Shipments, units sold, deliveries: why humanoid numbers disagree
Three words that sound alike describe three different moments in a robot's life. Mixing them is the most common reason two reports give different totals.
Short answer: a shipment is a robot leaving the factory, a sale is a contract with a customer, and a delivery is the robot arriving and being accepted. The same robot can fall into different years, or different totals, depending on which one is counted.
The three terms
| Term | What is counted | When it happens | Who usually reports it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shipment | Units leaving the maker, including to distributors | At dispatch | Analysts such as Omdia; some makers |
| Units sold | Units under a sales contract or recognised as revenue | At sale or revenue recognition | Annual reports, prospectuses |
| Delivery | Units received and accepted by the end customer | At hand-over | Makers announcing customer milestones |
How the same robot can be counted three ways
A humanoid that ships to a distributor in December 2025, is sold to a factory in January 2026 and is accepted after a pilot in March 2026 is a 2025 shipment, a 2026 sale and a 2026 delivery. Across thousands of units, these timing gaps alone move annual totals by hundreds.
Two more things that change totals
- Scope. Some counts include wheeled dual-arm robots or small research kits; others count only full-size bipedal humanoids. Unitree's (宇树) prospectus figure, for example, excludes wheeled dual-arm robots.
- Cumulative versus annual. A company may state a cumulative figure ("more than 5,000 to date") that reads like an annual one.
How to read a humanoid volume figure
- Check which of the three words the source uses.
- Check the product scope.
- Check whether it is annual or cumulative.
- Check the source type: a filing, a company statement or an analyst estimate.
We record each figure with its source and an evidence grade, and never add shipments to sales. See every published 2025 figure on our volumes page.