Windows 11 ran on 68.93% of desktop Windows pageviews worldwide in July 2026, against 29.83% for Windows 10, according to StatCounter. Depending on whether you count sampled web traffic, opt-in gaming systems, or scanned corporate fleets, the Windows 10 holdout base lands anywhere between 16.9% and 29.83%. This post sets out each figure, what it actually measures, and the period it covers.
Windows 11 vs Windows 10 Adoption: Key Numbers
How Wide Is The Windows 11 vs Windows 10 Adoption Gap Worldwide?
StatCounter measures sampled pageviews across sites running its code, not installed machines or user counts. On that basis Windows 11 led Windows 10 by 39.10 percentage points in July 2026.
Windows 7 has not gone away. At 1.01% it still outweighs Windows 8.1, Windows XP and Windows 8 combined, which total 0.20%.
| Windows version | Share of desktop Windows pageviews |
|---|---|
| Windows 11 | 68.93% |
| Windows 10 | 29.83% |
| Windows 7 | 1.01% |
| Windows 8.1 | 0.09% |
| Windows XP | 0.09% |
| Windows 8 | 0.02% |
Source: StatCounter Global Stats, desktop Windows version market share, worldwide, July 2026.
Microsoft gave its own number on 28 January 2026, when Satya Nadella told investors on the FY2026 Q2 earnings call that Windows had reached one billion Windows 11 users, in 1,576 days against 1,706 days for Windows 10. Microsoft does not publish version-level share, so third-party trackers fill the gap, and the wider country-by-country desktop OS picture shows how much they move.
Windows 11 vs Windows 10 Adoption By Country
The United States and Germany sit within a point of each other on Windows 11. India is 20.89 points behind the United States on the same measure.
Germany carries almost three times the US Windows 7 load, 1.84% against 0.64%. India’s 43.28% Windows 10 reading is the highest of the four samples here.
| Region | Windows 11 | Windows 10 | Windows 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 77.27% | 21.88% | 0.64% |
| Germany | 76.47% | 21.36% | 1.84% |
| Worldwide | 68.93% | 29.83% | 1.01% |
| India | 56.38% | 43.28% | 0.26% |
Source: StatCounter Global Stats, desktop Windows version market share by region, July 2026.
What Share Of Steam Gamers Run Windows 11?
Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey is optional and anonymous, so it describes the machines of participating players rather than the whole Steam population. Its Windows-only view put Windows 11 64-bit at 75.01% in July 2026.
Across all platforms in the same survey, Windows accounted for 93.67% of surveyed systems, with Windows 11 64-bit at 70.26% and Windows 10 64-bit at 23.30%. Valve published a change of -0.18 points on Windows 11 for the month. Linux sits in the same table, and the gaming-side share breakdown tracks that line month to month.
| Windows version | Share of Steam Windows systems |
|---|---|
| Windows 11 64-bit | 75.01% |
| Windows 10 64-bit | 24.88% |
| Windows 7 64-bit | 0.08% |
| Other | 0.03% |
Source: Valve, Steam Hardware & Software Survey, Windows-only view, July 2026.
Windows 11 vs Windows 10 Adoption Inside Business Fleets
Lansweeper scans managed assets across its customer sites, a population that already runs IT asset management software. Its July 2026 analysis put Windows 10 at 16.9% of scanned Windows clients and Windows 11 at 78.8%.
Small and medium businesses trail enterprises by 4.8 points. Healthcare and pharmaceuticals carry the heaviest Windows 10 load of the sectors Lansweeper broke out.
| Segment | Windows 10 share of that segment’s Windows devices |
|---|---|
| Healthcare and pharmaceuticals | 23.0% |
| Consumer and retail | 22.7% |
| Small and medium businesses | 21.4% |
| Manufacturing | 18.0% |
| All Windows clients | 16.9% |
| Enterprise-scale organisations | 16.6% |
| Technology, telecom and logistics | 11–12% |
Source: Lansweeper, Windows 10 holdout analysis, published July 2026.
Hardware is a smaller blocker than the usual framing suggests. Lansweeper found that 2.8% of the remaining Windows 10 machines fail Windows 11’s hardware requirements, and in healthcare that figure drops to 1.1%. The company also reported that 14% of Windows 10 assets in its data have Extended Security Update patches applied.
The vulnerability gap behind the numbers
Lansweeper measured an average of 1,903 active CVEs per Windows 10 device against 652 on Windows 11, a 2.9x difference. Esben Dochy, principal technical evangelist at Lansweeper, told The Register that the Windows 10 average includes devices with ESU patches applied.
