The camera market share is very narrow, with the top three leading manufacturers (Canon, Sony, and Nikon) accounting for 84.3% of unit shipments.
Global camera shipments totaled 7.2 million units in 2022, which is 15.2% less compared to 2021.
This market is dominated by five large camera manufacturers: Canon, Sony, Nikon, FUJIFILM, and Panasonic. The market share of these 5 players is calculated as 94.3% of the global camera market share in 2022, which includes all kinds of digital cameras from compact cameras to DSLRs to mirrorless cameras.
The rest 5.7% is owned by multiple small brands including OM SYSTEM, Hasselblad, Pentax, and others.
Must Read: Camera Rumors: What to Expect in 2023
Canon takes the top spot in the camera industry, holding a 46.5% share of the global camera market, which is slightly greater than the combined shares of Sony, Nikon, and Fujifilm (i.e., 43.6%). The fresh data reveals that Canon owns almost half of the global camera market and Sony owns almost a quarter.
According to the Japanese outlet Nikkei, the total number of units shipped was 7,200,000 in 2022, however, the figures were 8,850,000 in 2021. The trend of the market is fascinating to camera gear lovers. An ongoing decreasing trend can be observed in the past years.
The downfall of the camera industry is no secret. The shipments fell down from 120 million units in 2010 to a shocking 7.2 million units in 2022.
Canon’s market share declined by 1.4%, compared to last year. The total number of units sold by Canon is calculated as 3.34 million with an estimated revenue of $31.042B, a 2.91% decline from the previous year.
Sony’s share lifted by 4% with 1.88 million units sold. Sony’s annual revenue for 2022 was $88.301B, a 4.38% increase from the last year.
Nikon is moving in decline in terms of market share. It dropped to 11.7% from 13.7%, an year-on-year decrease is 2%. I believe this decline is because of Nikon’s late start of mirrorless cameras. Sony has captured a lot of potential market share because of the advancement in technology at the right time.
Molly at Camera Prism estimated that Sony and Nikon have seen a combined growth of 2%.
However, the top 5 and the estimated market share, are shown in the table below:
| Position | Brand | Market Share 2021 | Market Share 2022 | Change |
| 1 | Canon | 47.9% | 46.5% | ↓ 1.4% |
| 2 | Sony | 22.1% | 26.1% | ↑ 4.0% |
| 3 | Nikon | 13.7% | 11.7% | ↓ 2.0% |
| 4 | FUJIFILM | 5.6% | 5.8% | ↑ 0.2% |
| 5 | Panasonic | 4.4% | 4.2% | ↓ 0.2% |
See also: 70+ Photography Statistics
Sony overtakes Canon in the mirrorless camera market
Sony holds the most market shares for mirrorless cameras than Canon in the Japanese market. Despite the fact that Sony hasn’t released a new camera since the Sony A7 IV in October 2021 while Canon has made some recent releases, still failed to crack the top position in market share.
Note: Most of the figures are from 2022 as there exist only a few forecasts on what this year will look like for camera manufacturers. This is the most up-to-date and accurate data available as of 2023.