Why Curved TVs Failed But Curved Gaming Monitors Thrived

The Immersive Experience of Large Format Screens

The notion of gaining immersion with large curved screens isn't anything new. We've seen it for decades in IMAX theaters and other large format screens, like the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. It's easy to feel drawn into The Odyssey when you're sitting very close to a concave 65-foot tall screen. However, there's a big difference between those massive theaters and a 55- to 65-inch flat panel in your living room, which is likely six to ten feet away from your couch.

Unless you were lucky enough to have a 78-inch curved set and sat fairly close, it was simply hard to replicate the sense of immersion from theaters. And even those large TVs, which were very rare, were still surrounded by everything else in your living room. You can't exactly get lost in The Lord of the Rings if your TV is surrounded by decorations, family photos and pets eager for your attention.

The Sweet Spot Problem of Curved LCD TVs

Curved LCD TVs had a limited sweet spot directly in the middle of their viewing angle, but once you drifted away from that, you instantly lost contrast and color saturation. If you were to watch Game of Thrones' infamously dark night scenes while sitting off-center from a curved TV, you'd likely have a hard time making out anything happening. (Curved OLED TVs didn't have the same sweet spot problem, but they were also typically more expensive than standard OLEDs.)

Manufacturing and Mounting Issues

According to Dipin Sehdev, founder and CEO of the consumer electronics aggregator CE Critic, it wasn't just viewers taking issue with curved TVs. "I remember hearing from manufacturers that they were a pain to manufacture at scale," he said in an interview. "It's one thing to do a 30- or 32-inch TV, but when you start to get to 55, 65, or even 75-inch curved TVs, they were very difficult to manufacture and ship and keep the uniformity as best as they can." Even enormous companies like Samsung can only justify manufacturing losses for so long.

The Success of Curved Gaming Monitors

It's no wonder why curved gaming monitors took off. Since they're usually meant for a single viewer, their central viewing sweet-spot was a feature, not a bug. We also sit much closer to our monitors, so a 27-inch or 32-inch curved gaming screen can feel genuinely more immersive than a 65-inch TV that you're sitting far away from. Curved gaming screens also serve a very functional purpose: They put more of the screen within your direct view, so you don't have to crane your neck to see the far edges of the screen. That's particularly useful for online shooters, where you could easily die if you spent an extra half-second noticing someone flanking you from the side.