What HP reports for its own installed base
HP CFO Karen Parkhill told investors in late May 2026 that roughly 30% of HP’s installed base was still on Windows 10, for the fiscal quarter ended 30 April 2026. HP management had put the same figure at approximately 40% on its Q4 FY2025 call in November 2025.
| HP earnings call | Share of HP installed base on Windows 10 |
|---|---|
| Q4 FY2025 (November 2025) | ~40% |
| Q2 FY2026 (quarter ended 30 April 2026) | ~30% |
Source: HP Inc. quarterly earnings calls, November 2025 and May 2026.
How PC Shipments Track Windows 11 vs Windows 10 Adoption
IDC counts units shipped into the channel and to end customers, which is a different thing from installs or completed migrations. Shipments grew in the first quarter of 2026 and fell in the second.
IDC attributed the Q1 result partly to Windows 10 migration, alongside buying ahead of component price rises and new product launches. For Q2 it named the memory chip shortage as the driver of the reversal.
| Quarter | Worldwide PC shipments | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 71.7 million units | — |
| Q1 2026 | 65.6 million units | +2.5% |
| Q2 2026 | 68.2 million units | -4.9% |
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, preliminary results, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026.
The Q2 decline was the first after nine consecutive quarters of growth. IDC forecasts full-year 2026 PC shipments down 11.3% with average selling prices up 18.3%, a projection it ties to the memory shortage. Some machines that cannot justify a replacement move sideways instead, a pattern visible in Linux adoption rates by country.
Where The Windows 11 vs Windows 10 Adoption Data Disagrees
Three methods produce three answers for Windows 10 in the same month. StatCounter reports 29.83% of sampled desktop Windows pageviews. Valve reports 24.88% of opt-in Steam Windows systems. Lansweeper reports 16.9% of scanned managed Windows clients.
None of the three counts people. Panel composition also shifts: StatCounter published a worldwide Windows desktop reading of 56.55% for June 2026 after roughly 79% in April 2026, which Windows Latest reported as a reporting error. Similar swings show up across long-run desktop share trends and in the server-side OS split, where scanners and surveys measure different things again.
Windows 11 vs Windows 10 Adoption Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 14 October 2025 | Windows 10 reaches end of support |
| 28 January 2026 | Microsoft reports one billion Windows 11 users, reached in 1,576 days |
| 25 June 2026 | Microsoft updates its ESU documentation, extending consumer coverage to 12 October 2027 |
| June 2026 | Windows 11 at 70.44% of all surveyed Steam systems |
| July 2026 | Windows 11 at 68.93% and Windows 10 at 29.83% of desktop Windows pageviews |
Sources: Microsoft, Valve and StatCounter, October 2025 to July 2026.
The consumer ESU extension removed the October 2026 deadline. Microsoft’s support page states that enrolment stays open until the programme ends on 12 October 2027. For hardware that will never qualify for Windows 11, the alternatives run from ChromeOS devices to the most widely used Linux distributions.
FAQs
What percentage of PCs run Windows 11 in 2026?
Windows 11 accounted for 68.93% of desktop Windows pageviews worldwide in July 2026, per StatCounter. That measures sampled web traffic, not installed machines. Valve’s opt-in Steam survey put Windows 11 64-bit at 75.01% of Steam Windows systems the same month.
How many machines still run Windows 10?
It depends on the method. StatCounter recorded 29.83% of desktop Windows pageviews in July 2026. Valve recorded 24.88% of Steam Windows systems. Lansweeper recorded 16.9% of scanned Windows clients in managed fleets.
Why do Reddit threads claim Windows fell below 60% market share?
StatCounter published a worldwide Windows desktop share of 56.55% for June 2026, down from roughly 79% in April 2026. Windows Latest reported the June reading as a reporting error rather than a real collapse in usage.
Are the Reddit posts about free Windows 10 updates until 2027 accurate?
Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates page states that the Windows 10 consumer programme now runs to 12 October 2027, and that enrolment stays open until then. Coverage is limited to critical and important security updates for Windows 10 version 22H2.
Which industry has the most Windows 10 machines left?
Healthcare and pharmaceuticals, at 23.0% of that sector’s Windows devices, according to Lansweeper’s July 2026 analysis. Consumer and retail followed at 22.7% and manufacturing at 18.0%. Only 1.1% of healthcare’s Windows 10 base fails Windows 11 hardware checks.
Sources
https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/worldwide
https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/extended-security-updates
