Amazon Posts $200B Quarter But Goes Silent on Prime Day Performance

Quick Facts

Amazon reported Q2 2026 total net sales of $200.6 billion, up 20% year over year, the first time the company has crossed $200 billion in a single quarter.
AWS grew 36.7% year over year to $42.2 billion in revenue, its fastest growth rate in 18 quarters, and now accounts for nearly 61% of Amazon’s total operating profit.
Amazon offered no performance language about Prime Day 2026, a sharp departure from 2025 when it called the event its biggest ever.

Amazon reported its strongest quarter on record July 30, but executives said almost nothing about Prime Day. The company’s Q2 2026 earnings release described record delivery speeds and strong advertising growth. It did not describe how the June 23-26 shopping event performed.

In 2025, Amazon’s Q2 release called Prime Day its “biggest Prime Day event ever, with customers saving billions of dollars.” This year, that language was absent.

Total net sales hit $200.6 billion for the quarter, up 20% from $167.7 billion a year earlier. Operating income rose 43% to $27.5 billion. Amazon reported EPS of $5.75, well ahead of Wall Street estimates of $1.81 per share.

Net income reached $62.6 billion, but that figure includes $53.4 billion in non-operating income tied to mark-to-market gains on Amazon’s stake in Anthropic. Analysts cautioned the headline net income number does not reflect operating performance.

AWS Dominates the Story

Amazon Web Services brought in $42.2 billion in revenue, an annualized run rate of $169 billion. AWS operating income hit $16.6 billion at a 39.4% operating margin, up from $10.2 billion a year earlier.

CEO Andy Jassy said AWS growth accelerated for the fifth straight quarter and that AI and chip businesses each crossed $25 billion annualized run rates. “The demand we already have for 2028 is striking,” Jassy said, adding that Amazon now believes AWS could “very possibly” become a trillion-dollar annual revenue business.

The AWS backlog stood at $496 billion, growing triple digits. Jassy said Amazon will not have enough capacity to meet demand in 2026 or 2027.

What Third-Party Data Shows on Prime Day

Without Amazon’s own figures, third-party data fills the gap. Adobe Analytics tracked U.S. online retail spend across all retailers at $26.4 billion during the four-day event, up 9.3% year over year. Day one alone hit $8.3 billion, a record that exceeded Adobe’s $7.9 billion projection and marked a 5.3% increase from the prior year.

Mobile accounted for 51.2% of all online sales on opening day, another record. The average order fell to $47.66 from $53.34 the year before. Buy now, pay later orders rose 9.5%, totaling roughly $2.1 billion in spending.

Shopper satisfaction dropped despite discount levels that largely matched 2025. Only 59% of shoppers said they were satisfied with deals, down from 68% a year earlier. The average household spent $143.45, compared with $156.37 in 2025.

Target ran Circle Deal Days over the same period. Walmart Deals ran June 22 through June 28.

Advertising and Retail Round Out the Quarter

Amazon’s online store net sales grew 15% year over year to $70.4 billion. Advertising services revenue rose 26% to $19.8 billion. North America segment sales climbed 16% to $116.2 billion. International segment sales grew 15% to $42.2 billion.

Emarketer principal analyst Sky Canaves said Amazon “beat expectations while improving margins, offsetting the pressures of the tentpole event and record delivery speeds thanks to a substantial bump in ad revenues from the shift.” Emarketer analyst Zak Stambor noted a drop in shopper satisfaction during Prime Day, adding that “consumers are getting harder to please.”

Physical store net sales grew 4% to $5.8 billion. Jassy said grocery and everyday essentials grew faster than the rest of the business in the first half of 2026.