How many IBM PCs were sold

Last Updated on March 9, 2026 by Dave Farquhar

When it comes to the question of how many IBM PCs were sold, the numbers I hear are all over the place. I’ve heard 3 million, 60 million, and several numbers in between. In this blog post, I’ll uncover the reason there are so many conflicting numbers.

But if I tell you IBM initially only expected to sell 1,000 units in its first six months after its August 12, 1981 release, you probably won’t believe me.

1980s analysis of how the IBM PC was selling

It’s not just the modern estimates of how many units IBM sold that are all over the place. The analysis of IBM PC sales from the period is kind of all over the place too. In the early 1980s, analysts were saying the IBM PC exceeded all of IBM’s expectations, pointing out IBM expected to sell 1,000 units in its first six months and sold 60 times that.

The computer market as a whole was growing fast. In 1982, Time observed computer sales doubled every year from 1980 to 1982.

On page 12 of the Oct 10, 1983 issue of Computerworld, I found an estimate from Hitech Software Engineering that IBM was selling 45,000 PCs per month.

Late in the decade, analysts were saying IBM PC sales started slow.

It’s possible for both of those things to be correct.

PC sales were much lower in 1981 than they were in 1986. Computer sales as a whole were also much lower in 1981 than in 1986. So if you look at 1981 numbers with 1986 expectations, IBM PC sales were slow. If you look at 1986 numbers with 1981 expectations, it was a success story for the ages. To an extent, the IBM PC became a victim of its own success. As its sales increased, expectations increased along with it.

Millions of these machines sold throughout the decade. But which million is the right number? To answer that, we have to define what an IBM PC is.

What is an IBM PC?

One of the reasons you find conflicting numbers is because people don’t necessarily all agree on what an IBM PC is. Are we just talking the original model 5150? Are we talking any IBM computer from the PC line manufactured from 1981 until March 1987 when IBM discontinued the previous models in favor of the PS/2? Or are we talking any PC made by IBM as well as the huge number of clones that existed?

The more broadly you define IBM PC, the larger the numbers get.

How many IBM PC 5150s sold

About 3.3 million IBM PC 5150s sold between 1981 and 1987. It can be useful to remember that IBM still had inventory when they discontinued this model, so if you see a slightly different number, that may be part of the reason.

Regardless, the 5150 was the best selling model in the original IBM PC line. It was the first, had the longest production run, and it was the least expensive.

It’s also means if you are in the market for a vintage IBM, you probably don’t want to pay a premium for a revision B IBM 5150. The early revision A models command a premium because fewer of them were made, and fewer of them survived. The early revisions could not be expanded to a full 640k of RAM, but topped out at 544K. As DOS grew more memory hungry, these early models proved less useful than a revision B 5150 or an XT, or a clone.

The late model revision B 5150 should not be worth a premium over a 5160 XT. Neither is rare. But between the two, the 5160 is the less common of the two, and with a bigger power supply and more expansion slots, it’s a better machine from a hobbyist point of view.

How many IBM PCs sold from the entire series?

Between the IBM PC, XT, AT, the portables, the PCjr, and the variations of all of the above, IBM sold about 7.4 million PCs before inventory ran out and the PS/2 was all IBM had left. Infoworld recorded a breakdown on the front page of its March 30, 1987 issue.

The 5150 was the best seller, followed by the 5160 XT with about 2.1 million units sold, the AT with about 900,000 units sold, the PCjr with 530,000 units sold, and the portables and other machines combining for about a million sales. That includes the curious model 5162 XT-286, which only managed to sell 15,000 units. I had no idea that machine was that rare.

The XT sold well, but not as well as IBM had hoped. For the slightly souped up PC/XT, IBM had lined up two suppliers of hard drives, Seagate and Miniscribe. When IBM had to cancel orders for drives, that caused financial problems for Miniscribe. IBM didn’t directly cause the Miniscribe brick debacle, but the slightly disappointing PC/XT sales helped set that train in motion.

