convincing on frame rates. They need a 27-inch QHD panel at a price that feels like an accessory, which is exactly where AOC, MSI and the new QD-OLED entrants are aiming.
Are Gaming Monitor Prices Going Up in 2026?
In the United States, yes, at the category level. The Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI series for computers, peripherals, and smart home assistants explicitly includes monitors, per the BLS item definition.
| Month | CPI index (Dec 2007 = 100) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | 35.064 | BLS via FRED |
| Dec 2025 | 33.730 | BLS via FRED |
| Mar 2026 | 35.293 | BLS via FRED |
| Jun 2026 | 35.406 | BLS via FRED |
| Jul 2026 | 36.641 | BLS via FRED |
| Aug 2026 | 38.020 | BLS via FRED |
According to Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation from the BLS index, the category rose 8.43% year over year in August 2026, 3.76% in the single month from July, and 12.72% since December 2025. For a category that deflated for most of the past two decades, that is a sharp reversal.
Buyers pairing a laptop with an external screen feel this directly; our laptop testing covers the external-monitor side of that setup.
Two caveats keep this honest. The index blends PCs, tablets and peripherals, so it is not a pure monitor price. And BLS applies quality adjustment to computers, which means the index measures price for constant capability rather than sticker price. TrendForce’s reading is consistent with the direction: it describes monitors as less directly exposed to memory prices than PCs, with the pressure arriving indirectly through fewer system sales.
OLED Monitor Panel Supply: Who Makes the Screens?
Brand share tells you who sells the monitor; panel supply tells you who controls the ceiling. TrendForce reports 3.3 million OLED monitor panels shipped in 2025, up 72.2%, with 4.7 million expected in 2026 and 10.1 million by 2030.
| Panel maker | 2025 OLED monitor panel shipments | 2026 target | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Display (QD-OLED) | 2.6 million | 4.2 million | TrendForce |
| LG Display (WOLED) | 0.8 million | 1.5 million | TrendForce |
| All makers | 3.3 million | 4.7 million (forecast) | TrendForce |
The two named makers sum to 3.4 million against a 3.3 million total as published, so Axis Intelligence Research does not compute panel-maker shares from these figures. The CSV logs that as a declined calculation. What the table does show without any arithmetic: the 2026 targets of the two Korean makers alone exceed TrendForce’s total panel forecast, a sign that capacity is running ahead of demand. That is the condition under which prices fall, and it is consistent with the aggressive 27-inch QHD pricing TrendForce describes at the brand level.
Panels also run ahead of finished monitors: 3.3 million OLED panels versus 2.735 million OLED monitors in 2025, a 565,000-unit difference. The two figures sit at different stages of the supply chain, so the gap reflects inventory and timing rather than a contradiction.
Refresh Rate: Where 60Hz Went
The baseline moved before OLED arrived. IDC’s 2024 release noted that vendors were aggressively revamping 60Hz models into 100Hz because faster panels had reached cost parity. In the OLED tier, TrendForce’s brand reports now reference 180Hz, 240Hz, 280Hz and 360Hz models as the products carrying volume, including 34-inch 360Hz launches from ASUS and MSI in Q1 2026.
For a historical reference point, our Eve Spectrum analysis documents a 27-inch 4K 144Hz panel that was an uncommon combination when it was developed; that spec now sits below the OLED mainstream.
No primary source publishes a global refresh-rate distribution of the installed base, and Axis Intelligence Research does not estimate one. What the shipment data supports is narrower: in the premium tier, 240Hz at 27-inch QHD is the volume configuration of 2025 and 2026.
Noah Mc: 100Hz is the new floor, 240Hz is the new default for anyone buying OLED, and 360Hz is the halo spec that sells the 240Hz model next to it. The question for most players is not refresh rate anymore; it is whether their GPU can push 240 frames at 1440p in the games they actually play.
Methodology
Collection. Every figure on this page was retrieved from its primary publisher on September 27, 2026: TrendForce press releases and insight reports (OLED shipments, brand shares, panel supply, monitor forecast), Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey (resolution and VRAM shares, August 2026), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI series CUUR0000SEEE01 via FRED, and IDC’s Q2 2024 monitor release distributed via Business Wire. No figure comes from a secondary aggregator.
Axis calculations. All derived figures show their inputs in the CSV method_note column:
- OLED quarterly reconstruction: anchored on TrendForce’s reported Q3 2025 (644K units) and chained through published QoQ and YoY rates. Validation: reconstructed 2025 total is within 0.21% of TrendForce’s reported total.
