What share of computers are Macs and what share run Windows?

Windows runs most desktop computers, and macOS is a clear second. Worldwide in September 2026, Windows ran 76.41 percent ¹ of the desktop computers that loaded pages tracked by StatCounter, and macOS ran 16.74 percent ². The rest is mostly Linux and ChromeOS. The figures cover desktops and laptops only, not phones or tablets.

Windows leads everywhere, but the gap is narrower in some countries

Windows is the largest desktop system in all nine regions the data covers: the world, the United States, Europe, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, India and Brazil. Its share is lowest in the United States at 64.52 percent ³ and in the United Kingdom at 69.05 percent ⁴. It is highest in Brazil at 86.75 percent ⁵ and in India at 82.30 percent ⁶.

Germany sits at 76.56 percent ⁷, France at 77.30 percent ⁸, and Japan at 78.75 percent ⁹. All of the Windows rows are in the table below.

Macs are most common in the United States and the United Kingdom

macOS is strongest where Windows is weakest. In the United States it ran 26.44 percent ¹¹ of desktops in September 2026, and in the United Kingdom 24.57 percent ¹². Elsewhere in Europe it sits close to the world figure: 16.49 percent ¹³ for Europe as a whole and 16.23 percent ¹⁴ in Germany. In Brazil (7.92 percent ¹⁵) and India (6.73 percent ¹⁶) it is much smaller. Our page on where Macs are most common goes through the ranking country by country.

Windows has slipped worldwide since 2019 and macOS has gained

The data is tracked monthly since January 2019. Worldwide, Windows went from 83.31 percent in January 2019 to 76.41 percent in September 2026 ¹. Over the same period macOS went from 13.61 percent to 16.74 percent ². The chart shows both lines.

The pattern is not the same everywhere:

• United States: Windows fell from 73.52 percent to 64.52 percent ³, while macOS rose from 19.65 percent to 26.44 percent ¹¹.
• Germany: Windows fell from 82.46 percent to 76.56 percent ⁷, and macOS rose from 13.79 percent to 16.23 percent ¹⁴.
• Japan: the reverse. Windows rose from 73.58 percent to 78.75 percent ⁹, and macOS fell from 25.56 percent to 15.01 percent ¹⁷.
• France and Brazil: Windows fell a little and macOS also fell a little, which means other systems, mainly Linux and ChromeOS, took the difference.

So the drop in Windows is not only a gain for Apple. Linux and ChromeOS grew too. See our page on how many desktop computers run Linux for that side of the story.

What these numbers do and do not measure

The figures are shares of page views, not of devices or people. A person who browses a lot counts more than one who browses a little, and the sites in StatCounter's network are not a random sample of the web. Single months can swing by several points, so a one-month move is not a trend. The first and last readings above are two points in a series of 93 monthly readings.

They also say nothing about phones and tablets, which are a separate measure, and systems below StatCounter's own reporting threshold are left out. The data is published by StatCounter under CC BY-SA 3.0. It tells you what people browse from, not what they own, how old their machines are, or what they use them for. You can see every row, with its source, in the full dataset.

What this means if you choose how to dictate

The practical point is that most people reading or writing on a desktop are on Windows, and a large minority are on a Mac. A dictation tool that only works on one of them leaves out many users, so check which system you and your colleagues use before you commit to anything.

Both systems have free built-in dictation, and for light use that is often enough. For longer documents, accuracy, custom vocabulary, or working offline, a dedicated app can be worth testing. Yap, which we make, runs on Mac and Windows. To compare tools side by side, see the market overview, our guide to the best dictation software, and the wider overview of dictation software.

If you use a Mac, read our overview of dictation on Mac. If you use Windows, read our overview of dictation on Windows. If you are in the United States or the United Kingdom, expect to meet more Mac users than the world average would suggest. If you are in Brazil or India, expect fewer.