Pixel 9 sales surge Google to third place behind Samsung and iPhone

The Google Pixel 9 series market share more than tripled from September to October

The Google Pixel 9 phones series (Image credit: Max Buondonno / The Shortcut)

• 🥉 Google takes the bronze with a surge in smartphone market share in the US

• 📈 New data shows Pixel phone usage jumped nearly 3x in October

• 🆚 This is just behind market share for Samsung (silver) and iPhone (gold) 

• 📱 This success comes from the warm reception of the Pixel 9 series

• 🏆 Our own Pixel 9 XL review rated it the ‘best foldable phone yet’

Give Google the bronze medal. Sales of its critically acclaimed Pixel 9 series of phones surged so much that Google’s market share sits just behind Samsung and Apple.

Phones like the Pixel 9 Pro XL and Pixel 9 Pro Fold helped Google’s market share in North America jump from 4.8% to 12.8% from September to October, according to data from StatCounter. While we don’t have official sales numbers yet, we do know that Google sold 10 million Pixel devices in 2023, care of Android Police, and current sales should be well north of that this year. Google had the “highest-ever smartphone volumes in a quarter in Q3,” according to Counterpoint Research (via 9to5Google).

After selling a record 10 million pixel devices in 2023, the Pixel 9 looks to be Google’s most popular pixel ever. Data from StatCounter shows that from September to October, Google’s market share in North America jumped from 4.8% to 12.8%. This follows a previous report from Counterpoint Research (via 9to5Google) claiming Google had the “highest-ever smartphone volumes in a quarter in Q3.”

Deep dive into the Pixel numbers

The Pixel 8a launched earlier in the summer and was well-received as an affordable AI phone. However, it was with the launch of the Pixel 9 series in August that really shook things up for Google. Tech reviews across the internet praised the Pixel 9’s hardware and powerful AI features. In our Pixel 9 Pro XL review, Matt Swider said it was the “biggest year-over-year leap in performance” ever. 

It’s important to note that none of these reports come directly from Google. On the company’s Q3 earnings call, they did say the Pixel 9 was experiencing “strong demand,” but they did not elaborate further or provide detailed numbers. Counterpoint Research does report sell-through data, and are widely relied upon for accurate smartphone sales data. 

(Image credit: Counterpoint Research)

StatCounter’s data does not record actual sales numbers or even shipment numbers to customers or suppliers. The data in its reports come from web traffic numbers gathered from websites that submit their data to StatCounter, which comes from specific devices – in this case, the Pixel 9 series. While this does mean these numbers have room for error, a large enough number of websites (over 1.5 million) send data to StatCounter that these results can be mostly trusted.

Either way, this still shows impressive growth for Google as the company finally overtook Motorola for the number three spot in North America, and the 12.8% is halfway to Samsung’s current market share of 23.7%. Apple still dominates the market with 51.3%, but its share has been slowly declining for most of the year. 

Google also revamped its entire Pixel device strategy with the 9 series, most predominantly by releasing four different models at once. Giving customers more options to choose from, including an entry-level Pixel 9 - which I called “Google’s most interesting phone” in my Pixel 9 video review - no doubt helped drive interest.

The search giant and Android maker has also been marketing the Pixel 9 series more heavily than in the past, including several promotions for Google One members and Play Pass subscribers. Whatever they’re doing, they seem to be doing something right.