Windows 10 now claims more than 25% of the OS market, according to NetMarketShare

Windows 10 continues to creep upward in terms of market share, with the latest report pegging its share of the operating system market at just above 25%. That's according to the latest numbers from NetMarketShare (via Neowin), which account for the whole of the OS market for January 2017.

In finishing the month at 25.3% share, Windows 10 is up from the 24.36% share it enjoyed in the last month of 2016. And though it's made some progress, Windows 10 still trails far behind Windows 7, which fell only slightly to a 47.20% share in January. Windows XP is also still clinging to life with a 9.17% share of the market. Things go down from there, with NetMarketShare pegging Windows 8.1 at 6.9%, OS X 10.12 at 2.75%, and Linux at 2.27%.

Though it may seem slow in the short term, Windows 10 has actually enjoyed some solid growth over the past year. If you look at the numbers from January of 2016, Windows 10 only sat at around an 11% share of the market, according to NetMarketShare's numbers, while Windows 7 held a more commanding 52% share. Given that pace of change, it will definitely be interesting to see how long it takes for Microsoft's latest OS to overtake the aging Windows 7.

As always with these types of reports, keep in mind that this is only an estimate based on NetMarketShare's data, which is gathered by analyzing traffic across a network of websites using its service.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl.