Windows Did Not Lose 28% of Its Market Share in Two Months, Despite Previous Reports

A StatCounter reporting error briefly suggested that Windows desktop market share had fallen from around 79% in April 2026 to 56.55% in June.

The apparent decline represented a drop of roughly 28.4% in only two months. However, StatCounter later corrected the data, bringing Windows back to around 72%, according to Windows Latest.

The figure may continue moving closer to its previous level as StatCounter adjusts the dataset.

Windows devices likely moved into the Unknown category

Linux and macOS recorded some gains during the same period, but their increases could not explain the reported Windows decline.

Instead, StatCounter’s Unknown operating system category suddenly climbed to 21.45%. This category includes devices that cannot be identified because of missing, modified, or unclear browser user-agent information.

The data suggests that many Windows devices were incorrectly classified as Unknown rather than users suddenly switching to other operating systems.

StatCounter has reported similar errors before

StatCounter produced another unusual market-share change in 2025. Its data briefly showed Windows 7 rising from below 1% to more than 10%.

The company later corrected those figures, returning Windows 7 to below 1%.

How StatCounter measures market share

StatCounter collects analytics from more than 1.5 million websites and measures billions of page views.

It does not count unique users, active installations, or physical devices. Instead, it identifies operating systems mainly through browser user-agent data.

Bots, AI crawlers, web scrapers, modified user agents, and unusual browsing activity can distort the results. Devices can also move into the Unknown category when StatCounter cannot identify their operating system.

StatCounter data remains useful for tracking broad trends, but sudden and extreme changes require additional scrutiny. The June 2026 Windows decline resulted from a measurement problem, not a mass migration to Linux or macOS.

In other Microsoft news, the company is testing deeper Phone Link integration in Windows 11, despite unresolved reports about high Phone Link memory usage. It is also experimenting with Copilot PC Insights, a feature that allows Copilot to access live hardware and system information with user permission.