As the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 kicks off in Las Vegas from January 7-10, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has projected that tech industry sales will reach $537 billion in 2025. This figure represents a 3.2% growth from the estimated $520 billion in 2024, following declines in both 2022 and 2023, where sales dropped by 2.6% and 2.7%, respectively, to $508 billion. The CTA anticipates that hardware sales will grow by 2.6%, while software and services are expected to see a more robust increase of 4.6% [ceaa5505].
This optimistic outlook comes despite warnings from the CTA regarding the potential impact of proposed tariffs by the Trump administration, which could diminish consumer purchasing power by an estimated $90 to $143 billion. The association highlighted that such tariffs could lead to significant declines in purchases of laptops (68%), gaming consoles (58%), and smartphones (37%) [ceaa5505].
In a related context, the global consumer electronics market is on a recovery trajectory, projected to reach a valuation of $1 trillion by 2026. This follows a challenging period marked by a $10 billion revenue decline since 2021 and a $42 billion drop in 2022. Notably, smartphone sales are projected to grow by 8%, reaching $521 billion by 2026, while the gaming sector is expected to see robust growth with sales anticipated to increase by 12% to $38.3 billion by 2029. Streaming devices are projected to experience a remarkable 40% increase, reaching nearly $17 billion by 2029 [06985edb].
Additionally, the global semiconductor market is projected to grow by 11.2%, reaching a record $697.18 billion by 2025, driven by the increasing demand for AI-powered smartphones and data centers. Logic semiconductors are expected to rise by 16.8% to $243.78 billion, while memory chips are forecasted to increase by 13.4% to $189.41 billion. The Americas are anticipated to see the largest growth at 15.4%, reaching $215.31 billion, followed by the Asia-Pacific region at 10.4% with $376.27 billion, and Europe at 3.3% with $53.74 billion [053f03fd].