2025 NGS Manufacturer Market Size, Growth and Trends (2022-2028)

After several years of muted growth from 2022 to 2025, the next-generation sequencing (NGS) market is finally set up for a recovery. We expect ~6% growth in 2026, with momentum building over the forecast period. The inflection is driven primarily by adoption in clinical settings (now the majority of the market) and the easing of two headwinds: a stabilizing academic market and improving demand in China.

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Transitioning from tissue therapy selection and NIPT*, growth is led by a next wave of clinical use cases, namely oncology liquid biopsy (therapy selection and MRD*) and rare disease testing (using WGS*). Together, these segments are projected to add ~$800M+ in incremental revenue in 2028 (vs. 2025). Additional emerging applications —most notably early cancer detection among others (e.g., NBS*,endometriosis)— are gaining traction and support a durable, long-term HSD* growth outlook.

Favorable reimbursement trends for complex genomic tests are reinforcing this shift, although challenges remain. Bioinformatics complexity, regulatory uncertainty, and persistent pricing pressure (particularly in research markets) continue to constrain manufacturers. Over the last three years, we estimate NGS data volumes increased by 30-40% per year (driven by 15-20% annual volume growth), yet reagent revenues rose only ~3% p.a., underscoring the impact of ongoing price erosion.

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Illumina faces growing competitive pressure from focused innovators such as Oxford Nanopore (long-read sequencing, native DNA/RNA), Element (spatial), Ultima (high-throughput), and MGI (China); and soon Roche (clinical expertise). We expect Illumina to cede market share; however, given its clinical exposure, our forecasts suggest its growth will trail the market by only ~2% p.a.. Given the improving macro environment and Illumina’s strong (clinical) footprint, we believe upside versus consensus exists

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This report assesses the NGS manufacturer market (i.e.,excluding NGS service revenues) across six segments:

• Company*: Illumina, Thermo Fisher, Oxford Nanopore, PacificBiosciences, Roche, and others*
• Product Type: Instruments, Reagents (consumables, library prep, target enrichment), Bioinformatics, Service Contracts
• Customer (Non-Clinical & Clinical): Academia (BasicResearch), Population Studies, Biopharma R&D, Biopharma Clinical Trials, HCT, ECDx, Oncology Tx Selection (Tissue), Oncology Tx Selection (Liquid), Oncology Monitoring, NIPT, Rare Diseases, All Others Clinical, Applied Markets, Industry (e.g., , IDT, Helix), Epidemiology (Oncology), Clinical Diagnostics (NIPT), Clinical Diagnostics (All other), Liquid Biopsy (Dx), Applied Markets, Industry, Epidemiology (including and primarily SARS-CoV-2)
• Application: human WGS, WES, Targeted Resequencing, RNA-Seq / Transcriptomics, and Others
• Therapeutic Area: Basic Research, Oncology, Women's Health, Infectious Diseases, Genetic / Rare Diseases, Method Development, Others
• Geography: U.S., Europe, China, Asia/Pacific (APAC), and Rest of the world (RoW)

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We made many key changes in the 11th edition*, including a full model rebuild:

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Updated Content

• Incorporated the latest trends in the NGS manufacturer market
• Updated market number in light of:
  • Significantly expected decrease in reagent revenues (in 2025 and beyond) due primarily to pricing pressure
  • Illumina's updated 2025 / 2026 revenue guidance
  • Adjusted combined growth for native long reads market growth from ~25% p.a. combined to ~19% p.a., given academic funding pressure / uncertainty
  • Significant guidance miss from some key players
• Added a (long tail) of third-party bioinformatics players (~$700M addition)

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Updated Market Trends

• Reassessed market trends for each of the market segments analyzed, including:
  • Customer types
  • Product and platform types
  • Applications and therapeutic areas
  • Geographies
• Reevaluated the potential of high-growth applications
  • Research applications (e.g., single cell genomics, spatial transcriptomics)
  • Liquid biopsies (from early detection to monitoring)

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Key Changes to Market Numbers

• Updated market numbers based on secondary research and latest trends up to Q3 2025
• Refined growth by application including:
  • More in-depth analysis of early cancer detection (EDx) and cancer monitoring manufacturer revenues, given significant ramp expected by 2028 (esp. for EDx)
  • Comprehensive look at long read attractiveness across use cases (including limitation with FFPE and blood samples)

• Validated and refined our projections of growth rates for key players, such as:
  • Illumina: Market share adjustments, given updated guidance and updated information on NovaSeq 6000 to X transition
  • Thermo Fisher: Instrument share loss, given expected competition in clinical decentralized settings from competitors with similarly streamlined workflows
  • Oxford Nanopore (ONT) & PacBio: Refined forecast given headwinds in basic research funding and interest for select clinical applications
  • Other: Major announcements from other players, most notably platform launch from new entrants (Roche Axelios); key refinements of forecasts to Element and Ultima

• Conducted a new forecast to 2028, considering recent and future known instrument launches