Samsung Electronics is closing in on two decades at the top of the global TV market, having just secured the number on spot for TV sales for the 19th consecutive year. It came as LG Electronics claimed the top spot in the OLED TV segment for the 12th year in succession.
Omdia said in its latest TV Sets Market Tracker that Samsung commanded a 28.3% market share in global TV sales in 2024, maintaining a lead at the top that it has held since 2006, when it dismounted former industry leader Sony from pole position.
The South Korean electronics powerhouse said its continued lead at the top of the market stems from its focus on premium TV models, including Neo QLED and OLED televisions, as well as large-sized displays.
As the company looks to cement pole position for a 20th straight year, it will “continue to enhance consumers’ lives by driving innovation with a diverse range of products and services, including AI-powered TVs,” said Samsung’s executive vice president in charge of global TV sales and marketing, Lee Hun.
Samsung also led in the QLED TV sales category thanks to the strong performance of its flagship Neo QLED televisions. It dominated that segment with a 46.8% market share in terms of revenue, with sales volume increasing 42% in the year. That helped it to grow its overall dominance of the segment by 4.6%, Omdia said. In terms of unit shipments, it commanded a 10.9% overall share, which highlights its focus on more expensive premium televisions. Overall, it shipped 2.75 million QLED TVs last year.
However, Samsung was unable to repeat that performance in an OLED TV segment that continues to be dominated by its rival, LG Electronics. According to Omdia, LG came top of the OLED tree for the 12th year in a row, thanks to the status of its subsidiary LG Display as the world’s leading manufacturer of OLED panels.
All told, LG shipped 3.18 million OLED televisions in 2024, accounting for 52.4% of the overall market. OLED TVs accounted for 45% of the overall premium TV segment, which is defined as models priced at $1,500 or above. That’s up 8.5% from the prior year, Omdia said.
LG has said it expects OLED TVs to become number one in the category this year, forecasting them to account for more than 50% of all premium television sales.
In addition, LG also accounted for 57.5% of all shipments in the market for ultra-large OLED TVs, underscoring the strength of its product lineup. It’s the only TV maker in the world that sells OLED TVs in the full gamut of available sizes, ranging from 42-inches all the way up to 97-inches. Ultra-large OLED TVs, defined as 75-inches and above, are growing in popularity, accounting for 16% of all OLED TV shipments in 2024
LG’s biggest rival in the OLED TV market is Samsung, which only debuted its first such models a couple of years ago in 2023, but has already grown to have a strong presence. In addition to selling OLED televisions based on Samsung Display’s QD-OLED technology, it last year added multiple WOLED models, which source their OLED panels from LG Display. That allowed it to ship 1.44 million OLED televisions in total last year, accounting for a 27.3% slice of the overall pie. Samsung’s OLED TV sales increased by 42% in the year, Omdia said.
That puts Samsung far ahead of other OLED TV manufacturers, such as Panasonic, Sony and Philips, and it will be interesting to see if the company can close the gap with LG further in 2025.
All told, there were 288.3 million TVs shipped in 2024, according to Omdia’s data, up 3% from the previous year. The total volume of OLED TV shipments grew 8% to 6.07 million.
