Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 10 in October 2025, bringing a decade of the operating system to a close. Although PCs with the software installed will continue to function, without the latest security patches, users will be left more vulnerable to hacks and cyber threats than if they upgrade to Windows 11.

Windows 11 was released in 2021 and Microsoft offers it as a free upgrade to anyone with a Windows 10 PC. But, as noted by Window Central, a strange thing has happened since Windows 10 was retired in October: global use of Windows 11 is in decline, while use of Windows 10 is on the rise.

That’s according to the newest numbers from Statcounter, which show Windows 11 had a 55.18 percent share of the worldwide Windows market in April, the highest it has ever been. However, this figure fell to 53.7 percent in November 2025, and then again to 50.73 percent in December.

At the same time, Windows 10 dipped to 41.71 percent in October, before rising to 42.7 percent in November and then 44.68 percent in December.

Given Windows 10 has been given its full end of life status and Windows 11 is being offered as a free upgrade, you would have thought the numbers would have gone in opposite directions since October, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Statcounter is a service that does what it says on the tin. It does not provide reasons as to why the stats are as they are, which means we can only speculate. But it is very notable that Windows 10 should in fact start to rise in use the very month it has been retired.

It’s possible people still on Windows 10 have opted to join Microsoft’s Extended Security Update (ESU) programme that offers another year of security updates until 2026.

Windows 11 has also had a tough start to 2026, with reports recently confirming a bug that stopped PCs from shutting down or being put in sleep mode, as well as the general creep of AI into the faces of users in the form of Microsoft Copilot.

There was even confusion when some thought Microsoft had rebranded Microsoft Office as the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, only for people to realise that only covered a specific use case of Office services, not the overall branding itself.

This is all to say, consumers appear to be somewhat disheartened by Microsoft’s push to Windows 11 at all costs, especially if those customers are still using Windows 10 computers and resent being told to upgrade – because, if your machine can’t handle Windows 11’s system requirements, you might be faced with having to buy a whole new PC just to have up to date software.

Whatever the reasons people are leaving Windows 11 and continuing to use Windows 10, it will be interesting to see where the market share between the two operating systems sits by the end of 2026.