Over the past ten years, the ranking of Xiaomi's smartphone shipments has witnessed notable shifts. During the second quarter of 2016, data from IDC illustrated that amidst the flourishing offline sales channels, OPPO and Vivo surged ahead. Concurrently, Xiaomi, along with Lenovo and TCL, dropped out of the top five in China for the first time, finding itself relegated to the 'Others' category. At that juncture, the growth of global smartphone shipments was on a decline, with Samsung, Apple, and Huawei securing the top three spots. Leveraging their offline strengths, OPPO and Vivo made it into the top five, whereas Xiaomi's sales suffered due to sluggish technological innovation, a diminished cost-performance edge, and the emergence of fierce competitors.

Ten years later, in the first quarter of 2026, history seemed to rhyme as Xiaomi once again slipped out of the top five in China, returning to the 'Others' category. Omdia's data disclosed that Xiaomi's domestic shipments in the first quarter plummeted by 35% year-on-year, marking it as the most severely affected among the leading manufacturers. This downturn was mainly ascribed to skyrocketing supply chain costs, particularly the escalating prices of memory chips, which eroded Xiaomi's reliance on cost-performance. Simultaneously, Huawei further encroached upon Xiaomi's market share by offering discounts in lower-tier markets and introducing budget-friendly models.