Samsung is just hours away from unveiling the Galaxy S26 series along with the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. The event will kick off at 1 pm ET (10 am PT). Interestingly, Counterpoint Research released a report on Tuesday showing that the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Sammy’s 2025 top-of-the-line smartphone, outsold its predecessor, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, by 7% year-over-year. The entire Galaxy S25 series outperformed the Galaxy S24 series year-over-year by 5%.
Three strong months allowed the Galaxy S25 series to outperform the Galaxy S24 line year-over-year
Because the Galaxy S24 line was released on January 31st, 2024 and the Galaxy S25 series launched on February 7th, 2025, the year-over-year data compared February-December 2024 sales for the Galaxy S24 line and the Galaxy S24 Ultra to the February-December 2025 sales for the Galaxy S25 line and the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
A look at the graph comparing sales of the Galaxy S24 series to the Galaxy S25 series shows that the latter got off to a slow start. Things turned around thanks to strong months for the Galaxy S25 line in June 2025, July 2025, and October 2025. This turnaround gave the S25 series a lead over the S24 series that it would not relinquish. Counterpoint has found that generative AI has not been a strong driver of upgrades by consumers. Samsung is hoping to change this in 2026 by making improvements to Bixby, and by integrating Perplexity.
Comparing Galaxy S24 series sales with Galaxy S25 series sales year-over-year. | Image by Counterpoint
The cheaper base model had the largest percentage of sales in 2024 and 2025
There was very little change in the share of each model year-to-year. For example, the base Galaxy S24 model was responsible for a leading 45% of sales from February to December 2024. For those same months in 2025, the base Galaxy S25 model made up 46% of sales. The Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S25+ had 36% and 35% shares in 2024 and 2025 respectively. Most of the attention each year is on the Ultra model. The Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Ultra both were responsible for 19% of Galaxy S sales for their respective years.
Shares of each model barely changed between 2024 and 2025. | Image by Counterpoint
Will sales of the Galaxy S26 Ultra top those of the Galaxy S25 Ultra? Similarly, will the entire Galaxy S26 line outperform the Galaxy S25 series? This is a tough call to make, especially with the possibility that the memory chip shortage, caused by the demand for AI chips, leads to higher pricing for the component that will be passed on to consumers. That could stifle sales of new 2026 flagship models like the Galaxy S26 line.
If manufacturers like Samsung decide to eat the memory chip price hikes themselves, we could see the Galaxy S26 line crush the Galaxy S25 series while the Galaxy S26 Ultra tops its predecessor in sales.
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