Has the death of Windows 10 finally begun? Windows 11's popularity is suddenly skyrocketing

• Windows 11 is now on 72.78% market share of Windows versions
• According to StatCounter, it's jumped 22% in the past two months
• Windows 10 has fallen from 44.68% at the end of last year to 26.45%

It seems that Windows 10 is finally getting pushed firmly aside, as Windows 11's market share has jumped in a big way since 2026 began.

According to the latest figures for Windows market share in February 2026 from StatCounter, Windows 11 hit 72.78%. That was up from 62.41% in January, and the OS was only at 50.73% at the end of December 2025.

In short, Windows 11 has gained a mammoth 22% market share in just two months since this year began.

Unsurprisingly, the analytics firm recorded a similar drop for Windows 10, which stood at 44.68% at the end of 2025, and has now slumped to 26.45%, a drop of over 18%.

Windows 11's other gains came at the expense of Windows 7, which has dwindled to almost nothing (at long last), dropping to 0.6% (it was at 3.8% at the end of 2025).

Analysis: PC price hikes are likely a driving factor

This is a telling shift for Windows 11, following some serious wobbles for the OS last year in terms of market share. Of course, we should bear in mind the usual caveats: this is just one set of figures from a single source, and the way StatCounter gathers its data doesn't reflect the number of PCs out there directly. (It's based on website visits, any given Windows system that's very active online will have a disproportionate influence on the stats, as I discussed recently).

Still, even with those nuances taken into account, clearly something big has happened over the last couple of months for Windows 11, with a shift of over 20%. Why now, though? I think this could well represent quite a lot of businesses who needed hardware upgrades to get Windows 11 — as their fleets of Windows 10 computers weren't compatible with the newer OS — and they've gone ahead and upgraded now, to avoid the bigger price hikes on PCs that may well come into play later this year (sparked by the RAM crisis).

The same is likely true of consumers, who may have pulled the trigger on a new Windows 11 laptop in the past couple of months to grab a decent price, rather than being hit more by the mentioned memory crisis-related price rises.

Both businesses and consumers will need to decide what to do ahead of October 2026 anyway, as this is when Microsoft's free year of support for Windows 10 runs out for the latter (and the price of extended support is increased for companies). I'm guessing March is going to be another sizeable increase in Windows 11 adoption, before things slow down leading up to October.

The best laptops for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best laptops
1. Best overall:
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4
2. Best budget:
Asus Chromebook CM14
3. Best Windows 11 laptop
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch
4. Best gaming:
Razer Blade 16
5. Best for pros
MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro)

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