Realme began in May 2018 when Oppo launched the Realme 1 smartphone. It has then diversified into its own brand.

Realme is owned by Chinese consumer hardware giant BBK Electronics which also owns the Oppo and Vivo brands. Sky Li, founder and CEO of Realme announced that the company has reached 200 million shipments in just over five years, which is over 40 million smartphones per year.

To put that milestone into perspective, only four companies have taken less time to ship the same number of units according to data from market analytics firm Counterpoint Research. Those companies are Samsung, Apple, Vivo and Huawei. In total, only 14 companies globally have ever shipped over 200 million phones to date.

Realme is popular with fans for its affordable devices with features that are way above the price segment. Their latest device is the Realme 11 Pro (shown below) which brings unique design, AMOLED screen, 100MP camera and super-fast 67W charging for under $300 starting price.

“We came into existence when there were over 700 smartphone brands in the world,” said Xu Qi, Realme’s chief marketing officer. “We are extremely proud that we have been able to be in the world’s top 10 brands for the past five years.”

Xu said Realme was ready to take on premium phones with its upcoming launch, the Realme GT 5 Pro, which will be among the first handsets to feature Qualcomm’s latest high-end chip the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Sony’s LYT-T808 (OIS support included) camera sensor.