Google has shipped almost 40 million Pixel phones since 2016, 10 million last year

Google Pixel is still a minor player in the global smartphone market, but the brand continues to move along. As the Pixel 8 series launched this week, updated figures reveal that Google Pixel has shipped around 40 million phones so far, which is a pretty big leap in the last year alone.

According to IDC VP Francisco Jeronimo, Google Pixel has shipped 37.9 million phones between 2016 and 2023 – the entire lifecycle of the Pixel lineup thus far. Jeronimo notes that sales are growing in “double digits” in recent years.

While that’s not exactly a massive number – Apple, for instance, is estimated to ship over 224 million iPhones per year – it is steadily moving up. In 2018, Jeronimo pointed out that Google had doubled its shipments of Pixels in just the line’s first year, totaling just shy of four million units. By 2019, Google had picked things up, moving 7.2 million units during that year alone.

As of last year, Google was approaching the 30 million milestone, with 27.6 million units sold just before the launch of Pixel 7. Notably, that means Google managed to ship around 10 million Pixel phones over the course of the last 12 months. That’s potentially the best year for Pixel yet, as the previous record was the aforementioned 7.2 million units.

That figure doesn’t come as a massive surprise, as Google has been actively gaining traction in the US, as well as Japan over the last year. Earlier this year, a Q2 report showed that Google Pixel was gaining ground while every other Android player slipped downwards. In July, it was revealed that Japan is now Google’s biggest market for Pixel phones, and a later report showed how Pixel is actively taking market share from the iPhone in Japan. Google was also the only smartphone brand that didn’t see its shipments shrink year-over-year in North America.

It’s been a long game, but Google seems to be finally finding its footing.