The Galaxy S26 series has been a smash hit for Samsung – the trio sold 3 million units in its home country of South Korea in just 118 days. That’s under four months. For comparison, the previous Galaxy S25 generation launched in early February and hit the 3 million mark in early August, which is six months. Before that, the S24 series needed two months more to reach the same target.
The 2026 flagships started off strong with 1.35 million over 7 days of pre-orders in Korea, up from the previous record of 1.3 million set by the S25 series – and the older models had 11 days of pre-orders.
Most of the demand was for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which accounted for 70% of pre-orders. EInfoMax, which shared these numbers, does not have a detailed breakdown for the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ pre-orders, but considering that they have to split 30%, neither of them is a great success.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra • Galaxy S26+ and S26
According to South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, exports of wireless communication devices in June amounted to $1.55 billion – an increase of 51.9% over June of 2025.
For the first half of this year, the exports totaled $9.9 billion, a 31.5% increase over H1 2025. Note that these exports include more than just smartphones, but the Ministry stated: “Exports recorded positive growth compared to the first half of the previous year, centered on finished products, due to strong sales of the Galaxy S26 series released in the first quarter.”
So the S26 series is selling well globally too. But going back to South Korea, Samsung is seeing such strong demand that it increased its production target for S26 phones for July from 1 million units to 1.5 million units, reports ETNews.
Samsung ran a sales campaign titled “Samsung Electronics Appreciation Festival with the People” between June 8 and July 5, during which people received 20% of the money they spent back in the form of digital gift certificates.
This plus fears that the Galaxy S27 series will be more expensive pushed people to pick up a Galaxy S26. The effect of all this was a three-fold increase in sales from Samsung.com and open markets. This also caused extended shipping times – delivery dates for the Galaxy S26 Ultra have slipped into August.
The forecasts for the third quarter of 2026 are for Galaxy S26 sales to remain strong. However, the Galaxy Z foldables (including a new wide foldable) will be unveiled on July 22 (pre-reservations have already started), so Samsung will re-assess production targets for S26 phones in August based on sales trends and inventory levels.
Source 1 | Source 2 (in Korean) | Via