I’ve just read an article from a well-known tech site declaring that Windows 11‘s market share is dropping while Windows 10 is gaining market share. An assertion that was based solely on the fact that, during the past month, StatCounter’s desktop operating system market share statistics showed a swing away from Windows 11 in favor of Windows 10.
The mistake that the tech site made is relying on StatCounter’s statistics to come to that conclusion. StatCounter is a site that analyses market share based on information derived from visitors across 3 million monitored sites. However, the statistics gathered by StatCounter are notoriously skewed, and that well-known tech site should know better. Allow me to explain.
Why StatCounter’s Numbers Are Not Accurate
Part of StatCounter’s methodology is to count all visits, rather than only unique visits. This means that, if the same user visits one or more of the monitored sites multiple times during any given period, each of those visits is counted.
For example, if the same user visits one or more of the monitored sites (say) 12 times during any given period using the Edge browser from within Windows 10, StatCounter is increasing both Edge and Windows 10 usage by 12 when, in reality, those numbers should be only be increased by 1 – equaling a single user.
This flaw in StatCounter’s methodology is what, at times, produces seemingly unusual fluctuations in its market share statistics. The only way to accurately measure market share is to count unique visits only. NetMarketShare, which used to provide a similar service, only counted unique visits and, as such, was the trusted source for these types of statistics- over and above StatCounter.
Unfortunately, NetMarketShare’s service is now defunct and, with StatCounter being the sole alternative, everyone is now relying on StatCounter’s service for market share statistics.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that StatCounter’s statistics should be discounted altogether, they still provide a ballpark guide. What I am saying is that StatCounter’s statistics are simply not accurate enough to define these types of trends.
Is Windows 11 Losing Ground To Windows 10?
I seriously doubt it. It is possible that some users might be downgrading from Windows 11 to Windows 10. However, in my humble opinion, it is far more likely that StatCounter’s flawed methodology is responsible for producing misleading statistics.
By all means, use StatCounter’s market share statistics as a guide but because of the flawed methodology often resulting in unusual fluctuations, one should not read too much into them – and the tech sites that do read too much into them should know better.
Then again, as far as tech site journalism goes these days, sensational headlines trump accuracy all day.
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Well Jim , you may very well be correct that NetMarketShare stats may be skewered but the fact is that Windows 11 market share is nowhere where it should be , it is undeniably lower than Windows 10 when at this point in time it should be very close to, on par with or higher than Windows 10 .
We are less than 10 months away from Windows 10 end of life and a market share of 35 to 40% at this point in time simply just not cut it for the OS.
I have known some that have bought brand new PC’s with Windows 11 preinstalled just to downgrade them to Windows 10 THAT’S how disappointed some are with this OS. Windows 11 started as nothing more than a tablet OS that didn’t do very well at all but Microsoft was unwilling to take a loss on it so they decided to convert it to a PC OS and it STILL isn’t doing very well , yet Microsoft keeps trying to cram it down everyone’s throat and the truth is , most of us are not having it.
Most , if not all Windows 10 users that I know are going to keep using the OS beyond end of life , despite all the Microsoft scaremongering … because that is pretty much all it is.
Not NetMarketShare Ed, their stats were always trusted. It’s StatCounter’s stats that are skewed.
Agreed, Windows 11’s uptake has been slow. That’s partly because the OS has not proved to be popular but also because MS’s ridiculous requirements eliminated millions of Windows 10 PCs from the upgrade path.
Mate, you’ll get no argument from me., I agree with everything you’ve said.
“Agreed, Windows 11’s uptake has been slow. That’s partly because the OS has not proved to be popular but also because MS’s ridiculous requirements eliminated millions of Windows 10 PCs from the upgrade path.”
Thanks for the reply and exactly my point Jim, there isn’t a person at Microsoft that convince me they are doing this for security reasons, especially when so many “unsupported” PC’s can run the OS just fine.
Personally to me , it is nothing but a money grab by a conglomerate looking for kickbacks from all these hardware manufacturers .
Most Windows 10 systems already have TPM and secure boot preinstalled , so what this is REALLY about is kickback money from the CPU manufacturers .
Windows 11 is no more secure than Windows 10 with TPM and Secure Boot enabled. But obviously they have millions drinking the Microsoft kool aide.
Despite what everyone thinks , there is no boogey man hanging out just outside your router , it’s a falsity. The plain truth is if you visit nasty places on the web , nasty things happen. I have some friends that still use Windows XP as a novelty OS and connect their systems to the web and are YET to have anything bad happen.