Last month, Counterpoint Research revealed that TCL came within a hair’s breadth of breaking Samsung’s 20-year grip on the global TV business, and now the evidence is piling up that it will leapfrog the Korean giant as the world’s biggest TV manufacturer this year.
While Samsung once again claimed the number one spot as the world’s largest TV manufacturer in terms of global shipments, and also led the way in the fourth quarter of 2025, Counterpoint’s latest data shows that it was finally surpassed by TCL in December. What’s more, TCL established quite a comfortable lead over its rival, accounting for 16% of all TV shipments that month, compared to just 13% for Samsung.
For the last two decades, Samsung has led the industry every single year in both unit sales and revenue. But while it’s likely to maintain dominance of the latter category for a while yet, thanks to the premium prices of its TVs, it’s probably going to sell less products overall than TCL in 2026.
Samsung and its Korean counterpart LG Electronics have dominated the industry for years, but Chinese brands have intensified their efforts to catch them since the turn of the decade. TCL and Hisense have already overtaken LG in terms of unit shipments, and both have been gaining ground on Samsung.
China has made big gains elsewhere in the TV industry. For instance, Samsung and LG have completely abandoned LCD panel production because Chinese display makers have figured out how to manufacture the products far more cheaply. The Korean companies still hold the lead in OLED, but recent developments suggest they could be challenged in that segment in the coming years too.
All the signs suggest that Korea’s dominance of the TV industry is beginning to wane. Last year, TCL held a 16% share of overall TV shipments, just below Samsung at 17%. It has been growing fast, and Counterpoint’s Bob O'Brien believes it will be hard to stop.
“A year-end surge pushed TCL past Samsung in December,” he said. “Although it is only for one month, TCL's shipments are consistently growing on a year-over-year basis while Samsung's shipments have been stagnant.”
O'Brien says 2026 should be the year that TCL finally topples Samsung and becomes the world’s number one manufacturer of TVs. Moreover, he believes that TCL may also be able to threaten Samsung’s domination of the premium TV segment, where it still remains well ahead. While Samsung does sell cheaper TVs, its focus these days is primarily on higher-end models such as its QD-OLED, Micro RGB and Mini-LED models.
TCL has a few premium TVs of its own, but it’s set to get a real boost from its imminent partnership with Sony, which is set to begin operations next year. Under that arrangement, Sony is basically canceling its own TV manufacturing business to start a joint venture with TCL, with the Chinese firm being the majority owner of the new organization.
“If TCL were to gradually strengthen its presence in the premium segment through its alliance with Sony, it could pose a greater competitive threat to Samsung going forward," O’Brien said.
