Every year, we like to pause and take stock of the year's best-selling gear. What's hot? What's not? And how do this year's winners compare to previous bestsellers?
We'll be exploring different categories throughout the next few days—including guitars, pedals, amps, and recording equipment. Below, we're kicking things off with the best-selling electronic gear of 2022.
We take a few different looks at the electronic gear market: Our first list is a snapshot of the hottest-selling gear that was newly released in 2022, followed by a broad view of the entire electronic market (including synths, controllers, drum machines, and more). From there, we direct our attention to a few key subcategories as well.
Note: All rankings are determined by total order count—that is, the actual number of items sold, not the total price of sold items. Releases exclusive to Reverb are not reflected in these rankings. Because Reverb is home to individual sellers, independent brick-and-mortars, and makers alike, our rankings include all sales, whether brand new or used.
This best-selling list above looks at only those pieces of gear that were newly available in 2022. This leaves off some very big sellers—like Roland's SP-404MKII—that were released at the end of 2021, but we have included here the Korg ARP 2600M (which, while announced in 2021, did not become widely available for purchase until this year).
We invite you to draw your own conclusions about this best-selling list and all others we've created, but here are a few things that stand out:
- Of the two big analog-digital hybrid drum machines released this year—Elektron Syntakt and Korg Drumlogue—the Syntakt is the big winner so far. It had the benefit of being the first on our list, and the Drumlogue is still mostly available as a preorder, so there's no doubt that there'll be more Drumlogues in the coming months.
- Following a full decade of popularity for the original OP-1, Teenage Engineering's new OP-1 Field has been selling very well (ranking No. 4 on our list above). Despite its high price tag, the feature-rich mini workstation has outsold more limited, budget-friendly gear like Roland's AIRA compacts (the J-6, T-8, and E-4) and Behringer's "Modded Out" TD-3.
- Cre8audio—still a relatively new company—had a stellar run this year, launching two desktop synths (the East and West Beasts), and a uniquely useful Eurorack case (the NiftyKEYZ, which puts a keyboard controller and 112hp of space in one feature-packed unit). All of these found a spot in this Top 20 list.
The reigning champion—and a lightweight one at that—is still the original OP-1, which has now claimed the top spot for the fourth year straight (see our 2021, 2020, and 2019 lists) and strong showings before that.
The average used price of an OP-1 has been decreasing since early 2021, but especially after the announcement of the new OP-1 Field. So, even though there is a later, greater model, used OP-1s are more affordable now than they have been in years.
New to the list this year is Roland's incredible SP reissue, the SP-404MKII. First introduced late last year, it has been a consistent best-seller month after month ever since, and has been given numerous firmware updates in that time that keeps adding new features (not unlike the MicroFreak, which remains a top seller as well).
Other interesting things to note, all of which involve Korg products: The MicroKorg, which is celebrating its 20th year in production, is still a beloved synth for numerous reasons. The Korg SQ-64, released in 2020, has been selling well ever since Korg dropped its price by nearly 40% this fall. And we should note that the Opsix is absent from this list not because it didn't sell well in 2022, but because it was (very nearly) exclusive to Reverb through the Korg USA Warehouse Outlet, Korg's direct shop on Reverb.
While the Syntakt made a big splash among this year's newly released products, you can see in this overall drum machines and samplers list just how much room there is to grow. Established favorites like Elektron's own Digitakt, Model series, and Octatrack, Roland's latest 404 and the previous 404SX edition, the widening spread of Akai MPCs, from the modern One and Lives to long-discontinued MPC1000s—all of these beloved instruments make the Top 20 here, above the Syntakt.
For the sake of variety, we are leaving off the OP-1 from this drum machines and samplers list, but it is often used for its built-in sampler. If we did include it, rest assured it would be No. 1.
Last year, we compiled this list a little differently, looking at Eurorack modules alone—we're modifying it slightly this time to look at all modular and semi-modular synths. What's interesting is how similar this year's is to last, with Maths and Pamela's New Workout continuing to take the top two spots.
Disting takes a slight hit, falling from No. 3 last year to No. 8 now, but that decline in ranking is certainly larger with Moog's DFAM and Mother-32 being included here.
What stands out to you on our best-selling lists? Let us know.