sandalwood

Key Takeaways

China's keyboard and mouse market has entered a stage of replacement-driven, structural upgrading: in January–July 2026, unit sales declined year on year, but ASP rose more than 10% for both categories, and the premium market above RMB 500 grew markedly.

Keyboards and mice are upgrading along different paths: keyboards use magnetic switches and Rapid Trigger (RT) to sharpen trigger precision and response, while mice renew through tri-mode connectivity, high polling rates and lightweight builds. Expanding scenarios — esports, office, creation and desk setups — keep unlocking the categories' consumer value.

01 China's keyboard and mouse market enters the installed-base replacement stage

The keyboard and mouse market has entered a stage of installed-base replacement and structural upgrading

With PCs entering their own replacement stage, the logic of keyboard and mouse consumption is changing.

Esports keeps raising the performance bar for peripherals, working from home and multi-device workflows broaden usage scenarios, and desk-setup culture plus a maturing domestic supply chain further strengthen the categories' personalization and consumer appeal.

Keyboards and mice are shifting from 'accessories bought along with a PC' to standalone consumer-electronics products serving esports, office work, creation and personal desktop experiences.

Sandalwood's China e-commerce monitoring shows that in January–July 2026, online keyboard sales in China fell 16% year on year by volume and 4% by value, while ASP rose 14%; for mice, volume slipped 5%, value grew 4%, and ASP climbed 10%.

Overall, the keyboard and mouse market has entered a stage of installed-base replacement and structural upgrading. Baseline demand has stabilized and the first-time-user dividend is fading, but esports performance, office productivity and personalized experiences keep creating new replacement demand.

02 Premium segments above RMB 500 accelerate

Higher price bands are growing clearly faster

The price-band mix further evidences the market's upgrade. The volume base for keyboards and mice still sits below RMB 500, but higher price bands are growing clearly faster.

In January–July 2026, the RMB 100–300 band remained keyboards' largest at a 46% share, down 24% year on year; the RMB 500–1,000 and above-RMB 1,000 bands held 8% and 5% shares, up 15% and 28% respectively.

Mice skew even more toward the low end. Products under RMB 100 take about 70% of volume but fell 8% year on year; the RMB 500–1,000 band holds just a 6% share yet grew 6%; above RMB 1,000 the share is only 1%, with volume up 33%.

Overall, products above RMB 500 carry most of the performance upgrading and scenario premiums, and are becoming the main opportunity for structural upgrading and brands' push upmarket.

03 Magnetic switches and RT keep penetrating; keyboard competition shifts from mechanical feel to trigger experience

Magnetic switches and RT are turning products toward 'trigger-experience competition'

The core change in the keyboard market: magnetic switches and RT are moving products from 'mechanical-feel competition' to 'trigger-experience competition'.

In January–July 2026, magnetic-switch keyboards lifted their volume share from 20% to 26%, up 8% year on year; RT keyboards rose from 18% to 24%, up 11%. Against an overall market down 16% by volume, magnetic switches and RT kept growing — now key technologies driving keyboard replacement.

Esports led this trend. FPS and rhythm games demand faster actuation, more efficient release and sustained rapid input — requirements that the fixed actuation of traditional mechanical switches struggles to meet.

Magnetic switches use sensors to read key travel continuously and support customizable actuation points, making input more sensitive and precise; RT judges actuation and release dynamically from the key's direction of motion, shortening the response distance in rapid sequences. Together, they are moving keyboards from traditional mechanical-contact devices into a performance race driven by sensors, algorithms and software tuning.

And as the technology spreads into mainstream price bands, magnetic switches and RT could extend from professional esports into everyday office work and creation.

04 Tri-mode, high polling rates and lightweighting drive mouse replacement

Competition shifts further toward response speed and handling

Mice are relatively mature in basic functionality; replacement is driven mainly by performance gains — lightweighting, low latency, sensors and comfort.

By connectivity, wireless mice account for roughly 70% of volume — wireless is now the standard — while tri-mode mice are today's clearer growth point, with volume share rising from 18% to 22%, up 18% year on year.

Beyond wired connections, 2.4GHz and Bluetooth support multi-device switching, improving mice's fit for esports, office and mobile-work scenarios.

With wireless now ubiquitous, competition has shifted further toward response speed and handling.

8000Hz mice lifted their share from 11% to 16%, up 39% year on year; lightweight products also grew quickly, with 59g mice's volume up 64%.

By contrast, some traditional weight classes such as 60–100g declined 10%–20% year on year, as lighter builds accelerate the replacement of conventional weights. Mouse upgrading, then, is not about any single spec: polling rate, sensor, wireless latency, weight and shell feel together determine a high-performance mouse's competitiveness.

Conclusion:

Overall, China's keyboard and mouse market is evolving from PC accessories into experience-driven consumer electronics. Keyboards are migrating the technology mix through magnetic switches and RT; mice are upgrading performance through higher polling rates and lighter builds. Esports, office, creation and desk-setup scenarios together expand the categories' value — and give brands new room to stretch into the mid-to-high-end market.