400 million Windows 11 devices can’t be wrong

Surface Laptop Studio. © iStock.

Windows 11, which was released two years ago, currently runs on more than 400 million active devices each month, according to data obtained by Windows Central. That number should rise to 500 million active devices by early 2024. As impressive as those numbers are, it’s a slower adoption rate than that of Windows 10, which reached that record just one year after its release. Not only was that adoption rate 115% faster than that of Windows 7, according to Microsoft, but several months after its second anniversary, it climbed past 600 million devices.

Several factors explain the slower pace. When Windows 10 was launched, the upgrade was free for all Windows 8.1 and for most Windows 7 PCs. The company stated that the free upgrade would only last one year, which probably prompted users to make the leap sooner. Furthermore, the stringent hardware requirements, such as the availability of a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip, means that many PCs are not equipped to install Windows 11. The figures on the Steam game platform estimate the Windows 11 market share at 39%, while Windows 10 maintains its 60% market share.

⇨ Windows Central, Zac Bowden, “Exclusive: Windows 11 is active on almost half a billion devices, ahead of Microsoft’s expectations.”

2023-10-17