sandalwood

Core summary

China is both the “world factory” and the “brand high ground” for global esports peripherals. According to Sandalwood’s Global E-commerce Monitor (China data, through H1 2026), under the convergence of three forces — PC-gaming recovery, esports expansion, and a hardware replacement cycle — China’s e-commerce desktop esports equipment market is shifting from “scale expansion” to “structural upgrade.” This report breaks down the transition — driven jointly by supply chain, channels, technology, and users — across three dimensions: overall market, brand landscape, and development trends.

Note: Based on Sandalwood’s China E-commerce Desktop Esports Equipment Market Insights (26H1).

01 Market size, pricing & channels: a structural shift

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

Overall market. Gamers’ spending logic is quietly changing. Where a high-performance gaming laptop once anchored any upgrade, today a magnetic-axis keyboard, a pair of FPS-tuned headsets, or a lightweight wireless mouse has become the “experience upgrade” players will pay real money for.

Per Sandalwood monitoring, full-year 2025 sales of China’s e-commerce desktop esports equipment (laptops / headsets / keyboards / mice) reached about 74.43 million units/pairs — up from 52.83 million over the past three-plus years. In H1 2026, total desktop esports equipment sales dipped slightly, mainly because esports laptops fell more than 25% YoY, while peripheral categories were largely flat YoY. Notably, the category mix now stands at 1 computer : 4.6 headsets : 5 keyboards : 7 mice.

Pricing: costs pull left, value pulls right. The four core products’ price trends reflect two logics:

• Esports laptops rose “passively” — hit directly by rising memory/storage prices and GPU costs; ASPs are up about 8%–22% YoY across the board as brands absorb cost pressure.
• Keyboards saw the sharpest “active upgrade” — average prices rose from ~RMB250 to ~RMB330 (over 30%), driven mainly by magnetic-axis and similar technologies; players pay a premium for a competitive edge.
• Headsets saw a “moderate experience upgrade” — from ~RMB190 to ~RMB210 (~10%), as players pay for better sound, noise cancellation, and virtual surround.
• Mice show “structural divergence” — high-end models stay pricey, but heavy shipments of value-for-money products pull the average down.

Channels: JD.com holds the base; incremental growth flows to Douyin and Pinduoduo. The platform landscape is splitting into “decision-oriented vs. scenario-driven”: JD.com holds the quality mind-share base for 3C (computers, communications, consumer electronics), while incremental categories accelerate their migration to Douyin and Pinduoduo.

• Decision-oriented (high-ticket, parameter-heavy) categories rely on JD.com’s trust mind-share;
• Scenario-driven (low-ticket, content-heavy) categories leverage Douyin’s and Pinduoduo’s traffic and content ecosystems to scale fast.

Full-stack brand landscape: ROG covers all categories; MCHOSE leads peripherals. Across the “full-stack” dimension (a single brand spanning esports laptops and multiple peripherals), ROG covers every category, while MCHOSE, ATK, and Razer have built moats in peripherals. In the pure-peripheral “full stack” (headsets, mice, and keyboards — no obvious weak spot), the brand landscape is stable and consolidating, with MCHOSE firmly first.

02 Competition across the four categories & the rise of domestic brands

Different esports products compete “differently.” By category, Chinese brands have built differentiated advantages, forming an overall pattern of “differentiated competition.”

Esports laptops — “three giants + five challengers”; mid-to-high-end competition is white-hot. Concentration is high, in a “three giants + five challengers” pattern, with fierce mid-to-high-end rivalry. As in smartphones, laptops were hit hard by the memory/storage price surge, with ASPs up 8%–22% YoY. Lenovo and LECOO form a cross-complement (Lenovo’s share falling as LECOO’s rises), while ASUS and MECHREVO controlled average-price increases and still gained share.

Esports headsets — “2+2+N”; MCHOSE rises in both volume and value. Low concentration coexists with high churn, and the window for newcomers is narrowing. MCHOSE is rising in both volume and value with a pronounced product-upgrade effect; XIBERIA is losing share but raising its average price; international brands such as HyperX and Razer are losing share and retreating to the high end; structural opportunities remain in the ultra-premium segment.

Esports keyboards — “3+2+N”; domestic dominance is strongest. This is the peripheral category where Chinese brands’ dominance is strongest — domestic brands have fully taken over the mid-range and entry level. MCHOSE, AULA, and EWEADN lead the mainstream price segments, while ROG and IQUNIX are rising in both volume and value as high-end lines — there is still room for a mid-to-high-end breakthrough.

Esports mice — “2+1+N”; domestic brands’ average prices climb. Logitech dominates the mid-to-high-end lines and Razer owns the high end; MCHOSE, ATK, and Rapoo perform well in the sub-mid-range. Domestic brands’ average prices are broadly rising, upgrading from “under RMB100” to “over RMB100.”

Top models in the RMB100+ segment: Chinese brands lead. Among the top models priced above RMB100, Chinese brands such as MCHOSE, AULA, and XIBERIA hold the top spots across categories — especially headsets and keyboards; Logitech remains strong in mice.

03 Growth engines: premiumization, technology & channel divergence

Structural growth emerges. Overall, the market shows three traits: structural growth emerging, divergence across channels/platforms/price segments intensifying, and technology standards leaping forward comprehensively.

Esports laptops: premiumization is irreversible; RMB10,000 is the watershed. Rising memory/storage prices have pushed laptops into a structural upgrade cycle, with RMB10,000 as the watershed. Shares of R9 processors, 240+Hz refresh rates, and 16GB + 1024GB (RAM + storage) configurations keep rising.

Esports headsets: sub-RMB100 shrinks; RMB300+ doubles. Headsets are moving from “hearing sound” to “hearing the experience.”

• RMB300+ is doubling;
• over-ear models exceed 70%;
• penetration is rising for ≥53mm driver units, wireless, fast charging, and multi-device switching;
• the share of cooling, breathable materials is up 15 percentage points.

Esports keyboards: sub-RMB300 shrinks; magnetic-axis drives tech competition. The sub-RMB300 segment keeps shrinking and RMB300+ is the growth opportunity. Magnetic/optical switches, aluminum alloy, Rapid Trigger, and RGB color-shifting are driving the category from “value-for-money competition” toward “technology-parameter competition,” with the RMB600+ segment growing notably.

Esports mice: sub-RMB100 remains the base; RMB300+ is the engine. Mice have entered a three-dimensional competition era of “lightweight + high polling rate + wireless.” Sub-RMB100 is still the base, but RMB300+ is the real growth engine; PAW3950/3395-series sensors have become mainstream in the mid-to-high end, and the share of mice under 60g is up 11 percentage points.

What’s driving the transition

Today’s transition in China’s esports peripheral industry is driven by four forces:

• Supply: the global peripheral supply chain is highly concentrated in China, with unmatched cost and efficiency advantages.
• Channels: e-commerce and social media let new brands reach massive user bases at high efficiency, enabling “hero-product-driven” growth.
• Technology: domestic brands are no longer content with “low-price substitution” but achieve “leapfrog competition” through core-technology innovation.
• Users: the gaming industry’s user base underpins a vast demand pool, with PC gaming’s growth and the scale of hardware replacement forming dual support.

Going forward, China’s desktop esports market will see more quality brands emerge, continually injecting fresh growth momentum.

Data source: Sandalwood Global E-commerce Monitor (China data, through H1 2026). Shared for discussion; for industry reference only.