AirPods and Beats make up half of the U.S. headphone market

Air Pods Pro on stage (Image credit: Rene Ritchie / iMore)

What you need to know

AirPods and Beats make up half of the headphone market in the United States.
The number come from a recent consumer survey conducted by Statista.
Bose came in third behind Apple's brands.

AirPods and Beats continue to dominate the headphone market in the United States.

New data from analytics firm Statista show that Apple's two headphone brands make up about half of the U.S. headphone and earbud market. According to Statista's Global Consumer Survey, which questioned 4,220 adults over the course of 2021, over thirty-four percent of them used AirPods while fifteen percent of them used Beats.

AirPods and Beats, which are both owned by Apple, therefore make up over 49% of the headphone market in the country. Bose, which came in third, only had twelve percent ownership of the market.

AirPods, now in their third generation, are quite possibly the most popular headphones on the planet. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, estimates that AirPods have grown into a $20 billion annual business and are on track to sell 100 million units this year.According to Statista's Global Consumer Survey, Apple is the most popular headphone brand in the U.S. by a considerable distance. Having asked 4,220 U.S. adults about their personal headphones, Statista found that 34.4 percent of respondents used one of Apple's products, followed by Apple-owned Beats in second position at 15.3 percent.

Statista Headphone Market (Image credit: Statista)

AirPods alone have, if the estimates are correct, become a Fortune 100 business just by themselves. Apple's latest AirPods release is the third generation AirPods which came out in the fall of 2021. The company is also expected to release the second generation of AirPods Pro later this year.

AirPods 3

Bottom line: With better battery life, a completely new design, new features like Spatial Audio, and an IPX4 rating, the AirPods 3 are better than ever before. Plus, they sound better than the previous models and other than ANC, have pretty much all the same features as the AirPods Pro. These are fantastic AirPods for anyone looking to upgrade or buy their first pair.

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.

Latest in Airpods