Report: Rising demand for gaming accessories
May 21, 2021
The gaming headset and accessories market saw exceptionally strong growth during the 2020 pandemic; interest in gaming reached fever pitch, with consumers locked down in need of entertainment and socialisation. Futuresource Consulting predicts that 2021 will generate over $4.6 billion from gaming headsets, speakers, mice and keyboards globally.
“The gaming fever pitch that built up throughout the pandemic significantly boosted demand for gaming peripherals – especially headsets, with established brands such as Turtle Beach, Logitech, Razer, HyperX, Corsair and SteelSeries seeing a substantial uptick in demand” commented Morris Garrard, Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “The rapid growth of this category in recent years has encouraged the entrance of traditional audio vendors such as JBL, Bose, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, B&O and Audio Technica into the market, aiming to capitalise on the momentum building within the gaming industry by bringing lifestyle audio expertise to dedicated gaming solutions.”
Furthermore, according to the Futuresource report, this entrance of the traditional brands into gaming has highlighted the opportunity for product convergence, designing a single device to satisfy all audio use cases, as well as the opportunity for specialist gaming audio brands to branch out into other audio segments.
“There is an increasing overlap between gaming, office and lifestyle headsets, which has been accelerated by the pandemic” comments Garrard, “the transition to virtual work and schooling has meant that consumers are demanding more versatile solutions that can be used for numerous use cases, with vendors in these different verticals expected to benefit from a larger total addressable market moving forwards.”
This convergence is also impacting the features available on gaming headsets, with opportunities emerging within Gaming True Wireless for both traditional and gaming audio vendors alike. Another theme explored within the report is the arrival of active noise cancellation to premium gaming headsets and how this technology is expected to progress within gaming. The explosive growth of game streaming on websites such as Twitch and YouTube is also opening up opportunities for vendors across the audio spectrum within the microphone category.