Top 10 Best-Selling Smartphones of All Time
Which smartphones actually sold the most in history? We investigate the biggest lifetime sellers across the Apple, Samsung, Nokia and Chinese smartphone eras — and explain why some of the world's biggest smartphone brands still don't appear in the historical top 10.
First: What Exactly Are We Ranking?
There is a surprisingly large difference between the world's best-selling mobile phones and the world's best-selling smartphones.
The Nokia 1100, for example, shipped more than 250 million units and holds the Guinness World Records distinction for the biggest-selling mobile phone. But it was a feature phone, not a smartphone in the modern or historical smartphone sense.
That means a list containing the Nokia 1100 alongside the iPhone, Galaxy and Redmi would be mixing two different categories.
For this investigation, NEXA MOBILE treats smartphones as devices that offered smartphone-class operating systems and computing capabilities. This allows historical Symbian smartphones such as the Nokia 6600 and Nokia 5230 to be considered while keeping classic feature phones outside the ranking.
The Short Answer
The biggest surprise is that the historical smartphone-sales table is extremely concentrated.
Apple occupies most of the highest positions, while Nokia's Symbian-era smartphones still appear because of their enormous historical volumes. Samsung's Galaxy S4 and S3 were extraordinary Android successes, but their estimated lifetime sales are far below the threshold of the historical top ten.
Chinese manufacturers have also produced enormous-selling smartphone families, but most public figures are either series-level shipments, brand-level shipments or individual models with totals below the historical top-ten threshold.
What This Deep Dive Covers
Historical Top 10: Best-Selling Smartphones
The following table represents the widely cited historical ranking used for this deep dive. Figures are approximate because lifetime model-level reporting is inconsistent across manufacturers and eras.
| Rank | Smartphone | Launch | Estimated Lifetime Sales | Brand | Confidence | Why It Sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | iPhone 6 / 6 Plus | 2014 | ~222.4M | Apple | High / historical estimate | Large-screen redesign, strong ecosystem, global distribution and huge upgrade demand. |
| 02 | iPhone 6s / 6s Plus | 2015 | ~174.1M | Apple | Historical estimate | Successful iPhone 6 formula with improved silicon, camera and 3D Touch. |
| 03 | iPhone 5s | 2013 | ~164.5M | Apple | Historical estimate | Touch ID, A7 64-bit chip and long commercial availability. |
| 04 | iPhone 7 / 7 Plus | 2016 | ~159.9M | Apple | Historical estimate | Strong ecosystem, dual-camera Plus model and global carrier distribution. |
| 05 | iPhone 11 family | 2019 | ~159.2M | Apple | Historical estimate | Strong value within Apple's lineup, A13 chip and popular dual-camera system. |
| 06 | iPhone XR / XS / XS Max | 2018 | ~151.1M | Apple | Historical estimate | Three-tier lineup covering mainstream and premium buyers. |
| 07 | Nokia 6600 | 2003 | ~150M | Nokia | Historical estimate | Symbian smartphone features combined with Nokia's enormous global distribution. |
| 08 | Nokia 5230 | 2009 | ~150M | Nokia | Historical estimate | Affordable touchscreen smartphone strategy during the Symbian era. |
| 09 | iPhone 5 | 2012 | ~146.2M | Apple | Historical estimate | Major redesign, larger display and powerful Apple silicon. |
| 10 | iPhone 8 / 8 Plus | 2017 | ~124.7M | Apple | Historical estimate | Familiar home-button design plus wireless charging and A11 Bionic. |
Historical best-selling-phone compilations place the Nokia 6600 at approximately 150 million units, while widely cited retrospective smartphone rankings place the major iPhone families above the 100-million mark. The figures should be treated as estimates rather than audited manufacturer totals.
The Sales Gap Is Enormous
The most useful way to understand the ranking is to visualize the gap between the historical leaders and later challengers.
Why Apple Dominates the Historical Top 10
The first thing people notice is that Apple occupies most of the table.
That does not necessarily mean Apple produced the world's ten best smartphones. It means Apple's business model concentrates enormous global demand into a comparatively small number of identifiable product families.
1. Apple concentrates its product portfolio
Instead of releasing hundreds of unrelated smartphone models every year, Apple historically concentrated its smartphone business around the iPhone family.
