IDC: Google Pixel shipments hit 7.2 million in 2019, passing OnePlus for best year yet

Ben Schoon | Jun 9 2020 - 9:28 am PT

Google’s Pixel 4 was far from a success according to some recent reports, but that didn’t take away from Google’s momentum when growing the lineup. Today, IDC reveals that the Google Pixel line had its “best performance ever” in 2019, shipping 7.2 million units.

In a report last month, Google’s Pixel 4 was revealed to have only managed to sell around 2 million units over the course of 6 months, with part of those sales being in 2020. So, how did the Google Pixel lineup manage to sell 7.2 million devices in 2019?

We’d assume that the majority of that number comes from the Pixel 3a, the $399 mid-ranger that received high praise. Google pointed to that phone selling well in an earnings call earlier this year. A report in 2019 also revealed that the Pixel 3a had doubled sales in one quarter.

7.2 million units shipped is still a tiny number in the grand scheme of things, though. That number was apparently enough to surpass OnePlus, but it didn’t put Google anywhere near the top 10. OnePlus reportedly shipped around 2 million smartphones in India alone in 2019, but global numbers aren’t detailed. Oppo is the fifth place smartphone maker in the world, and it ships over 114 million units per year. Clearly, Google still has a lot of work to do.

. @Google continues to expand the #Pixel portfolio and sales are growing. In 2019 shipments grew 52% YoY to reach the highest volume ever, with strong performances in the USA, Western Europe and Japan. It now ships more units than @oneplus but it is still far from reaching Top10 pic.twitter.com/qY66isF9vN

— Francisco Jeronimo (@fjeronimo) June 9, 2020

In the above tweet, Francisco Jeronimo from IDC mentions that Google saw especially strong performance in Western Europe, Japan, and the United States too. Gaining ground in the US was probably at least partially thanks to Google expanding its carrier partnerships.