Statcounter: Almost every fifth PC runs Windows 11, Windows 10 gets major spike

At the beginning of each month, Statcounter publishes its reports detailing the latest browser and operating system market shifts. Data for February 2023 is now available, and it shows several interesting changes, such as Windows 11 approaching a 20% milestone and Windows 10 experiencing a notable spike.

According to Statcounter, in February 2023, Windows 11 increased its market share by 1.01 points, reaching an all-time high of 19.13%. In other words, almost every fifth PC runs Microsoft's newest operating system. The latest feature update released on February 28, 2023, might tempt more Windows 10 users to pull the trigger and migrate to Windows 11. You can learn what is new in the Windows 11 "Moment 2" update in our review.

The operating system market is massive and rarely experiences sudden spikes or significant changes. However, February 2023 is an exception. In January 2023, Microsoft put Windows 7 and 8.1 to their final rest and ended the Extended Security Updates program. This resulted in more companies upgrading their computers to Windows 10, bringing its market share up from 68.86% in January to 73.25% in February.

Despite the final end of support, Windows 7 remains the third most popular Windows version. However, it lost a massive chunk of users and dropped from 9.55% to 5.39%. Windows 8.1's market share also halved from 2.28% to 1.15%.