Samsung Closes In on Top-Ranked LG in OLED TV Market, Narrowing Gap to 6% Points

Gap Narrows Sharply from Over 50 Percentage Points in 2022
Market Share Expands After 2023 Re-entry
Fierce Competition in North America Leads to Top Position

Samsung Electronics is rapidly gaining ground in the global organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV market—a segment long dominated by LG Electronics.

According to market research firm Omdia on June 7, LG Electronics held a 46.5% share of the global OLED TV market by revenue in the first quarter of this year.

During the same period, Samsung Electronics saw its OLED TV sales volume increase by 28.8% year-on-year, achieving a 40.1% market share. The gap between the two companies now stands at approximately 6 percentage points.

Back in 2022, LG Electronics had a 57.6% share of the OLED TV market, while Samsung Electronics accounted for only 0.3%. However, since Samsung Electronics re-entered the market, the gap has narrowed quickly.

Samsung Electronics initially launched OLED TVs in 2013 but withdrew from the business due to yield issues. After a 10-year hiatus, the company re-entered the market in 2023 with new products, once again challenging for leadership. Since then, Samsung Electronics has rapidly expanded its market share, closing in on LG Electronics.

Samsung Electronics OLED lifestyle image. Samsung Electronics.

With this trend, some predict that Samsung Electronics could soon surpass LG Electronics in the OLED market based on revenue.

The competition between the two companies is particularly fierce in the North American OLED TV market. According to Omdia, in the first quarter of this year, Samsung Electronics took first place in the North American OLED market with a revenue share of 46.1%, narrowly edging out LG Electronics at 45.3%.

LG Electronics asserts that these figures are based on 'sell-in' estimates, which measure shipments from manufacturers to retailers. The company claims it is the leader when measured by 'sell-out'—actual sales to consumers. According to market research firm Circana, which uses the sell-out method, LG Electronics has a market share of 50.8%, while Samsung Electronics holds 35.8%.

The gap between the two companies is narrowing not only in revenue but also in shipments. In the first quarter of this year, LG Electronics had a 50.5% share and Samsung Electronics 35.7% in the global OLED TV market by shipments.

Over the past four years, LG Electronics' share has declined from 62.2% in the first quarter of 2022 to 50.5%, while Samsung Electronics has jumped from 0.2% to 35.7%.

As Chinese companies such as TCL and Hisense have launched aggressive low-price strategies, competition between Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics has shifted to the OLED TV segment and the premium market for TVs priced above $1,500. In the first quarter of this year, Samsung Electronics held a 50.1% share of the TV market above $1,500, while LG Electronics had 24%. In the market for TVs priced above $2,500, Samsung Electronics held 53.4% and LG Electronics 20.4%.

Chinese companies have already surpassed their Korean counterparts in the overall TV market. In the first quarter of this year, Chinese brands accounted for a combined 32.1% share of the global TV market by shipments: TCL with 14.9% (second place), Hisense with 12.2% (third place), and Xiaomi with 5% (fifth place). By comparison, South Korean companies accounted for a combined 28.7%—Samsung Electronics at 18.5% (first place) and LG Electronics at 10.2% (fourth place).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.