Windows 11’s Overall Market Share May Be As Low as 2%

It has been nearly 5 months since Windows 11 was officially released and I don’t think it an understatement to say that, on the whole, consumer attitude towards upgrading to the new operating system hasn’t been entirely enthusiastic. – Following the last survey conducted on the subject, less than 1% of ‘generic’ PC users questioned had actually upgraded to the operating system, and worse, similar research found that as many as 80% of people had no idea Windows 11 even existed, let alone that it had actually been released!

Just how bad has the adoption rate been though? Well, based on the latest figures provided by Statcounter, and the help of a little math, it would appear that the overall market share of Windows 11 may be as low as 2%!

Windows 11 – 5 Months On and Just 2% to Show For It!

Admittedly, the 2% market share figure we’ve cited here is more of an approximation than a confirmed number. How did we come up with this though? Particularly since Microsoft certainly hasn’t confirmed anything (yet). Well, based on the information we do have, the market share is clearly pretty grim as Statcounter doesn’t even have Windows 11 listed as an individual category yet!

Based on the drop in both Windows 10, 8, and 7 users over the last couple of months, however, and the slight rise in that tiny dotted line of ‘other’ at the bottom, I don’t think it is any stretch to suggest that this is Windows 11. And if it is, judging by the scale, this shows it as only having around 2-3% market share!

This is, admittedly, quite a contrast to the latest Steam Hardware Survey that shows Windows 11 having a 13.56% market share. Remember though that the Steam figures are only taken (generally speaking) from the gaming community. With Statcounter taking a far wider approach, including office, business, and generic home users (as well as gamers), Windows 11 is, based on this data, only currently installed on around 1 computer in every 50!

Why Is Adoption So Poor?

The issue of Windows 11’s poor adoption rate largely comes down to six key factors:

• It’s unusually high system requirements (based upon prior operating system standards) require a reasonably modern PC system. Anything older than 4-years-old is, basically, automatically ruled out (if you want updates at least)
• The requirement of having Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 enabled before it will install (not impossible, but well beyond the knowledge of the average PC user)
• A total lack of public awareness about the operating system. Ask people who don’t keep up with PC news and it seems clear that the majority don’t even know that Windows 11 exists
• Windows 10 is a good, well-known, and generally reliable operating system with a huge market share. People do not like change!
• The ‘If it’s not broken…’ mentality- Home users and businesses probably don’t want to upgrade. They see absolutely no reason to do so and don’t want to risk any disruption or things ‘going wrong’
• Windows 11 already has a pretty poor reputation with many people that will only discourage others to not make the ‘upgrade’

Put simply, as things currently stand, I’d be hugely surprised if Windows 11 manages to hit a 10% market share before the end of this year. In fact, I don’t even think it’s going to come via upgrades. The adoption rate will more be driven by people and businesses buying new PC systems with it already in place. – With official support for Windows 10 set to end in 2025, however, Microsoft clearly has a huge problem on their hands here!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!