- Windows 11 slips below 50% after earlier hitting record highs
- Windows 10 regained market share just one month before the official end-of-life
- Windows 7, unsupported for years, continues to grow slightly in usage
Microsoft’s push to make Windows 11 its undisputed default OS appear to be slightly faltering as new data reveals a worrying stall in adoption.
The latest figures from StatCounter Global Stats, which draws on more than 3.8 billion page views per month across 1.5 million websites, claims Windows 11’s global market share has shown signs of reversing at a critical moment.
In August 2025, Windows 11 accounted for 49.08% of worldwide usage, down from a high of 53.51% earlier in the year.
Windows 10’s resilience ahead of end-of-life
This decline is especially striking given that the operating system seemed poised to cross the symbolic 50% threshold decisively.
Instead, its share has slipped at a time when Microsoft expected to consolidate its user base around the latest platform.
What makes the numbers more troubling is the unexpected rebound of Windows 10.
In July 2024, Windows 10 commanded nearly 65% of the market, but its share steadily declined as Windows 11 adoption accelerated.
By spring 2025, it had fallen below 50%. Yet in recent months, Windows 10 has begun to claw back ground, reaching 45.53% in August 2025.
The timing is not good for Microsoft because there is only one month left before Windows 10 officially reaches end-of-life (EOL) in October 2025.
Instead of a decisive migration to Windows 11, the data shows that millions of users remain reluctant, or unable, to upgrade on both business PC systems and personal devices alike.
Adding to the puzzle is the slight but noticeable rise of Windows 7, an operating system that Microsoft stopped supporting years ago.
After holding steady at just over 3% for much of 2024, Windows 7 has grown to 3.59% in August 2025.
The increase is small in absolute terms, but important in context.
Windows 7 is long past its security support window, yet its persistence shows that users and organizations continue to depend on legacy systems, often running on older business laptops.
These holdouts may be tied to specialized hardware or critical business applications, but they also create a lingering security concern for the broader ecosystem.
The simultaneous dip for Windows 11 and growth for both Windows 10 and Windows 7 highlight a deeper issue: resistance to change.
Despite aggressive promotion and system requirements designed to push users forward, Microsoft appears to be hitting a ceiling in adoption, and there are a few reasons for this.
Windows 11 has stricter hardware requirements and excludes older but still serviceable devices.
Also, enterprises always delay migration because they prefer stability over new features.
Then, there is the cost issue. The modest resurgence of Windows 7 suggests that, for certain use cases, even unsupported software is preferable to the costs of upgrading.
Some users may even consider the best alternative operating systems available today just to avoid the cost.
Unless adoption accelerates quickly, Microsoft risks entering 2026 with a fragmented user base: one half on Windows 11, the other clinging to an operating system that is officially obsolete.
