In a first for Microsoft, Windows 11 surpassed Windows 10 as the world’s most-used desktop operating system in July 2025 — almost four years, or 1,371 days, after its launch on October 5, 2021. According to StatCounter, Windows 11 has just recently crossed the 50.88% – 52% threshold of the worldwide Windows desktop market share, with Windows 10 having slipped back to 44.59% – 46.2%. It’s a significant event for Microsoft, who is set to end Windows 10 support on October 14th, 2025.
Windows 11’s adoption has been a sluggish but certain ascent. First, it was dismissed as too demanding, with very specific hardware requirements, such as TPM 2.0 security chips and recent CPUs, and Windows 11 had a market share of under 10% in 2022. Its momentum accelerated to 28% in 2023 and 36% in 2024, no doubt aided by Microsoft’s push to switch users ahead of Windows 10’s end-of-support milestone. As recently as December 2024, Windows 10 still prevailed at 62% (vs 35% for Windows 11), so this recent momentum of acceleration is simply breathtaking.
Microsoft’s upgrade nudges have spat full screen messages at Windows 10 users and dangled carrots like a free one year extension of security updates to anyone who enables Windows Backup and syncs their Documents folder to OneDrive. Users who don’t want to just pony up to guess encounter a $30 fee for ongoing upgrades, or can dig into third-party patches like 0patch. The virus and malware-prone unblockability of the upcoming end of Windows 10 support has been a strong impetus to upgrade to Windows 11.
Even with this increase, Windows 11’s path has been anything but smooth. Critics have noted its rigid hardware requirements, which leaves many older PCs in the dust, and bloatware grumbles continue. Microsoft has touted Windows 11’s performance, saying it’s up to 2.3x faster than Windows 10, according to Geekbench 6 multi-core tests, though others have noted those tests compare new hardware running Windows 11 to older systems running Windows 10.
Windows 11 now ahead with more than 700 million devices worldwide. With the October 2025 deadline closing in, Microsoft is betting its emphasis on security, cloud integration and extended support will continue to fuel adoption. Others are looking to alternatives such as Linux or macOS, and some might pursue extended Windows 10 support where provided.
It’s quite a milestone that highlights something of a turning point for Microsoft’s desktop world, with Windows 11 now the company’s flagship OS.
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