Apple still owns the podium, but Samsung is absolutely not losing sleep over it. The Galaxy S26 Ultra just came in fourth place among all smartphones sold globally in Q2 2026, making it the single best-selling Android phone on the planet for that quarter. That’s a big deal, and the full picture is even more impressive than that one number suggests.
According to SamMobile, Counterpoint Research published its global smartphone sales rankings for Q2 2026, and Samsung managed to place five phones in the top 10. That is not a typo. Five phones from one company, in a market this crowded, is genuinely hard to pull off.
The top three spots went to Apple, with the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone 17 Pro taking first, second, and third place respectively. But Samsung came right in behind them with the Galaxy S26 Ultra at number four. The Galaxy S26 followed at ninth place, and then there were three Galaxy A series phones rounding out the rest of Samsung’s presence: the Galaxy A07 at fifth, the Galaxy A17 5G at sixth, and the Galaxy A17 4G at eighth.
The S26 Ultra also outsold the Galaxy S25 Ultra during the same quarter last year, and it accounted for more than half of all Galaxy S26 series sales on its own. That tells you something about where Samsung buyers are putting their money. When people go flagship, they go all the way to the top of the lineup. Mid-tier flagships are clearly a harder sell.
The Galaxy A series performance is worth paying attention to, too. These are not flashy phones. They win on price, availability, and the fact that Samsung now offers six or more years of software updates on these devices. That update commitment is clearly moving units in markets where long-term value matters more than specs sheets.
What this report really shows is that Samsung’s strategy of covering every price point is working. The premium S26 Ultra pulls in the big spenders. The A series sweeps up everyone else. It’s a wide net, and right now, it’s catching a lot of fish.