According to the latest findings from Statcounter, which published its January 2024 report today, Windows 11 gained a notable number of new users during the first month of 2024. After finishing 2023 at a 26.54% mark, Microsoft"s newest operating system increased its market share to 27.83% (+1.29 points). This is an all-time high for Windows 11, which is now over two years old.
The increase in Windows 11"s market share means negative gains for Windows 10. Although it is still the dominant operating system on the market, its audience is slowly leaving for newer releases as the latest computers come bundled with Windows 11, and newer hardware works better with it. Statcounter says Windows 10 finished January 2024 at a 66.47% mark, which is -0.95 points.
Despite the steady decline, Windows 10 is with us for the long run. Windows 11 is still an optional update with a steep hardware requirement, which means plenty of Windows 10 users may not even know Windows 11 exists or they can update to it. In addition, Windows 10 has a little less than two years of mainstream support ahead, with three more years of paid extended security updates afterward. The latter will be available to regular customers for the first time.
Windows 7, a fifteen-year-old operating system, is the third most popular Windows release. After a big wave of users upgrading to Windows 10 in January 2023, Windows 7 sits slightly above 3%. In January 2024, it went down from 3.35% to 3.05%.
Of course, there are still people who use Windows 8, 8.1, and XP, even though Windows XP reached the end of support ten years ago, and Windows 8 was one of the most hated releases. Windows 8.1 is at 1.73% (+0.05), Windows XP is at 0.57% (-0.07), and Windows 8 is at 0.26% (-0.02).
You can find more information on the official Statcounter website. Keep in mind that third-party reports are never 100% accurate.