Windows 11 is now used by 1 billion people worldwide.
This is a major milestone for the desktop operating system, which is currently one only version supported by Microsoft. The US company announced the achievement during its latest earnings call.
CEO Satya Nadella said: "Windows reached a big milestone, 1 billion Windows 11 users. Up over 45% year-over-year."
PC users have jumped to Windows 11 faster than its predecessor, Windows 10. The latest iteration of Windows managed to reach 1 billion users in 1,576 days, less than the 1,706 days it took Windows 10 to reach the same milestone.
One factor behind reaching the achievement so quickly may be Microsoft’s decision to end support for Windows 10 in October of last year. This means free software updates to address security vulnerabilities, bugs, and critical issues for the older operating system are no longer available.
This has pushed many users to either upgrade to the new operating system or replace their PCs with devices that support it. Microsoft itself referred to 2025 as 'the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh'. And it seems like hundreds of thousands took their word for it.
As a result, Microsoft has also seen a sharp uptick in Windows 11-compatible PC shipments over the Christmas season — further pushing the number of users to the 1 billion mark. The tech giant pulled in a whopping $81.3 billion in revenue during the quarter, with that figure climbing 17% compared to the same period last year. Net income also hit $30.9 billion, which represents a 23% increase for the company.
Windows 10 support offiicially ended on October 14, 2025
| MICROSOFT PRESS OFFICESeveral PCs that can't upgrade their operating systems past Windows 10 are either from 2018 or older, resulting in many being forced to invest in a new PC.
Microsoft warns that anyone who continues to use Windows 10 will be left "at greater risk for viruses and malware." Once a flaw in the operating system has been uncovered, hackers can continue to exploit the vulnerability in millions of PCs with no fear that Microsoft will issue a fix.
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Beyond security concerns, compatibility issues will mount. Glitches or security flaws unearthed in older versions Microsoft Word, Outlook, or Excel are no longer patched by Microsoft.
Despite the Windows 10 expiration date, this isn't the only reason Microsoft has been able to hit this milestone.
Windows 11 was first released on October 5, 2021. A recent report from IDC revealed that PC makers have been stockpiling inventory to get ahead of potential tariffs and the ongoing RAM shortage across the industry. Most recently, the founder of British start-up Nothing confirms smartphone price will rise, and the first-of-its-kind Freely box hit with a price rise just two months after release.
If you avoid the switch to Windows 11, you'll miss out on new Windows features, which are exclusive to the Windows 10 successor moving forward | MICROSOFT PRESS OFFICE Despite Windows 11 hitting such a huge milestone, a record number of Windows users have forgone updating entirely and have instead downgraded to Windows 7 — the predecessor to Windows 10.
However, switching to Windows 7 doesn't solve the biggest problem with Windows 10. Since Microsoft has also ended support for this operating system, it no longer receives regular security updates, meaning any vulnerabilities discovered in the software will remain for the foreseeable future.
Windows 7 launched worldwide in October 2009 and sold over 630 million copies before it was superseded by Windows 8 in October 2012.
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