Huge 97-inch TVs have never been more popular – and here’s why
- The market for TVs larger than 97 inches has grown by almost 900%
- Slightly more modest TVs will also sell well in 2024
- Growth is driven by falling prices and post-pandemic upgrades
The market for large TVs over 97 inches has become bigger than the bill for our Black Friday impulse purchases. According to a new report, it has increased by a whopping 877% in just one year, compared to a slightly less stratospheric 19% for TVs larger than 75 inches.
The startling statistics from market research agency Cicana, reported by CNNconfirm that there is one important reason for the rocket growth: large TVs are finally becoming much cheaper.
As the report states, those big TVs are 53% cheaper than they were this time last year. Hence the rapid growth: the slower growth of the 75-to-96-inch market is likely due to much smaller price declines of a relatively tight 6%.
In other words, people who previously wanted a very large TV could not afford it. And they can now increasingly do that, but the market is not becoming more affordable across the board.
Why are large TVs getting cheaper?
As always in the TV market, some technology is cheaper than others. For large TVs, that technology is LCD: most names in large TVs offer models with relatively affordable VA LCD panels, which have fallen in price even at the largest sizes.
Price declines have been slower thanks to more complex technology. That’s why the very largest OLED TVs and micro-LED TVs are still much more expensive than their VA LCD siblings. It will probably remain that way for a while.
There’s another reason for the market growth: Cicada thinks many people are buying big TVs to replace the ones they bought during the Covid pandemic.
Paul Gagnon, vice president of consumer technology at Circana, said: “The strong growth trend for ultra-large TVs is consistent with the increase in sales of 65-inch TVs between 2018 and 2020, which consumers will now begin replacing in five to six years.” later, in line with what our research suggests, this is the most common replacement interval.”
That’s a trend the company expects to continue into 2025 and beyond. In other words, your long-held wish to buy a truly enormous TV has officially been fulfilled.
