Skip to main content

The top 7 bestselling phones of 2023 were all … you guessed it

Seven of the top 10 bestselling handsets in 2023 were iPhones, according to data from research firm Counterpoint.

This marks the first time in Counterpoint’s tracking of such data that Apple’s handset has dominated the chart to this extent.

Recommended Videos

The research revealed the iPhone 14 to be the biggest seller, with 3.9% of all smartphone sales last year. The iPhone 14 Pro Max took the second spot, while the iPhone 14 Pro appeared in third place. The older iPhone 13 placed fourth.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The iPhone 15 handsets showed up in fifth, sixth, and seventh spots, lower down the chart mainly because the devices launched in the fall and so had less time to achieve high sales numbers. However, Counterpoint noted that the iPhone 15 Pro Max was the bestselling smartphone of the fourth quarter last year.

Apple’s budget phone, the iPhone SE2, failed to make it into the top 10 after appearing in the ninth spot a year earlier.

The first non-Apple phone to appear on Counterpoint’s top 10 chart is Samsung’s Galaxy A14 5G in eighth place, followed by the Galaxy A04e, and the Galaxy A14 4G. No, these are not flagship devices, but their affordable price tags have evidently helped Samsung to ship huge numbers of them in the global market.

The combined market share of the top 10 handsets in 2023 reached the highest total ever at 20%, up from 19% in the previous year.

Top 10 best-selling phones of 2023.
Counterpoint

“Apple, for the first time, captured the top seven positions in the global list of bestselling smartphones in 2023,” Counterpoint said, citing data from its Global Monthly Handset Model Sales Tracker. “Samsung secured the remaining three places in the list, marking an increase of one spot from the 2022 list.”

It added that no other brands have appeared in its top 10 chart since 2021.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Can this Android phone camera beat the iPhone 16 Pro? I flew to Bali to find out
iPhone 16 Pro next to the OPPO Find X8 Pro on a bed of pebbles

The iPhone 16 Pro has one of the best smartphone cameras you can buy, and it sets a standard for everyone to beat, especially regarding video. We've already seen Samsung and OnePlus try and fail to beat Apple, and the Google Pixel 9 Pro has proven that even it will fall somewhat short.

However, what happens when you look outside the U.S.? Smartphones from Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo have set camera standards that put even the best in the U.S. to shame. I was in Bali last month testing the iPhone 16 Pro camera against a new smartphone from Oppo.

Read more
Things still aren’t looking good for Apple’s iOS 19 update
iPhone 16 Pro Max in Desert Titanium.

The latest version of iOS 18.2 rolled out to (most) iPhone users yesterday, and it brought with it a slew of new features that fans have eagerly waited for. These include Visual Intelligence for iPhone 16, Genmoji, and Image Playground. However, this slower rollout of iOS 18 features is having an impact on development times for its next iteration, and that means iOS 19 might be delayed.

There have been whispers of delays before, so this doesn't come as a huge surprise — particularly when you think about how the production flow at Apple usually goes. In a Threads post, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said: "I continue to hear that the gradual rollout of features across iOS 18 to iOS 18.4 is leading to delays of some features scheduled for iOS 19. That will lead to a long-term rollout of features next cycle as well. Engineers are stuck working on iOS 18 projects when they’d usually already be on to the following OS."

Read more
RCS messaging is now live in iOS 18.2 for Boost Mobile subscribers
RCS messaging on iOS 18.

This week, Apple released iOS 18.2. Though the update is mostly being advertised for its new Apple Intelligence features, it also includes another feature long promised for certain U.S. iPhone users.

With the iOS 18.2 update, Boost Mobile customers using iPhones can now use RCS (Rich Communication Services) as an alternative to SMS and MMS. A Reddit user (via Android Authority) was the first to discover the change. Apple teased RCS support last year before making an official announcement at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

Read more