Windows 11 reaches 35% market share, but Windows 10 still leads by a wide margin

What it means The rising adoption of Home windows 11 is a constructive signal for Microsoft, indicating that customers are regularly overcoming preliminary hesitations concerning the OS. Nonetheless, with Home windows 10 nonetheless commanding a lot of the market share, Microsoft should pace up this transition to make sure a clean handover earlier than Home windows 10 help ends.

Microsoft’s Home windows 11 is lastly gaining vital traction available in the market, practically three years after its preliminary launch. In accordance with latest information from Statcounter, Home windows 11 reached an all-time excessive market share of 35.55 p.c in October 2024 – a rise of two.13 proportion factors from the earlier month.

This acceleration is a notable shift from the sluggish progress of the previous yr. In October 2023, Home windows 11 held simply 26.17 p.c of the market share, with minimal month-to-month adjustments and even occasional declines. The latest surge means that customers are more and more embracing Microsoft’s newest working system.

As Home windows 11 positive aspects floor, Home windows 10 is experiencing a proportional decline in its consumer base. The older working system now accounts for 60.95 p.c of all Home windows customers, approaching the 60 p.c mark for the primary time since September 2019. This represents a lower of 1.8 proportion factors from the earlier month.

In the meantime, Home windows 7, regardless of being unsupported, retains a small however persistent consumer base of two.62 p.c. Older variations like Home windows 8.1 and Home windows XP proceed to linger with minimal market shares of 0.31 p.c and 0.28 p.c, respectively.

Within the general working system market, which incorporates cell platforms, Home windows holds the second place with a 26.83 p.c share, barely rising by 0.13 factors in October 2024. Android leads the pack with 44.62 p.c, whereas iOS follows Home windows with 18.49 p.c.

There are a number of probably explanation why Home windows 11 adoption is accelerating. As older {hardware} reaches the tip of its lifecycle, customers usually tend to improve to new gadgets pre-installed with Home windows 11. Moreover, the approaching finish of help for Home windows 10, scheduled for October 14, 2025, is probably going prompting each particular person customers and companies to think about upgrading their programs.

Microsoft has additionally been actively selling Home windows 11, highlighting its enhanced security measures, improved efficiency, and integration with AI applied sciences. The introduction of Copilot has been a major promoting level for the brand new working system.

Nonetheless, the transition to Home windows 11 has not been with out challenges. The working system’s strict {hardware} necessities, together with the necessity for TPM 2.0 and comparatively latest processors, have prevented many customers from upgrading their current machines. This limitation has probably contributed to the slower adoption fee in comparison with earlier Home windows variations.

Regardless of these hurdles, the gaming group has proven a stronger inclination in direction of Home windows 11. Steam’s {hardware} survey information exhibits that Home windows 11 has surpassed Home windows 10 as its customers’ hottest working system.

Because the end-of-support date for Home windows 10 approaches, Microsoft is predicted to accentuate its efforts to encourage customers to improve. The corporate has already begun displaying notifications on Home windows 10 programs, reminding customers of the upcoming help deadline. For many who want to proceed utilizing Home windows 10 after October 2025, Microsoft will supply prolonged safety updates, however at a further value and for a restricted time.