In a historic shift for global retail and tech giants, Amazon has surpassed Walmart to become the company with the highest annual revenue worldwide. This marks the first time in more than a decade that Walmart, long the undisputed leader in sales volume, has been overtaken in this metric.
According to Amazon’s fiscal year results ending December 2025, the e-commerce and cloud computing powerhouse reported $716.924 billion in total revenue. Walmart, whose fiscal year ends in January, posted $713.163 billion for its most recent fiscal period (ending January 2025). The difference amounts to roughly $3.761 billion, representing a narrow but decisive margin of about 0.5%.
Amazon’s revenue grew by 12.4% year-over-year, driven significantly by its diversified business model. Product sales contributed $296.266 billion, while services — including third-party seller fees, subscriptions (such as Prime), and advertising — generated $420.658 billion. A major growth engine was Amazon Web Services (AWS), which recorded $128.725 billion in revenue, up 19.7% from the previous year.
Reports indicate that Amazon’s quarterly revenues had already exceeded Walmart’s in some recent periods; for instance, in one quarter highlighted in early 2025 comparisons, Amazon posted $187.8 billion against Walmart’s $180.5 billion.
Walmart, the traditional retail behemoth, has seen steady expansion over the past two decades, effectively doubling its revenues during that time. The company continues to show strong digital progress, with U.S. e-commerce sales growing 27% in its latest fourth fiscal quarter and maintaining double-digit growth in that segment for 15 consecutive quarters. Despite these gains, Walmart’s reliance on physical stores and grocery sales has not matched the explosive scaling of Amazon’s cloud services, marketplace ecosystem, and subscription offerings.
The milestone underscores the ongoing transformation of the global economy, where technology-driven platforms increasingly outpace traditional brick-and-mortar retail in revenue generation. Amazon’s rise to the top spot by sales reflects the growing dominance of cloud computing, digital advertising, and e-commerce logistics over conventional merchandising.
While Amazon previously achieved a market capitalization exceeding $2 trillion in 2024, and Walmart became the first pure retail company to surpass $1 trillion in market value in February 2025, the revenue leadership shift focuses purely on top-line sales rather than stock valuation.
This development positions Amazon as the new benchmark for corporate scale by revenue, ending Walmart’s long reign that dated back to the early 2010s. Analysts view it as a symbolic victory for the tech sector amid intensifying competition in retail, logistics, and cloud infrastructure.
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