Approximately 7,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide last year for industrial and professional use, according to figures from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) seen by Reuters.
That number is still small in relation to the overall robot market. In 2024, for example, around 542,000 conventional industrial robots were installed and roughly 199,000 service robots were sold for applications such as transport, hospitality and cleaning.
Even so, market players expect strong growth in the coming years, especially in China, which is the largest market in the world for industrial robots. In recent robot competitions, China has showcased demonstrations of humanoid robots that can run and box, among other things.
The IFR has only recently begun collecting figures for humanoid robots separately. The organisation has been doing this for industrial and service robots for around thirty years. As a result, these 7,000 units sold are among the first available sector-wide measurements of the size of the humanoid robot market.
Many of the humanoid robots sold in 2025 are not yet performing genuinely productive work. Research institutes and companies, for instance, bought them to collect data that can be used to further improve AI models.
Carmakers are among the most important early users. They are currently running pilot projects in which usually only a few, and sometimes dozens, of robots are deployed in their factories at the same time.
Bank of America Global Research expects a much larger market in the coming years: according to its estimate, around 90,000 humanoid robots will be shipped in 2026 and that number could rise to 1.2 million by 2030.
The IFR figures are based on data from robot manufacturers and national industry associations. Consumer robots and military humanoid robots are not included; medical robots are categorised separately by the IFR.
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