Matter Is Winning the Smart Home — Slowly
Three years after the Matter standard launched with a promise to end smart home fragmentation, a fresh look at the products actually on store shelves shows real progress — and a long way still to go. According to Smart Home Compared’s 2026 statistics page, updated November 5, 2026, 31.7% of the 1,285 smart home products it tracks now support Matter. That is a solid minority, not a majority, but the trend line points firmly upward: 41% of products launched in 2025 support Matter, up from 27.8% in 2020.
The dataset behind the numbers is substantial. Smart Home Compared tracks 1,285 products across 40 categories and 108 brands, with 54,800 verified data points drawn from manufacturers’ own documentation. It is a curated catalog of products worth comparing rather than a census of the entire market, so the figures describe the mainstream products shoppers actually encounter, not every gadget ever made. Even with that caveat, the picture it paints is the clearest snapshot yet of where Matter stands in late 2026.
The Trend Line Favors Matter
The most encouraging number for Matter supporters is the launch-year trend. Among products released in 2025, 41% support Matter — a sharp rise from 27.8% among products launched in 2020. In other words, a buyer shopping for a new device today is far more likely to find Matter support than someone shopping five years ago. And 2026 is shaping up to be the biggest launch year in the catalog, with 331 products already tracked as launched this year.
The shift is coming at the expense of older protocols. Zigbee, long the workhorse of the enthusiast smart home, appeared in 33.3% of products launched in 2020 but only 14.3% of those launched in 2025. Manufacturers are increasingly choosing Matter — usually over Wi-Fi — as the default way to connect a new product, rather than building on Zigbee. The standard’s backers, including Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung, have made Matter the path of least resistance for new hardware.
That momentum also shows up in the broader ecosystem picture. Home Assistant works with 87% of the products tracked — more than any other platform — followed by Amazon Alexa at 1,029 products, Google Home at 939, SmartThings at 648 and Apple HomeKit at 534. Nearly four in ten products (39.5%) work with Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomeKit all at once, a level of cross-platform compatibility that would have been unthinkable before Matter.
Thread Remains the Weak Link
If Matter is the success story, Thread is the unfinished one. Only 6% of the products tracked carry a Thread radio, making it the least adopted protocol in the catalog. Just 17.4% of Matter products also include Thread; the rest reach Matter over Wi-Fi instead.
That gap matters because Thread is the low-power mesh network Matter was designed to run on for battery-powered devices such as sensors, locks and switches. Wi-Fi works fine for plugged-in gear, but a sensor that must sip power for years needs Thread. The slow uptake helps explain why some categories still lag: only 8.7% of thermostats and 12.5% of presence sensors in the catalog carry a Thread radio.
The infrastructure is catching up, though. Thread border routers are now built into many speakers, displays and hubs — including Apple’s HomePod mini 2 and HomeView, and Amazon’s new Echo Dot — so the network backbone is increasingly already in people’s homes. The devices themselves are simply arriving more slowly than the hubs that support them.
Some Categories Are Still Waiting for Matter
The adoption picture varies dramatically by product type, and cameras are the starkest example. Only 3.4% of the cameras tracked support Matter, and doorbells and alarm systems sit at 0%. That is not a surprise: Matter only added support for cameras in version 1.5, announced in November 2025, so camera makers have had barely a year to build it in. Home Assistant 2026.11, released this week, is among the first major platforms to add Matter camera support, including two-way audio for compatible models — an early sign that the camera gap may finally start closing in 2027.
At the other end of the spectrum, lighting has effectively standardized on Matter. Every lamp tracked supports it, along with 94.7% of ceiling lights, 77.3% of light strips and 75% of LED bulbs. Plugs (63%), window coverings (66.7%) and radiator valves (64.3%) are well over halfway there. Door locks sit at 56.9% — respectable, and likely to climb as Matter over Thread becomes the default for battery-powered locks.
The laggards tell their own story. Robot lawn mowers (0%), sirens (0%), robotic pool cleaners (4.2%) and garage door openers (7.7%) barely register, largely because Matter has only recently added — or has yet to add — the device types and features these products need. The standard is expanding category by category, and the catalog numbers show exactly which shelves it has reached and which it has not.
What This Means for Buyers
For anyone buying smart home gear this holiday season, the data supports a few practical conclusions. First, Matter support is now common enough in lighting, plugs and locks that it is reasonable to expect it — and worth checking for — in those categories. Second, cameras and doorbells remain the exception: if cross-platform camera support matters to you, check the spec sheet carefully rather than assuming Matter is there. Third, Thread is still rare enough that a home full of battery-powered sensors will likely need a mix of radios for a while yet, even if your hub already includes a Thread border router.
There is also a concentration warning hidden in the numbers. Just 13 of the 108 brands tracked account for half the catalog between them, and the median product price is $109.95, ranging from $9.99 to $4,250. The smart home market is still dominated by a small set of large brands, and Matter’s rise has not yet flattened that landscape.
The overall direction, however, is unmistakable. Matter has gone from a promise in 2022 to the connectivity choice for two in five new products in 2025, while Zigbee fades and Wi-Fi carries most of the load. Thread and cameras are the next frontiers. If the current trajectory holds, the 2027 edition of these statistics should show Matter crossing the halfway mark for new launches — the point at which the standard stops being a selling point and becomes the default.
Source: Smart Home Compared, “Smart Home Statistics 2026: Matter, Thread and Ecosystem Adoption,” updated November 5, 2026 (smarthomecompared.com/stats). Figures reflect the site’s catalog of 1,285 products, not the entire smart home market.