Windows 11 Market Share Continues to Plunge as Users Cling to Windows 10

Microsoft’s aggressive push to make Windows 10 users migrate to Windows 11 appears to be not as effective as it may have thought, at least according to latest Statcounter data. In terms of market share, Windows 11 has slipped 1.95 percent (53.7% in November 2025 to 51.75% in December).

As you may know that Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10 except for those enrolled in the ESU program. Despite that, the legacy OS is holding its ground in market share. The Statounter data shows that Windows 10’s market share jumped from 42.7% in November to 44.29% in December.

That’s completely opposite of what we saw in the recent Valve’s recent survey, which hinted that Steam gamers are gradually transitioning to Windows 11, leaving Windows 10 behind. Meanwhile, Windows 7 is barely holding its ground in the market, as it stands at 2.19 percent. 

Even worse for Microsoft is that the cumulative market share for Windows (including all versions) stands at 66.67 percent. That’s a drop of 2.7 percent in just one month. If we have to compare this in the same period from last year, Windows’ market share has dropped 6.71 percent (against 73.38 percent in December 2024).

After Microsoft killed Windows 10 support, many users are switching to Linux rather than Windows 11. The frustration of users is not alone with Microsoft ending support for Windows 11, but the fact that the company is pushing AI into every part of Windows 11 to make it an agentic OS, is also hurting its adoption rate. We’ll have to wait and see how well the forced Windows 11 migration pays off over time.

via: Neowin