A successful generation can therefore accumulate very large lifetime sales.
2. Older iPhones often stayed on sale
Apple has frequently continued selling previous-generation iPhones at lower prices after a new flagship arrived.
This gives a successful design a longer commercial life.
3. The ecosystem creates continuity
iOS, the App Store, iCloud, Apple Watch, AirPods and Mac integration can create reasons for customers to remain inside the Apple ecosystem.
4. Global distribution is a major advantage
Apple's iPhone 6 launch illustrates the scale of its distribution machine. Apple announced more than 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales during the first three days of availability.
5. The iPhone 6 arrived at exactly the right moment
Large-screen Android phones had already demonstrated that consumers wanted bigger displays. Apple responded with both 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models.
That combination of timing, hardware and ecosystem turned the iPhone 6 generation into a historic sales event.
Samsung: Why Galaxy S4 and S3 Are Not in the Top 10
This is where the historical ranking becomes genuinely interesting.
Samsung was not absent from smartphone history. Quite the opposite.
The Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4 were two of the most successful Android smartphones ever produced.
Samsung Galaxy S4
Widely reported lifetime estimate, depending on the source and whether related variants are grouped.
Samsung itself reported 10 million S4 units sold in the first month, and 40 million by roughly six months after launch.
Samsung Galaxy S3
Widely reported lifetime figure including closely related variants in some historical datasets.
Samsung reported more than 20 million units sold within the first 100 days.
So why don't they make the Top 10?
Because the historical cutoff is extremely high.
The tenth position in this ranking is roughly 125 million units.
A smartphone selling 70–80 million units is an enormous success, but it is still roughly 45–55 million units short of that cutoff.
Samsung's portfolio is also more fragmented
Samsung sells smartphones across Galaxy S, Galaxy A, Galaxy M, Galaxy Z and other families.
That gives consumers more choice, but it spreads unit volume across many individual models.
This is one reason a brand can be enormous globally without having one model anywhere near Apple's historical leaders.
Samsung's own historical account describes the Galaxy S4 as selling 10 million units in only its first month and highlights how the S4 helped Samsung become the global smartphone market leader at the time.
Samsung's Historical High-Sellers: Context, Not Top 10
| Model | Approx. Historical Sales | Position vs Top 10 | What the Data Shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy S4 | ~70–80M | Below cutoff | Samsung's strongest individual smartphone sales story. |
| Galaxy S3 | ~70M | Below cutoff | One of Android's defining mass-market flagship successes. |
| Galaxy S5 | ~40M | Below cutoff | Strong sales, but far below the S4 peak. |
| Galaxy A51 | ~23M | Below cutoff | Shows the importance of Samsung's mid-range portfolio. |
Historical Samsung model totals vary across sources because some figures include variants and some refer to shipments rather than final consumer sell-through.
What About Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO, vivo and realme?
This is the section missing from most simplified "best-selling smartphone" articles.
Chinese smartphone manufacturers are among the largest smartphone businesses in the world. Their absence from the historical Top 10 does not mean their phones failed.
The problem is that their sales history is structured differently.
Many Chinese manufacturers operate huge portfolios containing dozens or even hundreds of models and variants. Their public announcements also frequently emphasize series-level, brand-level or regional shipment milestones rather than lifetime sales of one exact smartphone.
That makes direct comparison with a historical iPhone family particularly difficult.
High sales concentration around fewer iPhone families.
Large portfolio spread across flagship and mass-market Galaxy models.
Very large Redmi and POCO portfolios with many generations and variants.
Strong series-level sales, especially during the late-2010s smartphone boom.
Xiaomi / Redmi: Huge Series Sales, But Not a Proven Top-10 Individual Model
Xiaomi is probably the clearest example of why a brand-level milestone should not automatically be converted into a model-level ranking.
The Redmi Note family has become one of the world's most successful smartphone series.
But a series contains multiple generations.
That is very different from saying that one exact Redmi Note smartphone sold 100 million or 150 million units.
Redmi Note 8 is a useful example
Xiaomi India leadership reported that the Redmi Note 8 series crossed 30 million units globally.
That is an enormous result for a smartphone series, especially considering that the Redmi Note 8 and Note 8 Pro were launched in 2019.
