Tech gadget market analysis company, Canalysreleased a recent report showing that the Q4 of the year 2022 wasn’t a good period for wearable tech as shipments were down by a massive 18%.

According to the report, there were about 50 million units of wearable gadgets shipped between the months of October and December.

Compared to the same period in the previous year, this was an 18% decline which the research firm said was the biggest decline since data was collected and analyzed.

In fact, all of the top five major smart wearable makers in the industry such as Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, and Google all saw a YoY decline in shipments during the holiday period.

Canalys quoted the “challenging macroeconomic environment in Q4” as the main reason for the decline across the board.

Although affected, Apple continued to lead the industry thanks to the impacts of its iPhone which also dominated the list of the top best-selling smartphones the same year.

Google’s Pixel Watch took a second position even though its subsidiary, Fitbit had a 25% decline in shipments.

Canalys splits the wearables into three categories – Basic band, basic watch, and smartwatch.

The differences between them are getting murkier with every new device, and Canalys said smartwatches would grow at around 10%; however, the decline in interest for basic bands would set the total wearables market at a modest 2% rise.