This is the largest quarterly shipment decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s.

For the year, PC shipments reached 286.2 million units in 2022, a 16.2% decrease from 2021.

Higher PC inventory levels started building in the first half of 2022 and have become a bottleneck for the PC market.


Low PC supply caused by high demand and supply chain disruptions through 2021 quickly turned into an excess of supply once demand quickly and significantly slowed.

The top three vendors in the worldwide PC market remained unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2022, with Lenovo maintaining the No. 1 spot in shipments (see Table 1).

Table 1. Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q22 (Thousands of Units)

Company 4Q22 Shipments 4Q22 Market Share (%) 4Q21 Shipments 4Q21 Market Share (%) 4Q22-4Q21 Growth (%)
Lenovo 15,663 24.0 21,933 24.0 -28.6
HP Inc. 13,216 20.2 18,646 20.4 -29.1
Dell 10,884 16.7 17,280 18.9 -37.0
Apple  7,011 10.7 7,807 8.6 -10.2
ASUS 4,876 7.5 6,078 6.7 -19.8
Acer 3,589 5.5 6,104 6.7 -41.2
Others 10,051 15.4 13,447 14.7 -25.3
Total 65,292 100.0 91,296 100.0 -28.5

Notes: Data includes desktop and laptop PCs that are equipped with Windows, macOS and Chrome OS.

Source: Gartner (January 2023)

While Lenovo maintained 24% market share, the company experienced its steepest decline since Gartner started tracking the PC market. Lenovo’s shipments fell in all regions except in Japan, declining over 30% in EMEA and Latin America.

HP and Dell also experienced historically steep declines. HP was hit hardest in the EMEA market, where shipments decreased 44% year-over-year. For Dell, weak demand in the large business market impacted shipments in the second half of 2022.

Regional Overview

The U.S. PC market declined 20.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022, registering its sixth straight quarter of shipment decline. Echoing the trend of the global PC market, both consumer and business PC spending slowed due to economic conditions.

“Even as vendors offered deep PC discounts during the holiday season in an attempt to lower inventory, consumers were not swayed to spare their money,” said Kitagawa.

HP took over the top spot in the U.S. PC market based on shipments with 26.8% market share. Dell followed with 23.4% of the U.S. PC market share (see Table 2).

Table 2. Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q22 (Thousands of Units)

Company 4Q22 Shipments 4Q22 Market Share (%) 4Q21 Shipments 4Q21 Market Share (%) 4Q22-4Q21 Growth (%)
HP Inc. 4,582 26.8 5,380 25.0 -14.8
Dell 4,005 23.4 5,925 27.5 -32.4
Apple 2,936 17.2 3,030 14.1 -3.1
Lenovo 2,387 14.0 3,147 14.6 -24.2
ASUS 954 5.6 906 4.2 5.3
Acer 729 4.3 1,125 5.2 -35.1
Others 1,511 8.8 2,001 9.3 -24.5
Total 17,104 100.0 21,513 100.0 -20.5

The EMEA PC market had a historical decline of 37.2% year over year, due to the intersection of political unrest, inflationary pressures, interest rate increases and a pending recession.

The Asia Pacific market excluding Japan declined 29.4% year-over-year, mainly due to the market in China. While the fourth quarter has traditionally been peak season for China’s business PC market, budget cuts by the Chinese government and uncertainty around changing COVID policies led to a significant drop in overall PC demand.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 286.2 million units in 2022, a 16.2% decrease from 2021 and the worst annual shipment decline in Gartner’s PC tracking history (see Table 3).

Table 3. Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2022 (Thousands of Units)

Company 2022 Shipments 2022 Market Share (%) 2021 Shipments 2021 Market Share (%) 2022-2021 Growth (%)
Lenovo 68,997 24.1 83,449 24.4 -17.3
HP Inc. 55,558 19.4 74,181 21.7 -25.1
Dell 50,007 17.5 59,560 17.4 -16.0
Apple 27,911 9.8 26,944 7.9 3.6
Asus 20,662 7.2 21,634 6.3 -4.5
Acer 18,708 6.5 24,256 7.1 -22.9
Others 44,353 15.5 51,703 15.1 -14.2
Total 286,197 100.0 341,727 100.0 -16.2