Why Xiaomi still does not reach the historical Top 10
The historical cutoff is around 125 million units.
The publicly reported 30-million Redmi Note 8 series milestone is only about one-quarter of that threshold.
Xiaomi has generated enormous total volume through many Redmi, Xiaomi and POCO models rather than one universally documented smartphone model approaching the iPhone 6's historical level.
Huawei: One of China's Biggest Smartphone Success Stories
Huawei is another company that deserves serious attention in a historical smartphone-sales story.
The company became one of the world's largest smartphone manufacturers during the late 2010s.
But again, Huawei's strongest public numbers are often series-level rather than one-model lifetime totals.
Huawei P20 family
Huawei reported that the P20 series had surpassed 9 million units globally by the first half of 2018 and later reported more than 16 million units.
Huawei Mate 20 family
Huawei announced that the Mate 20 family had surpassed 10 million units.
16M+ reported global shipments in Huawei's later milestone announcement.
10M+ units announced by Huawei.
These figures are impressive, but they are nowhere near the historical 100M-plus threshold required for the Top 10 ranking used in this story.
Huawei's broader brand-level success was much larger. In 2018, Huawei reported more than 200 million smartphone shipments during the year, including Honor.
That illustrates the difference between brand scale and single-model scale.
realme: Massive Brand Growth, But Not a Single 100M Smartphone
realme is a particularly interesting modern example.
The company reached 100 million cumulative smartphone shipments globally in only three years, according to the company's 2021 announcement citing Strategy Analytics.
By November 2023, realme announced that it had crossed 200 million global smartphone shipments.
But those are brand-level cumulative shipments.
They do not mean that one realme smartphone model sold 100 million or 200 million units.
The C Series illustrates the strategy
realme reported that its C Series had reached 100 million global shipments.
Again, this represents an entire product series containing multiple generations and models.
OPPO and vivo: Why They Are Missing From the Historical Individual-Model Top 10
OPPO and vivo are major global smartphone manufacturers, particularly strong in Asia and emerging markets.
Their absence from this historical individual-model ranking should not be interpreted as weak overall sales.
Counterpoint's market data shows how powerful these brands can be in specific markets. In India, for example, vivo led smartphone shipments in Q4 2024 with a 20% share, while OPPO held 11%. Xiaomi held 16% and Samsung 15%.
But current market share is not the same thing as lifetime sales of one smartphone model.
Counterpoint's model-level data also shows OPPO and vivo models regularly appearing among the best sellers in individual markets. For example, OPPO A58 and vivo Y53t appeared among China's leading models in 2023, while several vivo and realme models ranked strongly in India.
The Modern Market Tells a Different Story
Historical lifetime sales and current annual sales are two completely different measurements.
Counterpoint's annual global rankings demonstrate that Apple and Samsung have dominated recent model-level bestseller tables, while Chinese brands have generally appeared less consistently in the global annual Top 10.
In 2023, Apple captured the top seven positions in Counterpoint's global annual Top 10, while Samsung occupied the remaining three. Counterpoint noted that no other brands had entered the annual global Top 10 since 2021.
In 2024, Apple and Samsung again dominated the global Top 10, with Apple taking the first three positions and Samsung taking four spots. Xiaomi's Redmi 13C was one of the models that had performed strongly in quarterly rankings during the year, but it did not overturn the annual Apple-Samsung dominance.
Huge individual model sales were possible because product portfolios were more concentrated and successful devices remained commercially available for long periods.
More brands, more models, faster refresh cycles and fragmented demand make a 100M+ single-model lifetime total much harder to achieve.
Nokia: The Giant Before the iPhone
Any serious historical smartphone story has to include Nokia.
The Nokia 6600 and Nokia 5230 demonstrate that smartphones could reach enormous global audiences before Android and iOS became dominant.
Nokia 6600
The Nokia 6600 was launched in the Symbian era and became one of the most widely sold smartphones of its generation. Historical best-selling-phone compilations commonly place it at approximately 150 million units.
Nokia 5230
The Nokia 5230 followed during the touchscreen transition and was designed to make touchscreen smartphone functionality available to a broader audience. Historical compilations commonly put its sales around 150 million units.
