The PC market saw a 9.6% growth in Q4 2025, driven by a buying spree prompted by the imminent memory crisis.
2025 Might Be The Last Good Year For the PC Market For A While, Up To 9.6% Growth In Q4 2025
IDC has released its latest report covering the global PC shipments for Q4 2025 and throughout 2025. The report shows that the PC market grew by 9.6% in Q4 2025, while the overall growth rate versus 2024 was up by 8.1%. These are solid figures, but the main jump came in the very last quarter, and there are a few important factors that led to this surprising bump.
The first reason cited is the end of Windows 10 support on PCs and the move to the new Windows 11 OS. This prompted a refresh cycle as several vendors brought up their new Windows 11 and Copilot-ready PC devices to the market. The second was to beat the looming tariffs, which had affected a majority of PCs and respective products throughout 2025, though those are in control as of right now since no major tariff bump has been announced in a while.
But the most important reason is that every PC vendor went into a major rush, pulling forward inventories to tackle the upcoming memory shortages and supply constraints. As we know, the DRAM market is in a huge mess right now, with the bulk of supply gobbled up by AI datacenters. This leaves little to no supply for the PC market, which caters to consumers. And it's not just DRAM; NAND-based SSDs and other components are also expected to see shortages and huge price hikes in the coming months, throughout 2026, and even up to 2028.
So PC vendors are left with no choice but to amass inventories right now and wait for the memory storm to pass. Though that's unlikely to help them out much, as prices across PCs are on the rise. Following is the full report from IDC:
Press Release: Global PC shipments grew 9.6% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025, reaching 76.4 million units, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. The results cap off a tumultuous year for the PC market, marked by the end of support for Windows 10, which drove a wave of upgrade demand, and early-year tariff concerns that prompted vendors to pull forward more inventory than originally planned. While the holiday season typically drives stronger demand, the surge in late 2025 was further amplified by emerging memory shortages that led buyers and brands to secure inventory ahead of anticipated price increases in 2026.
“IDC expects that the PC market will be far different in 12 months,ths given how quickly the memory situation is evolving,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, research vice-president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “Beyond the obvious pressure on prices of systems, already announced by certain manufacturers, we might also see PC memory specifications be lowered on average to preserve memory inventory on hand. The year ahead is shaping up to be extremely volatile.”
“Memory shortages are affecting the entire industry, and the impact will likely reshape market dynamics over the next two years,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “Large consumer electronics brands are well-positioned to leverage their scale and memory allocations to capture shares from smaller and regional vendors. However, the severity of the shortage raises the risk that smaller brands may not survive, and consumers, particularly DIY enthusiasts, may delay purchases or shift their spending to other devices or experiences.”
In addition to potential market share shifts, average selling prices (ASPs) are expected to rise in 2026 as vendors prioritize midrange and premium systems to offset higher component costs, especially memory. While total unit shipments may soften, overall market value is projected to increase as component suppliers, PC manufacturers, and channel partners adjust pricing to ensure they capture revenue opportunities amid anothsupply-constrainedned environment.
| Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Traditional PC Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q4 2025 (Preliminary results, shipments are in millions of units) | |||||
| Company | 4Q25 Shipments | 4Q25 Market Share | 4Q24 Shipments | 4Q24 Market Share | 4Q25/4Q24 Growth |
| 1. Lenovo | 19.3 | 25.3% | 16.9 | 24.2% | 14.4% |
| 2. HP Inc | 15.4 | 20.1% | 13.7 | 19.7% | 12.1% |
| 3. Dell Technologies | 11.7 | 15.3% | 9.9 | 14.2% | 18.2% |
| 4. Apple | 7.1 | 9.3% | 7.1 | 10.2% | 0.2% |
| 5. ASUS | 5.4 | 7.1% | 4.9 | 7.0% | 10.9% |
| Others | 17.4 | 22.8% | 17.2 | 24.7% | 1.5% |
| Total | 76.4 | 100.0% | 69.7 | 100.0% | 9.6% |
| Source: IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, January 12, 2026 | |||||
| Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Traditional PC Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, 2025 vs. 2024 (Preliminary results, shipments are in millions of units) | |||||
| Company | 2025 Shipments | 2025 Market Share | 2024 Shipments | 2024 Market Share | 2025/2024 Growth |
| 1. Lenovo | 70.8 | 24.9% | 61.8 | 23.5% | 14.5% |
| 2. HP Inc. | 57.5 | 20.2% | 53.0 | 20.1% | 8.4% |
| 3. Dell Technologies | 41.1 | 14.4% | 39.1 | 14.8% | 5.2% |
| 4. Apple | 25.6 | 9.0% | 23.0 | 8.7% | 11.1% |
| 5. Asus | 20.5 | 7.2% | 18.0 | 6.8% | 13.4% |
| Others | 69.3 | 24.3% | 68.3 | 25.9% | 1.4% |
| Total | 284.7 | 100.0% | 263.3 | 100.0% | 8.1% |
| Source: IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, January 12, 2026 | |||||
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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