Love it or hate it, Windows 11 has reached one billion users faster than Windows 10

Windows 11 launched in October 2021 for the general public, and we gave it a 6.5/10 review, highlighting some productivity improvements and aesthetics, while criticizing sacrificed functionality, restrictive settings, and some awful UX elements. Although the OS has evolved quite a bit since then, and we are nearing the release of version 26H1, adoption has faced a bumpy path due to the ongoing popularity of Windows 10. Despite all of that, Microsoft's latest OS has now reached one billion users.

This announcement was spotted by Thurrott.com in Satya Nadella's opening remarks revealing the company's strong $81 billion quarter. The math comparing Windows 11's pace of adoption compared to Windows 10 is very interesting.

Windows 10 launched in July 2015, and Microsoft set lofty goals of reaching a billion users within two to three years. Within a year, the Redmond firm conceded that it won't be able to hit this target within the timeframe, and blamed this failure on the death of its Windows phone business. It finally hit this milestone in March 2020, which means that it took the firm four years and eight months to reach a billion users. This meant that it was almost two years late compared to its initial ambition.

Now, if we compare this to Windows 11, which launched in October 2021 with no such ambitious goals assigned, the OS has been able to reach the same number of users within four years and four months, which means that it outpaced Windows 10 by around four months.

While this is not a significant difference in the grand scheme of things, it does emphasize that despite all the hate surrounding Windows 11 and its apparent lack of quality and polish, people are still willing to adopt it. Some may attribute this achievement to the fact that Windows 10 has lost mainstream support, but the OS is still alive via Extended Security Updates (ESU), so it's unlikely that this has moved the needle. Regardless, it's an impressive accomplishment, and it'll be interesting to see if Microsoft is able to surpass Windows 10 beyond this figure too.

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Posted Thursday 29 January 2026 at 6:06 pm AEST (my time).

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