These numbers explain why Nokia remains present in an all-time smartphone-sales discussion even though the company no longer dominates the smartphone market the way it once dominated mobile phones.
Why Don't Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO, vivo or realme Appear in the Top 10?
There is no single reason.
There are at least six major reasons.
1. Portfolio fragmentation
Chinese manufacturers often sell many models at multiple price points simultaneously.
This spreads sales across a large number of individual products.
2. Series-level reporting
Companies often announce milestones for an entire family such as Redmi Note, realme C Series or Huawei P Series.
Those numbers cannot automatically be treated as the sales of one smartphone.
3. Regional concentration
Many models are extremely successful in India, China, Southeast Asia, Latin America or Africa without becoming global top sellers.
4. Shorter product cycles
Aggressive annual or semiannual launches distribute demand across multiple generations.
5. Different price strategies
Brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and realme compete heavily in affordable and mid-range segments where consumers have many alternatives.
6. Historical data quality
Older iPhone and Nokia figures have been repeatedly compiled by researchers and technology publications. Comparable lifetime model-level numbers for every Chinese smartphone are simply not publicly documented in the same way.
Brand Sales and Model Sales Are Not the Same Thing
This is arguably the most important lesson in the entire story.
| Type of Number | Example | Can It Be Used Directly in Top-10 Ranking? | Why? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual model | Galaxy S4 | Yes, with caveats | The figure refers to a specific smartphone generation. |
| Product family | Redmi Note 8 series | No, not directly | Multiple models are included. |
| Product series | realme C Series | No | Many generations contribute to the total. |
| Brand | Huawei annual smartphone shipments | No | Hundreds of models may contribute to the number. |
The Smartphone Sales Revolution in Five Eras
Symbian smartphones demonstrated that advanced mobile computing could reach a mass audience.
Apple transformed the smartphone around touchscreen interaction, software and a tightly integrated ecosystem.
Samsung's Galaxy S3 and S4 became landmark Android successes while Apple expanded its own iPhone lineup.
Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO, vivo and later realme expanded aggressively through affordable and mid-range smartphones.
Consumers have more choice than ever, but a smaller number of premium devices increasingly capture a large share of global revenue.
Major Challengers Outside the Historical Top 10
| Brand | Important Model / Series | Reported Sales Milestone | What the Figure Actually Represents | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung | Galaxy S4 | ~70–80M | Widely reported lifetime estimate | Android's historic single-model sales benchmark. |
| Samsung | Galaxy S3 | ~70M | Widely reported lifetime estimate | One of the most successful Android flagships ever. |
| Xiaomi / Redmi | Redmi Note 8 series | 30M+ | Series-level sales | Shows Xiaomi's strength in the mass-market smartphone segment. |
| Huawei | P20 series | 16M+ | Series-level shipment milestone | Demonstrates Huawei's late-2010s premium-camera success. |
| Huawei | Mate 20 series | 10M+ | Series-level sales milestone | Another major Huawei flagship-family success. |
| realme | C Series | 100M+ | Entire series | Shows how quickly realme built mass-market volume. |
Current Global Sales vs All-Time Lifetime Sales
Another common mistake is comparing a smartphone's sales in one year with another phone's lifetime sales.
These are completely different measurements.
For example, Counterpoint reported that the iPhone 15 was the world's best-selling smartphone for the full year 2024. Apple and Samsung together occupied the entire global Top 10 for that year.
That does not mean the iPhone 15 had already sold more than every historical smartphone. It means that it sold more units than any other individual model during that particular year.
The distinction is critical when writing a historical article.
How many units did a model or family sell during its entire commercial life?
How many units did a model sell during one calendar year?
Does Being a Best-Selling Smartphone Mean It Was the Best?
No.
Sales are a measurement of commercial reach, not an objective score for camera quality, battery life, performance or software.
A phone can sell extremely well because of:
- brand recognition
- pricing
- carrier relationships
- retail availability
- marketing
- ecosystem loyalty
- long commercial availability
- strong distribution
- regional popularity
A technically excellent smartphone can still sell less if it has limited distribution, launches at the wrong time or competes in a crowded segment.
Methodology: How NEXA MOBILE Built This Ranking
1. Smartphones only
Feature phones such as Nokia 1100 are excluded even when their sales exceed smartphone figures.
