2023 saw a strong reversion to the mean for the loudspeaker market, where after 3 years of phenomenal growth induced by the COVID pandemic, demand came crashing down falling 13% to 11m units. Retail value did fare slightly better, falling 12.4% to hit $3.9bn. Despite these stark numbers, however, the loudspeaker market remains a healthy place in the medium to longer term. Indeed the market is in a far healthier situation than it was before COVID, with Futuresource estimating that approximately 2.5m extra loudspeakers were sold as a result of the pandemic.
Recent years have seen extremely high price rises in the loudspeaker market, but this also slowed down dramatically in 2023. With production costs stabilising, albeit at higher levels than pre-COVID, and shipping costs coming back to normal there has been less pressure on vendors forcing prices up. At the same time, the collapse in demand has driven more promotional activity.