As Insta360 Sells Its 10 Millionth Camera, It Opens First Flagship Store In the US
Insta360 officially opened its first flagship retail store outside Asia today, September 19, 2026, and PetaPixel was on the ground in New York City’s famed Times Square for the grand opening.
Insta360 Opens Its First Retail Location in the United States
The new flagship Insta360 retail location in one of the busiest areas in the biggest city in the United States marks a major moment for Insta360, which first entered the U.S. market a decade ago. From its founding as a startup in 2015 to a brick-and-mortar location in New York City is a meteoric rise.
Full disclosurePetaPixel attended Insta360’s grand opening experience in New York as part of a paid collaboration.
The New York flagship store’s grand opening comes at an auspicious moment for Insta360, as the company has just surpassed 10 million cameras shipped worldwide.
The company is the established leader in the 360° camera market. Still, it is also making new waves in other product categories, including gimbal cameras designed for content creators with the brand-new Luna series, comprising the dual-lens Luna Ultra and Luna Pro, both of which feature cameras co-engineered with the legendary camera brand, Leica.
The New York flagship is the American wing of Insta360’s broader global retail strategy, which includes a Tokyo location opened last month, dozens of authorized stores across Asia, and a future European expansion, which will at least include a Munich location.
“Reaching 10 million cameras shipped worldwide is a milestone we owe to our community, but opening in Times Square is about building lasting roots,” says Max Richter, Co-founder and VP of Marketing at Insta360.
“This store opening is about more than just selling into the U.S.; it reflects our long-term commitment to the American creator ecosystem. We look forward to continuing our support for local creators, connecting directly with everyday users, and making innovative imaging tech approachable for anyone with a story to tell,” Richter continues.
Insta360’s new retail presence comes during a rapidly changing period in the U.S. camera market. DJI’s issues with the U.S. government are widely known and create new opportunities for the companies that can freely sell their products inside the U.S. Another company in the creator camera space, GoPro, is experiencing its own upheaval. GoPro just recently entered into an agreement to be acquired by optical data company, Starman Optical, for $285 million amid consistent financial problems.
The Experiential Element of Insta360 Cameras
While part of the new store’s purpose is, of course, selling cameras to customers in-person, it’s also about expanding Insta360’s reach more generally and giving customers, including the many who visit Times Square from far-flung places around the rest of the U.S. and beyond, the chance to try out Insta360’s cameras for themselves.
With a 360° camera, it can be challenging to show customers exactly what it can do and why they might want one. Hands-on product testing, in-person education, and a community space are all integral components of the store.
“A lot of people know us from social media. They know this unique effects you can get with our products. Like think about an invisible self-stick effect. I think there’s a lot of viral videos out there, but usually it’s a challenge to educate users about the technology behind it, what’s the product behind it?” Richter tells PetaPixel.
“I think having these brand experience is a way that we can really educate consumers more, introducing them to the Insta360 ecosystem. It’s not just 360 cameras that we do. And it’s also an opportunity to introduce certain accessories and features that are a little bit harder to explain. And it’s in the nature of Instant 360 that we usually do very innovative products, very innovative features that naturally require a lot of explanation, a lot of education,” Richter continues.
“The store, the brand experience, there is something that can really enable more consumer education and engagement. And apart from that, we also see these stores as a way to really build a community around Insta360 cameras,” Richter says. “It’s really about building a community space as well. And I hope that’s what we can accomplish with this first store.”
“We are thrilled to welcome an innovative, industry-leading brand like Insta360 to the Crossroads of the World,” adds Tom Harris, President of the Times Square Alliance.
“Times Square has always been a global stage for creativity, culture, and cutting-edge technology, making it the perfect home for Insta360’s flagship store and a fantastic addition to our dynamic retail landscape.”
Shortly before Insta360’s doors opened around noon, hundreds of people, if not over a thousand, had queued up in Times Square. The very first customer had been waiting in line since 2:30 AM and was rewarded for his dedication with a unique, one-of-a-kind Insta360 Luna Ultra camera with special gold engravings.
