2026 H1 China Desktop Esports Equipment Market Insight Report

Foreword

China’s desktop esports equipment market — gaming laptops, headsets, keyboards, and mice — is going through an industry-wide transition, and Chinese brands are rising fast.

From 2023 to 2025, sales of desktop esports equipment on China’s e-commerce platforms grew from 52.83 million units to 74.43 million. Gamers’ purchase logic is shifting from “upgrading the PC” to “upgrading peripherals” — the mouse is now the baseline essential, while keyboards and headsets are the priority upgrades for a better experience.

Drawing on its China e-commerce monitoring data — spanning JD.com, Tmall, Pinduoduo, and Douyin — Sandalwood has systematically studied the four core categories: gaming laptops, headsets, keyboards, and mice. The 2026 H1 China Desktop Esports Equipment Market Insight Report will be released shortly. Below are selected highlights.

01 From “upgrading the PC” to “upgrading peripherals”

Money is flowing from “changing the computer” to “changing the gear.”

In 2025, total desktop esports equipment sales grew 21% year on year. In 2026 H1, sales reached 33.95 million units, down slightly year on year.

Gaming laptops — squeezed by rising memory prices and a tighter national subsidy program — saw both volume and value contract: sales down 25% YoY and revenue down 16% YoY. Gaming peripherals held volume flat while value rose 7% YoY.

The shift in attach ratios is even more telling: in 2026 H1, for every gaming laptop sold, gamers also bought 4.60 headsets, 5.01 keyboards, and 7.12 mice. Peripherals are growing far faster than gaming laptops themselves — clear evidence that players’ wallets are moving from “changing the PC” to “changing the gear.”

Behind this shift is a relay of blockbuster titles from the upstream game industry, each one a fresh catalyst:

CS2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 drove upgrades in CPUs, memory, and basic keyboards and mice;
Black Myth: Wukong ignited a replacement wave for professional gaming laptops and full-line peripherals;
Battlefield 6 and Delta Force pushed the popularization of magnetic-switch keyboards, lightweight mice, and FPS-specific headsets.

02 Four categories, four different price curves

Price moves are driven by two forces: cost pressure and trading up.

Cost pressure: gaming laptops rose from RMB 7,520 in 2023 to RMB 10,079, up 34%, with a notable jump in March 2026. This is passive price inflation — rising memory-chip and GPU costs that brands are absorbing.

Trading up: keyboards climbed from RMB 250 to RMB 326, up over 30%. This is an active upgrade — as magnetic-switch technology penetrates, players willingly pay a higher premium for a “competitive edge.”

Headsets edged up from about RMB 195 to about RMB 212, up 9% — a gentle premium for a better experience, as players pay for better sound, noise cancellation, and virtual surround.

Mice showed volatile average prices overall: high-end models kept prices elevated and lifted the average during major promotions, but a flood of value-for-money shipments pulled the overall average back down. The mouse is the textbook case of “structural divergence.”

03 Category defines the channel increment; channels feed product-structure upgrades

The four major e-commerce platforms each play a distinct role, and the platform landscape is undergoing structural change.

JD.com holds a steady 60%+ share of gaming laptops — the absolute bedrock — and leads gaming mice with a 43% share.

But incremental growth is migrating to Douyin and Pinduoduo, and category attributes set the pace: considered-purchase categories (gaming laptops) stay on JD, while scenario-driven and impulse categories (headsets, keyboards, mice) penetrate Douyin and Pinduoduo faster.

The four platforms each have their job: JD holds the mid-to-high-end, Douyin builds hype for breakout products, Tmall runs the brand flagships, and Pinduoduo drives volume in lower-tier markets.

04 Gaming laptops settle into a “Big Three + Top Five”; Chinese peripheral brands rise

Gaming laptops: concentration keeps climbing. Lenovo, ASUS, and MECHREVO — the Big Three — together hold about 75% of sales by volume.

Lenovo’s average price rose 22% even as its share slipped 7 percentage points — a deliberate push upmarket. ASUS and MECHREVO grew in both volume and price, picking up the share Lenovo ceded. As Lenovo moves up and ASUS and MECHREVO crowd into the middle, gaming laptops are shifting from “Lenovo alone on top” to a “three-way stand-off.”

Peripherals tell a very different competitive story:

Gaming headsets — low concentration coexists with high churn. Xiberia holds #1 with a 12% share, while MCHOSE has doubled from 6% to 11% and is closing fast. The window for new entrants is narrowing, but a structural opportunity remains in the ultra-high-end.
Gaming keyboards — the peripheral category where Chinese brands dominate most. AULA and MCHOSE, the dual leaders, together take a third, and domestic brands have fully taken over the mid-range and entry level.
Gaming mice — Logitech holds the fort with a 22% share, while Chinese brands’ average prices are generally climbing, upgrading from “under RMB 100” to “over RMB 100.”

05 Three technology storylines converge on the same destination

Gaming peripherals are entering a qualitatively new era of across-the-board technical upgrades:

Headsets are “getting bigger” — in 2026 H1 vs. 2025 H1, the share of large driver units (53mm and above) rose from 18% to 32%.
Keyboards are “changing shape” — the share of magnetic/optical switches rose 8 pp, and adoption of related specs like Rapid Trigger, aluminum-alloy bodies, and RGB all climbed.
Mice are “getting faster” — the share of dual-8K specs (8KHz polling rate and DPI) rose, and wireless adoption climbed 7 pp.

This sweeping upgrade in the technical standards of gaming peripherals is redrawing the baseline of every gaming experience.

The full report will be available via the “Sandalwood Zitan Insights” official account.

The 2026 China Desktop Esports Equipment Market Insight Report will be released shortly, covering:

Overall market: the trajectory of the desktop esports equipment market, the evolution of attach ratios, and a breakdown of the drivers.
Brand landscape: the gaming-laptop “Big Three + Top Five” structure and a deep dive into the competitive landscape of the four peripheral categories.
Development trends: structural shifts across price tiers in the four categories, platform-by-platform differentiation, and the technology-standard upgrade roadmap.
Industry transition: supply chain × channel × technology × user — a four-engine growth logic.