There is some more fake news I need to debunk today (again) – Amazon’s sales rankings are not an indication that a certain camera model sells better than another camera model (I have been repeating this for years). Here are the current Amazon mirrorless camera best sellers:
And here is the screenshot I took just a few days ago because I knew I would have to debunk this again (click for larger view):
As many of you already know, Amazon’s sales ranking is a very complex, algorithm-driven list that is updated hourly – even Amazon tells us that:
“While the Amazon Best Sellers list is a good indicator of how well a product is selling overall, it doesn’t always indicate how well an item is selling among other similar items.” (source)
Usually, every new camera gets to the #1 spot due to the large number of pre-orders. New shipments can also trigger an increased number of orders that could also reshuffle the list. There are many other inputs/signals that are used to build this list and they probably even include your personal search history/preference. The above ranking may even change by the time you read this post!
The situation is the same with B&H top selling cameras and Adorama’s best sellers.
In a typical Sony fashion (see this and this post), some trolls are waiting for the numbers to align favorably in order to prove… nothing. So remember, every time someone mentions Amazon sales rankings as an indication of what camera sells better, a puppy dies somewhere.
I am not even going to again discuss the use of Google Trends to show what camera is better (see this post).
