What you need to know
- Samsung and Apple covered all of the top 10 spots on Counterpoint Research's best-selling smartphones list for Q3 2025.
- Apple dominated the premium market, which includes all phones with a wholesale price of $600 or above.
- Samsung cashed in on the midrange and budget sector, with all five of its phones being part of the Galaxy A series.
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Samsung and Apple each claimed five of the top 10 spots on Counterpoint Research's best-selling smartphones list for the third quarter of 2025. However, that only tells part of the story. Apple earned the top four spots, and four of its five best-selling smartphones were "premium" models. Meanwhile, Samsung didn't have a single premium handset on the top charts, instead earning its five places on the best-selling list with midrange Galaxy A models.
The best-selling smartphone in Q3 2025 was the base-model iPhone 16, by a wide margin. It had a 4% volume share, and this helped the iPhone 16 keep its first-place spot for the third consecutive quarter. Surprisingly, the top four spots were held by the iPhone 16 series — the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and iPhone 16e, in that order — which usually experiences a seasonal sales decline before new models come out.
Another surprise was the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which earned the 10th-place spot despite going on sale at the tail end of the Q3 2025 tracking period. This suggests there is strong demand for the iPhone 17 series, and specifically, the most-expensive iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Samsung's bread and butter in Q3 2025 was the midrange market. It held the fifth-place through ninth-place spots with its latest Galaxy A-series phones. The best-seller of the bunch was the Galaxy A16 5G, followed by the Galaxy A06, Galaxy A36, Galaxy A56, and Galaxy A16 4G. Samsung didn't have a single premium smartphone on the list. Last year, Samsung had the base-model Galaxy S24 on the Q3 2024 best-sellers list.
Counterpoint Research thinks Samsung's addition of AI features to the Galaxy A series via "Awesome Intelligence" could be driving sales.
"The mid-price segment’s presence in the top-10 best-selling smartphones is expected to remain strong, driven by the growing integration of GenAI features," the report explains. "These advancements make the segment more competitive, deliver greater value to consumers, and further bridge the user experience with flagship models."
The Samsung Galaxy S25 could be experiencing an early seasonal decline as buyers look ahead to the Galaxy S26 series. However, its absence from the list is a big deal for Samsung. With only the Galaxy A-series appearing on the best-sellers list, Samsung doesn't have a single phone with a wholesale price of over $600 here.
Additionally, 5G phones covered all of the top five spots for the first time, with Counterpoint Research calling the technology "a key consumer preference across regions" as of Q3 2025.
