Windows 10 Still More Popular Than Windows 11, Two Years Later

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People don't like change

Windows 11 screen
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Windows 11 is still well behind its predecessor, Windows 10, in market share — even though Windows 11 launched two years ago. According to StatCounter, Windows 10 holds an impressive 71.64% of the world's total Windows-based operating system market share, while Windows 11 holds just 23.61%.

StatCounter's complete worldwide market share analysis includes all of Microsoft's Windows operating systems from the past two decades, including 11, 10, 7, 8/8.1, and XP. After Windows 10 and Windows 11, Windows 7 came in with 3.34% of the market, Windows 8.1 with 0.61%, Windows 8 with 0.35%, and Windows XP with 0.35%.

Even though Windows 11 is the second most popular Windows OS at the moment, it's safe to say that the Windows 11 adoption rate has not been as great as Windows 10's. Windows 10 had already gained 32.84% of the market share two years after its launch in 2015 — 10% more than Windows 11 has at its two-year mark.

Windows 11's lackluster market share is understandable given its mixed reception overall. At launch, the OS received a lot of criticism for its revamped start menu and taskbar, which lost some capabilities from Windows 10. It was highly criticized for its higher system requirements, which required systems to have a compatible TPM module to work — though there have been workarounds that for TPM-less machines.

Windows 11 now has more features than Windows 10 — including Microsoft's new AI co-pilot, as well as widgets and full DirectStorage support — many people still prefer Windows 10's older user interface. (Even our Editor-in-Chief, Avram Piltch, still prefers Windows 10 on his main machine, due to its smaller, more customizable start menu and simpler context menu.)

On top of this, Windows 11's taskbar is still missing several capabilities Windows 10's taskbar had, such as the ability to show the application name with the application icon, the ability to move the taskbar to a different part of the screen.

Windows 11 might have a slow adoption rate, but it will inevitably overtake Windows 10 at some point in the future (as long as Windows 12 doesn't come too soon). But its slow adoption rate is a sign that people haven't grown quite as accustomed to the OS' new interface as they did with Windows 10, similar to how people felt about Windows 8.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

100 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Amdlova
    I'am in windows 10 right now... with 13 gen of intel cpu. No problems at all. But with windows 11 is a nightmare. Too much dpc
    Reply
  • Ravestein NL
    I thought Windows 10 was said to be the last new Windows ever. Guess you can't trust someone's word on that.
    Reply
  • eye4bear
    Personally, I CAN'T upgrade to Windows 11. Neither my PC at the office nor my Windows 10 laptop at home qualify to update. Both work just fine and I am sure could run Windows 11 just fine, but it appears the PC makers got MS to build in some arbitrary hardware requirements. As we all learned when MS accidentally sent out an update awhile back that allowed PCs that didn't "qualify" to upgrade and guess what, they all ran just fine, thus proving the requirements are mostly BS to increase new PC sales. Basically I will get Windows 11 only when one of these two PCs die or reach EOL for Windows 10.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    A LARGE part of this is there is no real impetus to move from 10 to 11.

    When 10 was released, it was a great relief for many to get off the 8/8.1 problem.

    With 11, it is so similar to 10, there is no real issue.


    I'd wager the majority of WIn 11 installs are on systems bought with it, in the last 2 years..
    Of my 5x house systems, 2 are Win 11, 3 on Win 10.
    The 2x Win 11 boxes started as 11, the Surface laptop came from the store.
    The other 3 Win10 systems...there is no real hurry to change, even though all 3 are Win 11 capable.
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    I'm not opposed to change -- I'm opposed to a GUI that slows me down, adds extra clicks, lacks flexibility, and hides content from me. I happily adopted Windows 7 and 10 when they became available because they made major usability improvements compared to their predecessors. The same can't be said for Windows 8 or 11. I don't need an AI copilot -- I need Microsoft to help me get the most out of my creative apps, communication tools, games, and development solutions. I think Microsoft has been too distracted chasing shiny objects.
    Reply
  • derekullo
    Found a cheap gaming laptop with 8 gigabytes of ram and a Geforce 3050 for $650 last year.

    Came with Windows 11 and even with removing all the bloatware it was sitting at like 5.5/8 gigabytes of ram at idle.

    Re-imaging to Windows 10 and it uses 3.8/8 gigabytes ram usage!

    Should probably upgrade the ram but as long as you don't have any other programs open, like Chrome, games run great.

    Edit: Dell G15 5525 to be precise
    Reply
  • hedwar2011
    derekullo said:
    Found a cheap gaming laptop with 8 gigabytes of ram and a Geforce 3050 for $650 last year.

    Came with Windows 11 and even with removing all the bloatware it was sitting at like 5.5/8 gigabytes of ram at idle.

    Re-imaging to Windows 10 and it uses 3.8/8 gigabytes ram usage!

    Should probably upgrade the ram but as long as you don't have any other programs open, like Chrome, games run great.

    Edit: Dell G15 5525 to be precise
    It's all those crazy ads that they have appearing in every folder, menu, and orafice in Windows 11. It is such a resource hog.
    Reply
  • emike09
    I quite enjoy W11. I like the aesthetics and improvements to small things like File Explorer. I even prefer the balance of having the start menu centered. At first, I hated the centered menu and went back to left-based to make it easier to click the start button, but then figured I use the keyboard shortcut 99% of the time anyways.

    I had to do a registry hack to bring back the right-click context menu. I can't stand the new context menus. I wish they'd provide a setting to do this without modifying the registry.

    Feature-wise for gaming, auto-HDR is about the only thing that W11 gives me that W10 doesn't. I'm 100% positive that's a marketing thing from MS, but it is what it is. Performance-wise, I've got some of the best hardware money can buy, so it runs great for me; a few extra GB for the OS out of my 64GB is fine. Benchmarks between W10 and W11 on high-end hardware are almost exactly the same.

    I enjoy embracing change, even if I don't like it. As soon as something new comes out, I want to learn it in and out. The only times I didn't enjoy the changes at all was Windows ME and Windows 8. Screw those OS's.
    Reply
  • emike09
    hedwar2011 said:
    It's all those crazy ads that they have appearing in every folder, menu, and orafice in Windows 11. It is such a resource hog.
    I have zero ads anywhere. Are you running Home edition? You can disable web suggestions and suggested apps from Settings. Windows 10 has this as well.
    Reply
  • hedwar2011
    emike09 said:
    I quite enjoy W11. I like the aesthetics and improvements to small things like File Explorer. I even prefer the balance of having the start menu centered. At first, I hated the centered menu and went back to left-based to make it easier to click the start button, but then figured I use the keyboard shortcut 99% of the time anyways.

    I had to do a registry hack to bring back the right-click context menu. I can't stand the new context menus. I wish they'd provide a setting to do this without modifying the registry.

    Feature-wise for gaming, auto-HDR is about the only thing that W11 gives me that W10 doesn't. I'm 100% positive that's a marketing thing from MS, but it is what it is. Performance-wise, I've got some of the best hardware money can buy, so it runs great for me; a few extra GB for the OS out of my 64GB is fine. Benchmarks between W10 and W11 on high-end hardware are almost exactly the same.

    I enjoy embracing change, even if I don't like it. As soon as something new comes out, I want to learn it in and out. The only times I didn't enjoy the changes at all was Windows ME and Windows 8. Screw those OS's.
    That's why Windows ME stood for Mistake Edition....no one liked it.
    Reply