2. Lifetime sales, not annual sales
The ranking attempts to compare total commercial life rather than one-year sales.
3. Manufacturer figures are preferred when available
Where companies have publicly announced milestones, those announcements are used as primary evidence for the relevant claim.
4. Historical estimates are clearly labeled
Many older smartphone sales figures are retrospective estimates. We do not present them as audited numbers.
5. Series and model totals are separated
A 30-million series milestone cannot be treated as a 30-million single-model result.
6. Brand-level shipments are not inserted into model rankings
For example, realme's 200-million brand milestone cannot be used to claim that one realme smartphone sold 200 million units.
7. Chinese brands are not excluded
They are included in the analysis and their documented sales milestones are shown separately when the available evidence is series-level or brand-level.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best-selling smartphone of all time?
The Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are widely cited as the best-selling smartphone family, with a retrospective lifetime estimate of approximately 222.4 million units.
What is the best-selling phone of all time?
The Nokia 1100 is widely recognized as the best-selling mobile phone, with more than 250 million units shipped. It was a feature phone, so it is excluded from this smartphone ranking.
What is Samsung's best-selling smartphone?
The Galaxy S4 is widely reported as Samsung's strongest individual smartphone sales success, with estimates around 70–80 million units depending on the source and whether variants are grouped.
Why is Samsung Galaxy S4 not in the Top 10?
Because the historical Top 10 cutoff is roughly 125 million units. Even an 80-million-unit Galaxy S4 estimate is substantially below that level.
Has Xiaomi ever sold 100 million smartphones?
Xiaomi has sold enormous volumes globally, but a brand or series milestone should not be confused with one individual smartphone model selling 100 million units. The Redmi Note 8 series, for example, was reported above 30 million units.
What is realme's biggest sales achievement?
realme announced 100 million cumulative global smartphone shipments in 2021 and 200 million in 2023. Those figures are brand-level milestones, not the sales of one smartphone model.
Why are Chinese brands absent from the historical Top 10?
The main reasons are portfolio fragmentation, series-level reporting, shorter product cycles, regional concentration and the lack of consistently published individual-model lifetime figures comparable with the historical iPhone and Nokia datasets.
Are the historical sales figures exact?
No. Several figures are retrospective estimates. The article therefore uses approximately, estimated and reported language where appropriate.
Does high sales mean a phone was technically the best?
No. Sales measure commercial success and market reach. They do not directly measure camera quality, performance, battery life or software experience.
Final Verdict: The Real Winner Is Not Just Apple
The historical smartphone sales leaderboard tells a much richer story than an Apple-versus-Android argument.
Apple's dominance is real. The iPhone 6 family sits dramatically above the rest of the field in widely cited lifetime estimates, and several other iPhone generations occupy the next positions.
But Nokia explains where the story began.
Samsung explains how Android became a global smartphone force.
Xiaomi and Redmi demonstrate how aggressive value-oriented strategies can create enormous series-level sales.
Huawei demonstrates how a Chinese manufacturer could challenge the traditional premium smartphone leaders globally.
realme demonstrates how quickly a new smartphone brand can scale when it focuses on affordable devices and rapid international expansion.
OPPO and vivo demonstrate another model: enormous regional and multi-model sales rather than one universally dominant global smartphone.
That is why the real lesson from the smartphone sales race is not simply that Apple won.
It is that product concentration, distribution, ecosystem, timing, pricing and market structure can matter just as much as hardware.
Research Sources & Editorial Notes
- Apple Newsroom — official iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch sales announcement.
- Apple Newsroom — official iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launch sales announcement.
- Samsung Global Newsroom — Galaxy S3/S4 historical sales and market context.
- Counterpoint Research — global annual smartphone model rankings.
- Counterpoint Research — regional and model-level smartphone sales data.
- Huawei official announcements — P20 and Mate 20 sales milestones.
- realme official announcements — 100M and 200M cumulative smartphone shipment milestones.
- Historical best-selling mobile-phone datasets for older Nokia smartphone sales.
Trademark notice: Apple, iPhone, Samsung, Galaxy, Nokia, Xiaomi, Redmi, Huawei, OPPO, vivo, realme and other product or company names belong to their respective owners. NEXA MOBILE is an independent editorial publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by these companies.
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