Statcounter: only 15% of Windows users upgraded to Windows 11

Statcounter has published its monthly report, revealing the latest details about operating systems running on all sorts of devices across the globe. According to Statcounter, Microsoft's latest installment of Windows is not tremendously popular among Windows customers—only 15% of Windows PCs run Microsoft's latest operating system.

Windows 11 gained 1.83 points in October 2022, climbing from 13.61% to 15.44%. As of now, Windows 11 is the second most popular version, sitting 5.83 points higher than now-dead Windows 7 with a 9.61% market share. Windows 10, on the other hand, remains in the unreachable (for now) zone with a 71.29% share.

Windows 8.1, 8, and XP split the remaining breadcrumbs of the pie. Statcounter says Windows 8.1 currently holds 2.51%, Windows 8 has 0.69%, and Windows XP still runs on 0.39% of all PCs. Overall, Windows has 75.93% of the global desktop OS market, Apple's macOS has 15.74%, Linux 2.6%, and ChromeOS 2.38%.

It is worth noting that Statcounter's data differs significantly from the latest AdDuplex findings published in early September 2022. The latter claims Windows 11 has more than 23%, 12 points higher than the newest info from Statcounter. The difference between the two findings is due to different data collection methods. AdDuplex gets its stats from Microsoft Store apps containing the AdDuplex SDK (approximately 5,000 titles), whereas Statcounter's reports are based on info gathered from more than 1.5 million websites. Microsoft, unfortunately, does not provide official numbers on its operating system, so the exact values and market shares remain anybody's guess.

Even though Microsoft has already released one and a half feature updates for Windows 11, the OS's growth is unlikely to break records any time soon. And it is not just personal preference—another survey shows that about half of workstations do not meet Windows 11's hardware requirements, thus unable to get from Windows 10 to 11. Controversial feature changes, steep hardware requirements, and frequent bugs keep haunting Windows 11, likely resulting in a slower market share growth than Windows 10 was able to achieve after its first year on the market.