The Top 7,000 Amazon Sellers Get Over Half of All Amazon Sales

The well-known 80/20 rule suggests that 20% of people control 80% of the wealth, leaving the remaining 80% with just 20% of the wealth. While this may sound harsh, the distribution among Amazon sellers is even more severe. Recent statistics reveal that the top 1.6% of sellers on Amazon's US platform generate 50% of the total third-party sales.

These 7,000 sellers dominate half of Amazon's US market, while approximately 490,000 other sellers compete for the remaining half. Overall, the top 20% of sellers account for 90% of the total revenue, leaving the remaining 80% to share just 10% of the Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV).

The dominance of top sellers is accelerating due to rising platform fees and tariffs, which only sellers with strong operational skills and financial resources can withstand. Consequently, smaller sellers are becoming increasingly marginalized.

In 2025, Amazon and its platform sellers sold goods worth $830 billion. Amazon's disclosed information estimates its own sales at $255 billion, while third-party platform sales reached $575 billion. The US third-party GMV is estimated at $305 billion.

Despite the promising figures, the reality is that 400,000 active US sellers are fighting for just 10% of the market share, with the majority of the market controlled by top players. Marketplace Pulse recently published data showing that 7,760 sellers on Amazon's US site contributed to half of the third-party GMV.

In 2023, the number of sellers contributing to this 50% share was less than 15,000, and in under three years, this number has halved. Despite the reduction in numbers, these sellers have seen their GMV grow from $115 billion to $150 billion, with each seller's average annual revenue doubling to nearly $20 million.

Among these top players, US sellers are the majority, making up 55% of the group and controlling 67% of the GMV. Chinese sellers rank second, comprising 41% of the group and accounting for 30% of the GMV. US sellers enjoy higher income levels in Amazon's premium market.

The stratification among sellers is evident across all income brackets. For instance, the top 111 sellers contribute 10% of Amazon's third-party GMV, equating to $30 billion. The top 1,020 sellers contribute 25%, or $75 billion, while the top 36,336 sellers account for 75% of the GMV, or $225 billion. The remaining 40,000 sellers compete for the remaining 10% of the GMV.

• Top 111 sellers: 10% of GMV ($30 billion)
• Top 1,020 sellers: 25% of GMV ($75 billion)
• Top 36,336 sellers: 75% of GMV ($225 billion)

According to statistics, there are approximately 9,000 sellers with annual sales exceeding $5 million, with some top sellers achieving over $1 billion in annual sales. The top 10 sellers on Amazon's US platform can be found on the full list of top sellers, which shows that fewer than 8,000 sellers capture half of the third-party sales.

This increasing market dominance by top sellers is evidenced by the rising share of the GMV they control. The complex operating environment on Amazon, with its layered tariffs and platform fees, requires sellers to have comprehensive management skills and capital reserves to succeed.

Currently, over 60% of the top 10,000 sellers registered before 2019 are seasoned players. From 2021 to 2025, the number of active Amazon sellers decreased from 2.4 million to 1.65 million, with one-third being eliminated. However, the remaining active sellers have seen a 31% increase in traffic.

More than 100,000 sellers now earn over $1 million annually, with 235 sellers earning over $100 million, compared to just 50 previously. Veteran sellers have observed this trend, noting that those who have thrived in recent years are skilled operators, unlike in the past when luck played a larger role.

Despite challenges such as currency fluctuations, complex tax compliance, and platform uncertainties, these issues are manageable for sellers willing to continue striving for success over the next decade. The entry barrier on Amazon has significantly increased, transforming it from a platform anyone could try to one requiring systematic operations from the start to make money.

New sellers face a challenging landscape, with 165,000 new sellers registered in 2025 needing to adapt to a vastly different Amazon than those who joined five or even three years ago. Given the difficulty in turning a profit, the number of new sellers attempting to enter the Amazon marketplace is likely to decrease.

Final Thoughts

The landscape of Amazon's marketplace is increasingly dominated by a small percentage of top sellers who have the resources and expertise to thrive in a complex environment. As the barriers to entry continue to rise, new sellers face significant challenges in establishing themselves.

For those willing to adapt and invest in comprehensive operational strategies, there is still potential for success. However, it is clear that the days of easy profits on Amazon are over, and only those prepared to navigate the intricacies of the platform will succeed in the long term.