Nikon Z9 is the best-selling flagship camera since the Nikon D3!

Nikon Z9
(Image credit: James Artaius)

It has been revealed that the Nikon Z9 is the manufacturer's highest-selling flagship camera since the Nikon D3. 

As impressive as the Nikon Z9 is, being its best professional camera, this seems an astronomical fact given that the D3 was the camera that really launched Nikon back into the professional market (with its, at the time, high ISO capabilities and continuous shooting abilities). 

This information was released in the latest Nikon financial report, which saw the company boast a 28% increase in revenue and a 122% increase in operating profit. Those are some impressive numbers, and you can see why when the Nikon Z9 is so good.

Nikon Z9 with Nikon Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S (Image credit: Nikon)

This is a very bold claim from Nikon, and its internal information, but I feel that the Z9 will be soon piped to the post by the recently announced Nikon Z8. According to a report by Nikon Rumors, retailers are already seeing an influx of orders over that of the Nikon Z9.

These findings also coincide with our previously reported news that the Nikon Z9 has claimed a 57% market share in the professional mirrorless market, according to Nikon. This data is based on a comparison of US unit sales of full-frame mirrorless cameras with an average selling price of $5,000 and above in the first three months of 2022.

While these figures look great for Nikon and the Nikon Z9, we can't forget that the Z9 has a tremendous issue with stock availability – something it still struggles with from time to time even today, two years after its announcement.

Whichever way you look at it, Nikon has come a long way since its DSLR days. And while this information isn't entirely clear on which cameras it includes, only mentioning "flagships", it would be interesting to see how the Nikon Z9 would fair against the last DSLR wonder from Nikon, the Nikon D850 – which is still regarded as the best Nikon camera ever made for the DSLR series. 

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Sebastian Oakley
Ecommerce Editor

For nearly two decades Sebastian's work has been published internationally. Originally specialising in Equestrianism, his visuals have been used by the leading names in the equestrian industry such as The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), The Jockey Club, Horse & Hound and many more for various advertising campaigns, books and pre/post-event highlights.


He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, holds a Foundation Degree in Equitation Science and is a Master of Arts in Publishing.  He is member of Nikon NPS and has been a Nikon user since the film days using a Nikon F5 and saw the digital transition with Nikon's D series cameras and is still to this day the youngest member to be elected in to BEWA, The British Equestrian Writers' Association. 


He is familiar with and shows great interest in medium and large format photography with products by Phase One, Hasselblad, Alpa and Sinar and has used many cinema cameras from the likes of Sony, RED, ARRI and everything in between. His work covers the genres of Equestrian, Landscape, Abstract or Nature and combines nearly two decades of experience to offer exclusive limited-edition prints to the international stage from his film & digital photography.