Windows OS is the dominant desktop OS globally, miles ahead of its biggest competitor, macOS.
Check out the latest Windows OS sales statistics to see which version of Microsoft’s OS is the most popular and how it stacks up against the competition and previous versions.
1. Windows currently holds 73.75% of the global desktop OS market.
As of December 2021, Windows OS is the dominant desktop operating system, well ahead of OS X, which takes up just 15.33% of the global market.
Even though the share of Windows OS went down slightly from 76.26% compared to January 2021, its dominance in the market remains unchanged. (StatCounter)
2. Windows 10 is the most popular version.
Taking up 82.52% of the market as of December 2021, Windows 10 is the leading Windows version. Windows 7, the previous dominant version, accounts for 12.88% of the market. Surprisingly, Windows XP still holds a share of the market (0.51%), even though it has not been supported by Microsoft since 2014. (StatCounter)
2. There are over 1.3 billion devices that run on Windows 10.
This translates to one in every seven people and includes all devices designed to run on Windows 10, i.e. desktops, laptops, tablets, Surface Hub conferencing systems, Windows Phones, Xbox One, and other IoT devices. The majority, however, is made up of traditional PCs. (ZDNet)
3. Windows 10 powers more than 80,000 laptops.
It is also the only operating system of 2-in-1s from more than 1,000 different manufacturers, as well as mixed reality smartglasses HoloLens. On top of that, 100% of the Fortune 500 are using Windows 10 devices, making it the biggest platform for enterprise growth and development. (Windows)
4. Windows 11 was released on October 5, 2021.
A month after its release, the newest version of Windows OS held 8.6% of the total Windows OS market share.
5. In the same period, Windows 10 had a 91.1% stake.
Windows 11 has much stricter hardware requirements as it places a higher emphasis on security, thus making it incompatible with millions of Windows 10 devices. Plus the design, which has remained basically unchanged for years, has seen some changes, which might make some users reluctant to move from the widely popular Windows 10. (WindowsReport, Tech Advisor)
6. It seems that Windows 7 is still running on 100 million devices.
Even though support for Windows 7 ended at the beginning of 2020, at least 100 million machines were still running on this Windows version a year later. One of the reasons behind the lingering popularity of Windows 7 is, of course, the pandemic. As lockdowns were imposed, many turned to their home PCs for work and education, and it’s highly likely that more than a few of them still use Windows 7. (The Verge)
7. Windows only holds 0.04% of the tablet OS market.
Despite its dominance in the desktop market, Windows only accounts for a small share of the tablet operating system market, far behind iOS (55.66%) and Android (44.25%). The situation is the same in the mobile OS sector, where Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS have a combined share of nearly 99%. (StatCounter, Statista)
8. The global PC market noted growth in 2019 for the first time in 8 years.
IDC puts the growth of PC shipments at 2.7% to 266.7 million devices across the planet, while market research company Gartner estimates an increase of 2.7% to 261.2 million devices. Whichever way you slice it, in 2019 the PC market saw growth for the first time since 2011. (The Verge)
9. Surface revenue went down by 17% in FY22 Q1.
In 2020, Microsoft released several new devices, including Surface Go 2, Surface Laptop Go, Surface Book 3, Surface Duo, and a revamped Surface Pro X (SQ2). This, combined with growing demand for PCs, has put Surface revenue up by 28%, or $1.74 billion compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year. (Microsoft, Windows Central)
10. Microsoft reported revenue of $45.3 billion for the first quarter of 2022, up by 22%.
Net income reached $20.5 billion, up by 48% compared to the previous year. The increase is mainly due to a strong performance in the server, Office, and cloud businesses. (Microsoft)
11. Windows OEM revenue went up by 10% in Q1 2022.
Windows commercial products and cloud services revenue increased by 12%, the latest fiscal report from Microsoft reveals. The company predicts numbers to go up as demand for PCs, spurred by the pandemic, increases throughout the year. The newly released Windows 11 is also expected to boost figures further. (Microsoft)
12. Xbox hardware revenue increased by 166%, while content and services grew by 2%.
Demand for the new Xbox Series X and S consoles still exceeds supply, even though Microsoft stated they were able to ship more consoles than expected, thus contributing to the rising revenue from Xbox hardware. (Microsoft)