While it's still way too soon to know exactly how many smartphones were sold around the world last year and who came on top of the global mobile vendor rankings, one increasingly prolific and reliable X leaker has come into possession of some very interesting and undoubtedly legit November 2024 figures.
These actually cover the entire January-November timeframe, offering extremely precious insight into the commercial success of the Galaxy S24 family compared to the 2023-released S23 trio of ultra-high-end Samsung handsets, as well as the early popularity of the company's 2024 foldables pitted against the five-month sales tallies of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 from a year before.
Galaxy S24 vs Galaxy S23: major improvements across the board
Galaxy S24 Ultra - 15.8 million units;
Galaxy S24 - 12.1 million;
Galaxy S24 Plus - 6.77 million;
Galaxy S23 Ultra - 13.56 million;
Galaxy S23 - 10.46 million;
Galaxy S23 Plus - 5.39 million.
If you expected the rather repetitive S24 Ultra to perform roughly the same as or even weaker than the S23 Ultra at the worldwide box-office due to its largely familiar design, largely unchanged specifications, and slightly higher price point... well, I guess it's safe to say that you were wrong.
The S24 Ultra may look similar to the S23 Ultra, but the two's sales numbers are pretty different. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena"
A sales boost of more than 2 million units (or around 17 percent) at a time of general stagnation for the smartphone market as a whole is clearly nothing to scoff at, especially if you also consider the chunky profit margins of every single Galaxy S24 Ultra device shipped between January and November 2024.
That 15.8 mil total, mind you, doesn't include the presumably stellar numbers generated by one of the best phones out there today during the always lucrative holiday season, making it pretty darn difficult for the Galaxy S25 Ultra to go even higher this time next year.
Of course, the improvements of the S24 Plus and base Galaxy S24 over the S23+ and "vanilla" S23 are not to be overlooked either, making their own key contributions to a grand family total of nearly 35 million units, which is also likely to prove hard to beat for the fast-approaching Galaxy S25 series.
That 34.66 million tally represents a surge of 18 percent from the 29.41 million S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra units sold between January and November 2023, and for what it's worth, Samsung reportedly plans to manufacture over 37 million S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra devices to hopefully then ship to consumers around the world by the end of 2025.
Fold up, Flip down
Galaxy Z Fold 6 - 2.09 million units;
Galaxy Z Flip 6 - 2.81 million;
Galaxy Z Fold 5 - 1.91 million;
Galaxy Z Flip 5 - 3.3 million.
While Samsung's struggles in the foldable market segment have been well-documented and intensely discussed over the last year or so, it appears that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 has somehow managed to improve on the Z Fold 5's sales results posted during the two's respective first five months of commercial availability.
The Z Fold 6 is apparently slightly more popular than the Z Fold 5 around the world. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
We're not talking a big jump by any measure of the word, but a 180K unit increase is certainly better than the nearly half-a-million decrease of the Z Flip 6 compared to its very own predecessor. The relatively low popularity of Samsung's latest Android-based clamshell is obviously the big reason why the combined sales figures of the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 are considerably humbler than the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5's total last year, and unfortunately for the world's top smartphone vendor, the Z Flip 7 isn't exactly expected to sell like hotcakes either.
Naturally, it's still early days, and a lot of things could change between now and July 2025, but for the time being, Samsung is reportedly thinking of only manufacturing around 3 million Galaxy Z Flip 7 units. Pre-release production goals are often higher than a handset's eventual sales numbers, mind you, so the future definitely doesn't look very bright for the company that basically laid the foundation of the foldable landscape not that long ago.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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