Windows 11 has seemingly burst through the wall — market share skyrockets as OS passes 1 billion users

Windows 11 adoption appears to have changed direction, at least according to a single month of figures from Statcounter. The latest stats from the tool states that Windows 11 now has a 62.41% market share — a whopping increase of almost 12 percentage points compared to last month.

While that jump is noteworthy, it's important to place the figure in context. Statcounter does not have access to official figures from Microsoft. It tracks billions of page views across more than 1.5 million websites each month. The company explains its methodology on its website.

That data is useful for looking at browser or operating system market share through a wide lens, but we shouldn't get caught up on exact percentage points. Statcounter reports let us look at trends.

Last month, we noted that Windows 11 adoption might have flatlined. That was based on back-to-back months of Windows 11 market share declining and the operating system's market share being lower than it was in July 2025.

This month's figures indicate a change in direction and significant growth for Windows 11. The operating system now sits at around the same market share as what Windows 10 held this time last year.

Officially, Windows 11 passed 1 billion users recently. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared that milestone in the earnings call for the quarter that just wrapped up.

Adoption of Windows 11 outpaced that of Windows 10 by hitting 1 billion users in 1,576 days rather than 1,706 days.

Of course, market share is only one way to measure the success of an operating system. Even the total user count is not a measure of quality.

Windows 11 is still in a state of flux. Following negative feedback and a disastrous start to the year, Microsoft has committed to improving its operating system.

The tech giant shared it will "focus on addressing pain points" it receives negative feedback on and improve the performance, reliability, and overall experience of Windows.

Microsoft is also pausing its push to integrate Copilot into in-box apps and reviewing the controversial Windows Recall feature.

It will take time for Microsoft to make meaningful changes — assuming its leaders choose to go in that direction. I gave them a pat on the back over the weekend for listening, but we won't know if that results in improvements for a while.