Data from Circana shows that wired headphones grew by 20% in the first six weeks of 2026, a stark contrast to the overall shrinking trend in the audio market.
Wired headphones are heavily influenced by popular culture. Photo: Shutterstock .
On the very day AirPods Max 2 officially went on sale, the keyword "wired headphones" topped the search rankings on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
According to a report by Circana, after five years of continuous sales decline, wired headphones began to recover in early 2025 with a 3% increase, accelerating to 10% in the second half of the year and surging to 20% in the first six weeks of 2026. Meanwhile, the overall Chinese headphone market declined by 6.9% in 2025, according to data from Lotu Technology. This marks the first time sales in this segment have declined since 2019.
The resurgence of wired headphones began in popular culture. K-pop idols, previously photographed at airports with AirPods Max, have now switched to more practical devices. Actor Jacob Elordi, famous for his role in Wuthering Heights, is frequently seen on the streets wearing wired headphones. At New York Fashion Week 2025, singer Dove Cameron wore wired headphones as a hair accessory, helping her gain public attention.
Interestingly, most of the headphones appearing in the celebrities' street style photos are simple white headphones, most likely Apple's EarPods. The white EarPods were originally designed for use with iPods in the 2000s and became a cultural icon through advertising campaigns.
However, fashion trends are only part of the resurgence of wired headphones. This type of product has always been highly valued for its practicality. Currently, Bluetooth connections with computers are still unstable. Even AirPods experience unexpected disconnections when used with a Mac, while some headphones automatically turn on the microphone when connected to a computer, reducing sound quality.
For gamers, wired headphones are still clearly better thanks to the microphone being placed closer to the mouth, providing good sound pickup, and requiring no additional configuration.
The wireless headphone market is going through a natural saturation phase. After a period of rapid growth, most users own at least one pair. Upgrading to a newer model is no longer compelling enough. Therefore, users are starting to revert to wired headphones due to their advantages of being lag-free, not requiring charging, and not being dependent on any specific ecosystem.