How many IBM PS/2s sold?

Generally, people regard the IBM PS/2 as a failure. But IBM sold 3 million units in its first 18 months. The PS/2 line caused some hesitation initially because of the 3.5-inch floppy drives, but once IBM ran out of PCs, XTs, and ATs, the PS/2 sold reasonably well. This hesitation also created a nice window of opportunity for companies like Compaq. And they took it.

The problem for IBM was that PS/2 sales didn’t keep up with the growth of the industry, and I argue IBM didn’t realize it was in trouble until it was too late.

But the PS/2 was not a flop along the lines of the PCjr. IBM sold about 3.5 million PS/2s from 1987 to 1989. IBM’s profitability fell off in the 1990s, bottoming out in 1992.

IBM made some mistakes in this market, but calling IBM a failure at PCs is a misnomer.

How many IBM PCs and compatibles sold?

For this number, you have to define a time frame. Technically, IBM PC-compatible computers are still being sold.

But from 1981 to the end of 1989, approximately 60 million IBM PCs and compatibles sold. Sales generally trended upward over time, although economic conditions caused certain years to be disappointing.

I was able to find some information on the PC market in 1991 that I think is helpful. Using numbers in the US Industrial Outlook for 1992 on page 27-14, I was able to estimate that about 9 million PCs sold in 1991. Approximately 1/3 of those, or 3 million, were 386SX PCs. 386DX PCs lagged behind somewhat, accounting for somewhat less than 3 million. 286-based PCs slumped to 1.8 million because of the introduction of Windows 3.0 in May 1990. A modest 400,000 486 PCs sold, but that number would increase because prices were falling rapidly. 486 PCs were still very expensive in 1991. Finally, around 600,000 XT-class PCs somehow sold in 1991. Tandy infamously was still selling XT-class PCs that late, but they weren’t necessarily the only ones.

Knowing that 9 million PCs sold in 1991 gives us an idea of the trajectory for the 1980s. At a rate of 45,000 units per month, a little over half a million PCs sold in 1982. With an average of 7.5 million selling per year in the 1980s, that means 1989’s total had to be closer to 1991’s 9 million than to the average. With 1991 having been a recession year, it’s possible slightly more than 9 million sold in 1989.

Steamrolling the industry. Or not.

I recently watched a YouTube video that concluded with a statement along the lines of the IBM PC steamrolling the rest of the industry with 60 million units sold.

So hopefully this helps that figure make more sense. It sounded extremely high to me, until I realized he may have been counting clones with that number. For the PC plus clones, 60 million is indeed about right.

But I would like to add a little bit of context to that. Because I think some people overestimate how dominant the IBM PC was in the 1980s. During that approximate time frame, Commodore sold about 12 million Commodore 64 and 128 computers. Apple sold around 6 million Apple II computers. Atari sold about 4 million of its 8-bit computers. Texas Instruments sold 2.5 million of its computers. Throw in a couple million Atari ST, Amiga, and Macintosh computers each, and a couple million Tandy computers that were not IBM PC compatible, and a slightly different picture emerges. In the UK, Sinclair sold 5 million ZX Spectrums and 1.5 million ZX81s.

Collectively, the MSX sold at least 7 million units worldwide. So that brings us to 46 million machines, even without factoring in short-lived machines that sold half a million units each like the Coleco Adam.

The IBM PC compatible category had about 55 percent of the market in the 1980s. Maybe for some people, that constitutes steamrolling. But the rest of the industry did put up a fight.

Some people have the impression that the rest of the industry gave up in 1983 or 1984, and as someone who lived through it, I can tell you that’s not at all the case. Even PC Magazine said so. In the May 15, 1984 issue of PC Magazine, on page 52, Martin Porter called the IBM PC installed base “relatively small… compared to mass market machines like the Commodore 64 and Texas Instrument[s] TI-99/4A.” They couldn’t be bothered to spell the competition’s name right, but they still acknowledged its success.

So I hope this puts those widely varying sales figures in context.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.