- Implied 2026 OLED volume: 2.735M x 1.51 = about 4.13M units.
- Implied OLED penetration 2026: implied OLED volume divided by the implied 2025 monitor base (2.735M / 2.1%) adjusted by TrendForce’s -0.4% 2026 forecast.
- Resolution classes: listed Valve resolutions grouped at the 3,686,400-pixel threshold; “Other” (3.26%) left unclassified.
- Weighted average megapixels: share-weighted mean of listed resolutions, renormalized to the 96.77% of users with a listed resolution.
- Display Headroom Gap: 12GB+ VRAM share minus 1440p-class-or-higher display share, both from the same Valve survey month.
- CPI changes: simple ratio of index levels (not seasonally adjusted).
Scope. Steam’s survey is opt-in and reflects Steam users, not every PC gamer; DHG compares two population shares and does not claim the same individual users sit in both groups. TrendForce counts brand shipments into channels, not consumer sell-through. The BLS series is U.S.-only and covers more than monitors. Declined calculations (IDC share applied to TrendForce totals; panel-maker shares) are published as retracted rows.
About This Dataset
What it contains: 139 rows covering OLED monitor shipments (2022 to 2030 forecast), quarterly reconstruction, brand shares by quarter, panel supply, Steam primary display resolution and VRAM shares (August 2026), U.S. CPI for computers and peripherals (August 2025 to August 2026), IDC gaming monitor share, the Display Headroom Gap, and declined calculations.
Format: UTF-8 CSV, one observation per row, with source organization, document, URL, retrieval date, primary-source flag and Axis-calculation flag on every row.
License: CC BY 4.0. Free to reuse with attribution.
Download: gaming-monitor-statistics-2026.csv
Cite This Page
APA: Axis Intelligence Research. (2026, September 27). Gaming monitor statistics 2026: OLED shipments, resolution share, prices and the Display Headroom Gap. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/gaming-monitor-statistics/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research. “Gaming Monitor Statistics 2026: OLED Shipments, Resolution Share, Prices and the Display Headroom Gap.” Axis Intelligence, 27 Sept. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/gaming-monitor-statistics/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research. “Gaming Monitor Statistics 2026: OLED Shipments, Resolution Share, Prices and the Display Headroom Gap.” Axis Intelligence, September 27, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/gaming-monitor-statistics/.
Gaming Monitor FAQ
Is 1080p still the most popular gaming resolution in 2026?
Yes. Valve’s August 2026 Steam Hardware Survey shows 50.52% of users on a 1920×1080 primary display, down 0.58 points from July. 1440p is second at 21.86% and rising. 1080p is losing share slowly but keeps a wide lead.
What share of PC gamers use a 4K monitor?
4.98% of Steam users ran a 3840×2160 primary display in August 2026, according to Valve. Adding every 1440p-class-or-higher format, including ultrawides and 2560×1600 laptop screens, Axis Intelligence Research counts 36.62% of the Steam base.
How fast are OLED gaming monitor sales growing?
TrendForce reports OLED monitor shipments grew 92% in 2025 to 2.735 million units and 98% year over year in Q2 2026. Axis Intelligence Research estimates H1 2026 shipments at about 2.04 million units, up 88.6% on H1 2025.
Which brand sells the most OLED monitors?
ASUS, with 23.1% of global OLED monitor shipments in Q2 2026, per TrendForce. Samsung is second at 13.1% and MSI third at 12.8%, only 0.3 points behind Samsung.
What is the Display Headroom Gap?
The Display Headroom Gap (DHG) is an Axis Intelligence Research metric: the share of Steam systems with 12GB+ VRAM minus the share running a 1440p-class or higher display. It stood at 12.53 percentage points in August 2026, signaling unmet demand for 1440p monitors.
Should I buy a 1440p monitor if my graphics card has 8GB of VRAM?
That depends on the games, but it is where most upgrade friction sits: 46.35% of Steam systems have 8GB of VRAM or less (Valve, August 2026). For many of those players, a 1440p or OLED monitor effectively requires a GPU upgrade first.
Are monitor prices rising in the U.S.?
The BLS CPI index for computers, peripherals and smart home assistants, which includes monitors, rose 8.43% year over year in August 2026, per an Axis Intelligence Research calculation from BLS data. The index is quality-adjusted and covers more than monitors.
Will OLED replace LCD gaming monitors?
Not soon. TrendForce forecasts OLED penetration of all monitors at 5.4% in 2028, up from 2.1% in 2025. OLED dominates the premium gaming tier, but LCD will remain the volume technology through the forecast period.