A Period of Transition for Insta360
2026 has been an especially busy year for Insta360. Its new flagship 360° camera, the X6, arrived this summer, promising better image quality in a more compact design than its predecessor and featuring a pair of custom Sony Type 1/1.1 image sensors. With these new sensors, the X6 is more than just a 360° camera; it’s also designed to be used as a single-lens action camera and a subject-tracking gimbal camera.
Speaking of gimbal cameras, Insta360 also launched the Luna series gimbal cameras this year, including the excellent Luna Ultra.
It is Insta360’s strong response to DJI’s popular Osmo Pocket series cameras, the latest of which have not yet made their way to the U.S. market. However, Insta360 didn’t just crib DJI’s homework, and the Luna’s unique detachable display-slash-remote controller has proven very popular with users so far, including PetaPixel‘s Jordan Drake.
While cameras like the 360° X6 and content creator-friendly Luna models are undoubtedly the crown jewel in Insta360’s lineup, the newly opened retail location also features Insta360’s thumb-sized GO cameras, the company’s wireless audio solutions, and its array of accessories and special cases that enable its cameras to do a wide range of things.
PetaPixel has reported about many of these highly unusual imaging use cases over the years, including award-winning photographers and filmmakers putting Insta360 cameras inside shark’s mouths, sending Insta360 cameras to the edge of space, and even getting some cameras melted by a rocket launch.
While very few people will ever put their camera in a shark’s mouth or strap it to a rocket ship, Insta360’s new Times Square retail location represents the company’s mission to put more cameras into more hands. Whether people want to just capture their family memories in ways their smartphones can’t or set off on a professional content creation career, imaging matters and more people picking up cameras is undeniably good.
One of the attendees at the grand opening was professional photographer and videographer Anthony Quintano, who has been using Insta360 cameras for nearly as long as Insta360 has existed. One of Quintano’s most viral videos was shot on an Insta360 camera in late 2019, as he prepared to set up the broadcast cameras for the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square.
“I have pretty much almost every model since they first came out,” Quintano tells PetaPixel of his rich history with Insta360 cameras.
“I follow technology very closely and I loved the 360 experience when it first came out. And I noticed, you know, like other companies starting to come up with their 360 cameras, but it was Insta360’s camera that I liked most because of the ease of use — because speed is everything in the digital world and the social media world. So the fact that I can get such a high quality image and be able to grab multiple angles from a single reporting after the fact was huge for me as a creator.”
“I can’t tell you how many times I take out that selfie stick and Insta360 camera and immediately attract attention. ‘What is that? What are you doing?’ And I show them my screen, and I show them that you can look around and you capture all of this. And it’s just that awe factor.
“Not only is it exciting for me as a creator, but to get excitement from the people who are viewing my content means a lot to me.”
Quintano, who used to live in New York, says he remembers when Times Square was full of camera stores, selling compact little film cameras.
“To be here and not just capture a U.S. audience, but a global audience that comes to visit Times Square and bring awareness to how easy this camera is and try it, that’s the key, to be able to get experience and see it. It’s one thing to see influencer videos and stuff, but to actually get your hands on it is very important. And once you see how easy it is I would think that’d be a motivating factor to invest in this camera,” he concludes.
A Big Moment for Insta360
As PetaPixel has reported before, the company has some wild camera goals the world still hasn’t seen yet. Insta360’s founder, JK Liu, recently told PetaPixel about his dream for a camera system that utilizes cutting-edge optics, motion control, and AI to become an essentially invisible part of the image-making process.
Whenever that dream is ready for the world, people will be able to check it out firsthand in retail locations worldwide. Insta360 has come a long way since its founding in 2015 and the launch of its first camera, the Nano, in 2016.
Full disclosurePetaPixel attended Insta360’s grand opening experience as part of a paid collaboration.
Image creditsInsta360
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