Four years after its release, Windows 11 has finally overtaken its predecessor in terms of market share, according to data from Statcounter. As of July 2025, 52% of Windows users are already using ‘eleven’, while the share of ‘ten’ has fallen to 44.5%. However, this symbolic moment can hardly be seen as evidence of a complete success – rather, it is indicative of how hard Microsoft had to push users to switch.
The rise in popularity of Windows 11 was not a natural result of technological superiority. As recently as January this year, Windows 10 had almost 60% market share. So what has changed? The decisive factor is the announced end of support for Windows 10 on 14 October 2025. Microsoft was already employing tactics familiar from previous migrations: pop-up messages, pressure and even announcements of additional charges for security updates after the end of support.
Although Windows 11 is theoretically more secure and modern, its reception has been cool from the start. The high hardware requirements (TPM 2.0, newer processors) effectively discouraged millions of users, especially in the SMB sector and in countries with lower purchasing power. In turn, those who were able to upgrade did not always see good reasons to do so.
Microsoft may be celebrating today, but the market picture is more complex. The company doesn’t provide exact figures on how many of its more than one billion Windows users have switched to Windows 11. And there are many indications that a significant proportion of them have been forced to switch, as it were.
Will Windows 11 build a strong following and become as widespread as its predecessors? For the moment, it is not obvious. The shadow of the ending Windows 10 still looms over ‘eleven’ – not as competition, but as a reminder that the success of a new version does not always come with market enthusiasm.
