Windows 11 tops market share as 10 faces extended farewell
(2026/03/02)
- Reference: 1772454785
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/02/windows_11_market_share/
- Source link:
Windows 11 has leapt ahead of Windows 10 in market share, according to the latest Statcounter figures.
The [1]numbers , which show Windows 11 at 72.57 percent and Windows 10 at 26.45 percent, appear to support a [2]Microsoft statement from earlier this year that its flagship operating system had surpassed one billion users.
Statcounter's figures must be taken with a pinch of salt since they are derived from tracking code installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally. The company also revises the figures as more data comes in, but in the absence of official telemetry from Microsoft, it remains one of the few independent indicators of OS market share.
[3]
The trend is not surprising given that Microsoft cut support for many versions of Windows 10 in October 2025. Users can keep the fixes flowing through the Extended Security Updates program, although the extra support comes at additional cost for many commercial customers.
[4]
[5]
Esben Dochy, Principal Technical Evangelist at Lansweeper, an asset tracking and discovery company, told The Register : "I don't think any organization wants to pay for ESU licenses. Many organizations will migrate, but a non-trivial subset will rely on ESU as a safety net because their constraints are less about 'deciding to upgrade' and more about validating dependencies and coordinating operational downtime."
[6]Microsoft research shows chatbots seeping into everyday life
[7]Microsoft issues patch to tackle Windows 10 Extended Security Updates failures
[8]Win10 still clings to over 40% of devices weeks after Microsoft pulls support
[9]Windows 10 refuses to go gentle into that good night
While the march of Windows 11 will be a relief to Microsoft's desktop operating system team, the company's recent [10]announcement about the impending end of support for Windows 10 2016 LTSB and Windows Server 2016 might concern administrators still using the software.
According to Lansweeper, Windows Server 2016 has a 20.3 percent share of all the servers it monitors. Dochy noted that the end-of-life for Windows Server 2016 was "still a bit further out" and told us: "Migration barriers for servers are often related to the services they provide. Services they run massively increase the effort and time required to migrate as any downtime doesn't affect a single device but an entire service for the organization."
As for Windows 10 2016 LTSB, it accounts for a tiny 0.5 percent share of Windows devices, according to Lansweeper. However, within the LTSC/LTSB camp it makes up 19.8 percent. Dochy said: "This data isn't very surprising, Microsoft itself positions LTSC/LTSB for special-purpose devices (think kiosk/POS/OT/embedded-style deployments).
[11]
"Hence the higher usage in the consumer and retail industry. Because of this, many of these endpoints have stricter gates they must pass for upgrades to take place like vendor certification, peripheral/driver support, and change windows, not just IT preference."
Windows 11's market share might have surged, but Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 are still hanging on. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/29/windows_11_billion/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aaXCOCZfclvHfbiNYpVnqQAAAUM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aaXCOCZfclvHfbiNYpVnqQAAAUM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aaXCOCZfclvHfbiNYpVnqQAAAUM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/11/microsoft_research_chatbots/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/18/windows_10_esu_patch/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/04/windows_10_eol/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/windows_10_statcounter/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/24/microsoft_windows_support/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aaXCOCZfclvHfbiNYpVnqQAAAUM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The [1]numbers , which show Windows 11 at 72.57 percent and Windows 10 at 26.45 percent, appear to support a [2]Microsoft statement from earlier this year that its flagship operating system had surpassed one billion users.
Statcounter's figures must be taken with a pinch of salt since they are derived from tracking code installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally. The company also revises the figures as more data comes in, but in the absence of official telemetry from Microsoft, it remains one of the few independent indicators of OS market share.
[3]
The trend is not surprising given that Microsoft cut support for many versions of Windows 10 in October 2025. Users can keep the fixes flowing through the Extended Security Updates program, although the extra support comes at additional cost for many commercial customers.
[4]
[5]
Esben Dochy, Principal Technical Evangelist at Lansweeper, an asset tracking and discovery company, told The Register : "I don't think any organization wants to pay for ESU licenses. Many organizations will migrate, but a non-trivial subset will rely on ESU as a safety net because their constraints are less about 'deciding to upgrade' and more about validating dependencies and coordinating operational downtime."
[6]Microsoft research shows chatbots seeping into everyday life
[7]Microsoft issues patch to tackle Windows 10 Extended Security Updates failures
[8]Win10 still clings to over 40% of devices weeks after Microsoft pulls support
[9]Windows 10 refuses to go gentle into that good night
While the march of Windows 11 will be a relief to Microsoft's desktop operating system team, the company's recent [10]announcement about the impending end of support for Windows 10 2016 LTSB and Windows Server 2016 might concern administrators still using the software.
According to Lansweeper, Windows Server 2016 has a 20.3 percent share of all the servers it monitors. Dochy noted that the end-of-life for Windows Server 2016 was "still a bit further out" and told us: "Migration barriers for servers are often related to the services they provide. Services they run massively increase the effort and time required to migrate as any downtime doesn't affect a single device but an entire service for the organization."
As for Windows 10 2016 LTSB, it accounts for a tiny 0.5 percent share of Windows devices, according to Lansweeper. However, within the LTSC/LTSB camp it makes up 19.8 percent. Dochy said: "This data isn't very surprising, Microsoft itself positions LTSC/LTSB for special-purpose devices (think kiosk/POS/OT/embedded-style deployments).
[11]
"Hence the higher usage in the consumer and retail industry. Because of this, many of these endpoints have stricter gates they must pass for upgrades to take place like vendor certification, peripheral/driver support, and change windows, not just IT preference."
Windows 11's market share might have surged, but Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 are still hanging on. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/29/windows_11_billion/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aaXCOCZfclvHfbiNYpVnqQAAAUM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aaXCOCZfclvHfbiNYpVnqQAAAUM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aaXCOCZfclvHfbiNYpVnqQAAAUM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/11/microsoft_research_chatbots/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/18/windows_10_esu_patch/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/04/windows_10_eol/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/windows_10_statcounter/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/24/microsoft_windows_support/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aaXCOCZfclvHfbiNYpVnqQAAAUM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Windows 11 at 72.57 percent and Windows 10 at 26.45
that one in the corner
Yay, W'11 is in the winner, in the prestigious category of "all the Windows boxes we saw".
Just nudge the "of all the boxes, total" under the carpet. ChromeOS? never heard of it. iOS? Now you are just making up silly names.
Why is this necessary?
Anonymous Coward
> Statcounter's figures must be taken with a pinch of salt since they are derived from tracking code installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally.
Why is this necessary? Shouldn't Microsoft have the actual number?
Doesn't Microsoft know how many users it has forced to sign in to their own hardware with a Microsoft account? Don't they collect unique hardware identifiers from every device forced to give up a local account?
TVU
That it has taken so long for Windows 11 to reach this milestone is because of the reluctance on the part of satisfied Windows 10 users to switch to the cruft-filled Windows 11 until it was absolutely necessary.
AndrueC
MS are gonna be waiting a long time for my mail server. I'm happy to leave it in its corner chuntering along on W10.
Windows 11 tops market
Right pondians might parse "tops" as a euphemism for the "long drop."
Microsoft customers doubtlessly experience the same trepidation but with each succeeding day.