Thanks to the pandemic’s work- and learn-from-home requirements, PC sales rose 8.43 percent in the third quarter year-over-year (YOY) to 73.1 million units.

As always, the numbers here represent an average of data provided by both Gartner and IDC.

“This quarter had the strongest consumer PC demand that Gartner has seen in five years,” Gartner’s Mikako Kitagawa said. “The market is no longer being measured in the number of PCs per household; rather, the dynamics have shifted to account for one PC per person.”

“Consumer demand and institutional demand approached record levels in some cases,” IDC’s Jitesh Ubrani agreed. “Gaming, Chromebooks, and in some cases cellular-enabled notebooks were all bright spots during the quarter. Had the market not been hampered by component shortages, notebook shipments would have soared even higher during the third quarter as market appetite was yet unsatiated.”

Lenovo again emerged as the biggest PC maker by volume, having sold 18.8 million units, a record, and hitting 25.7 percent marketshare. HP was number two, with 17 million units, and Dell was in third place with 11.4 million units sold. Apple came in fourth place with 6.2 million units sold, giving the Mac 8.48 percent marketshare. Of the five biggest PC makers, only Dell didn’t experience double-digit growth.

As most readers probably know, PC sales fell for seven straight years before experiencing a barely-measurable growth of 1.9 percent in calendar year 2019. PC sales were expected to fall in 2020, 2021, and 2022, but thanks to COVID-19, we’ve seen a temporary respite in the decline. Last quarter, PC sales rose by 7.1 percent. So it’s reasonable to think we’re going to see a net sales gain for the full year as well.