‘Defying common wisdom’, people have been buying more high-end graphics cards despite rising prices, with 12.5 million shipped last quarter alone
The consumer GPU market has defied market expectations with robust sales despite rising prices. According to John Peddie Research’s latest analysis, 12.5 million high-end graphics cards shipped last quarter alone, with Nvidia maintaining a commanding 90% market share despite a marginal 0.01% quarterly decrease.
This resilience in consumer demand is particularly striking given Nvidia’s significant strategic reorientation toward the data centre market. In Q2 2026, Nvidia’s data centre segment generated $89 billion in revenue, representing 93% of the company’s total quarterly earnings. Gaming has consequently become a secondary priority for the semiconductor giant.
Despite this corporate shift away from consumer gaming, Nvidia continues to dominate graphics card sales, suggesting strong underlying demand for high-performance GPU hardware. The sales figures appear to contradict conventional assumptions about consumer price sensitivity in gaming hardware markets, indicating either sustained enthusiasm from gaming enthusiasts or emerging demand from alternative applications such as AI and machine learning workloads.