While movies use box office earnings as a yardstick to decide the highest-grossing and consequently the most successful films, there is no recognised yardstick when it comes to pianos. How is it possible then to have a decisive ranking of the top 10 best selling piano brands in the world?

The truth is, no one can give you a definitive list of the top 10. 

This is because choosing a piano is a very subjective and personal matter, and it is a different experience from person to person. Even famous composers like Beethoven, Liszt, Ravel, and Bartok have their own favourite piano brands. Everyone is looking out for something that makes the piano truly his. Thus, a piano that is perfect for you, might not be the choice of another.

And not surprisingly, a search on the Internet shows that for every website that presents such a list, there is a disclaimer stating what is presented represents a personal opinion, and the reader is cautioned not to rely solely on the published information and he should exercise his own judgement. 

Well, here's a proposal. Statistically speaking, if we collect enough samples with a high confidence level, we might establish a list of top 10 piano manufacturers with a high probability that they are really worthy. In other words, if a particular piano brand is present in all the sample lists, we can take a leap of faith and believe it is indeed one of the best. The picture below shows the compiled data, with the piano brands sorted from the most mentioned to the least.