The long patient rise and dramatic sudden fall in camera sales

We all know that smartphones have had a significant impact on the number of cameras sold each year, but seeing the cliff that sales fell off from 2010 on in Statista’s chart is still shocking.

In case you haven’t come across Statista before, it’s an interesting site that trawls the web for data and collates it into charts and reports. It’s got access to a tonne of stuff that sits behind paywalls too, so is quite happy to charge a lot of money for its wares (currently starting in the region of $200 a month). 

Occasionally though it’s happy to drop an info nugget for those that can’t afford its full service, and the latest one built from publicly available CIPA data is jaw dropping. We all know that smartphones killed off a large part of the camera market, sure. But seeing it laid out like this is something else. If a picture is worth 1000 words then a graph like this is probably worth 1000 words plus accompanying spreadsheets with a powerpoint thrown in.

Basically, worldwide camera shipments dropped by 94% between 2010 and 2023, wiping out decades of growth. “The steep decline was mainly driven by a drop-off in shipments of digital cameras with built-in lenses,” says Statista, “the type that casual photographers used to rely on prior to the rise of smartphone photography. In 2023, CIPA members shipped just 1.7 million cameras with a built-in lens, down from almost 109 million in 2010.”

And, as if the point needed a bit more hammering home here’s another Statista chart that looks at the decline in digital camera ownership across certain key markets from 2018/19 to 2023/24. Germany tops the list with 40% of survey respondents still possessing one, but the US is at the bottom with 32%. And the figures show a steep decline even from just five years ago. Where will we be in five years? That’s a very good question. Answers on a postcard to Canon, Nikon, Fujilfim, Sony, OM, Panasonic, and the rest…

H/t to PetaPixel.

tl;dr

• Worldwide camera shipments dropped by 94% between 2010 and 2023, largely due to the rise of smartphone photography.
• Shipments of digital cameras with built-in lenses saw a significant decline, dropping from almost 109 million in 2010 to just 1.7 million in 2023.
• There has been a steep decline in digital camera ownership across key markets from 2018/19 to 2023/24, with Germany topping the list and the US at the bottom with only 32% of survey respondents still owning one.
• The impact of this trend on major camera manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Sony, OM, and Panasonic remains to be seen, as the future of the camera market is uncertain in the face of smartphone dominance.