Worldwide PC shipments have plummeted by over 20%, to the surprise of absolutely no one

IDC Research has released its figures regarding worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter of 2026, and would you believe it, they've dropped considerably. Looking at the year-over-year numbers, the shipped units dropped from 78.5 million in Q3 2025, to 62.7 million in Q3 of this year. That's a 20.1% plummet, for percentage fans.

But why, I hear you asking. Actually, I don't. The memory and supply chain crisis, driven by AI server demand is pinpointed by the IDC as the primary driver of the decline, which will come as no surprise to those of us in non-rock-based abodes.

However, it's worth looking a bit deeper into exactly what's happened here. The "pull-in" of stock created by vendors buying up supply in the first half of this year (in anticipation of the forecasted price hikes) has essentially borrowed volume from the second half, according to the report. As a result, this boosted the early year shipments and "left Q3 starved of demand."

"The result is a broken seasonal pattern: the third quarter is normally larger than the second, and this year it fell short," says the IDC. It's bad out there folks—and this report predicts that things might get gloomier for the industry in the near future.

"Channel concern over high inventory and soft demand at elevated prices could bring promotions in the near term, but pricing will stay well above year-ago levels," the report continues. "The bigger risk is macro: conditions have worsened since last quarter, and a weaker economic backdrop could push demand lower and darken the outlook for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027"

I love writing good news stories. It's a shame I don't get a whole lot of them these days. My heart almost leapt when I read this quote from IDC research director Jitesh Ubrani: "Channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand. That could translate into promotions and some short-term relief for consumers..."

Then dropped again at the second half of the sentence: "... but we don’t expect pricing anywhere near what it was a year ago. Prices will remain elevated. With macro conditions worsening, the risk is that the outlook for the next few quarters gets worse before it gets better."

Anyway, the report also points out that this economic pain was not felt evenly, as Lenovo, HP, and Dell fell faster than the market and collectively lost 4.2 points of share, with HP being the hardest hit, dropping from 19.1% to 16.5%.

Lenovo is still the biggest shipper of PCs overall, though, and the three companies keep their same positions in the rankings as they did this time last year, with HP coming in second and Dell in third. In fourth position is Apple, which has also seen an 11.3% drop in growth, and in fifth place comes Asus, with its own growth figures dropping by 8.6%.

Well, I don't think any of us can say we're shocked to hear this news. With the crisis continually predicted to worsen from those in the know, (like Micron's CEO, who recently took the opportunity to ram that point home over and over again), it looks like PC pricing is screwed for a while to come yet. "Promotions are possible," the report handily sums up. "However, prices are expected to remain elevated and well above where they were at the same time last year."

In a totally unrelated question, did you buy a PC recently, and are you interested in letting it go for a reasonable sum? Asking for a friend. No pressure, take your time, I can wait here, etc, etc. Got any spare memory modules while we're at it?