The latest desktop operating system statistics for December 2025 released by data analysis company Statcounter show that the market share of Windows 11, the only one currently in the mainstream support period, fell back to 51.75% from 53.7% in November, a trend that runs counter to Microsoft's expectations. Due to the limited statistical coverage of Statcounter, its numbers are not absolute values, but it is still regarded as a more reference external window for observing the progress of Windows 11 promotion.
Windows 10, which officially ended its support cycle in October, unexpectedly "recovered", with its share rising from 42.7% in November to 44.29%, while Windows 7 still accounts for 2.19%, and the proportions of other Windows versions are negligible. This means that after officials stopped providing free security updates for Windows 10, a large number of users still chose to stick to the old system instead of fully transitioning to Windows 11 as Microsoft intended.
Unlike Statcounter's overall desktop data, in the latest hardware and software survey of gaming platform Steam, Windows 11's appeal among players is still increasing, and its share has risen to 65.59%, an increase of 2.02 percentage points in a single month. In contrast, Windows 10's share on Steam has dropped to 29.06%, a drop of 2.08 percentage points in a single month, showing that game users are significantly more active in upgrading their systems.
If you zoom out to the competition among all desktop systems, Windows' overall share fell from 69.37% to 66.67% in December 2025, continuing the weakening trend throughout the year; in December 2024, this number was still 73.38%. Although many users have expressed that they will switch to Linux after Windows 10 retires, Linux still accounts for only 3.18% of the desktop, and has not yet formed a large-scale migration effect.
In the enterprise and institutional market, although Windows 10 has ended mainstream support, Microsoft still provides paid extended security updates (ESU) to help enterprises continue to maintain their existing environments without replacing hardware or migrating applications. For many companies that rely on specific Windows applications, the likelihood of a lift-and-shift move to Linux is low, so extending the use of Windows 10 or carefully evaluating an upgrade to Windows 11 remains a more realistic option.
The report also reminds ordinary users who are still stuck on Windows 10 without ESU that over time, the system will become increasingly vulnerable to security risks. If the existing hardware meets the requirements, users can still choose to upgrade to Windows 11; if the hardware conditions do not meet the requirements, they can consider using a Linux distribution as an alternative to find a compromise between security and cost.