Windows 10 climbs to 700 million devices en route to elusive 1 billion goal

Just a few months prior to Windows 10's launch, Microsoft's Terry Myerson, then head of the company's operating system group, made an ambitious prediction—Windows 10 would reach 1 billion devices "in two to three years." Now just a little over three years later, Windows 10 is on 700 million devices, 300 million short of that original goal.

Microsoft offered up the updated the statistic at its Ignite 2018 conference earlier this week, Neowin reports. Myerson had previously said that Windows 10 was approaching the 700 million devices mark, making the statement back in March when announcing his departure from Microsoft. The last official figure was 600 million, back in November of last year. That means Windows 10 has expanded to 100 million more devices in the past 10 months. At the current pace, it will take another two and half years to reach 1 billion.

There's no way to know if the pace will stay the same, though. A lot of things can happen in 2-3 years. Starting in early 2020, for example, Microsoft will end support for 2020 and start charging businesses for security updates to Windows 7. That could potentially give Windows 10's footprint a boost.

It also remains to be seen what impact gaming will have on Windows 10's footprint. Microsoft's DirectX 12 API is not supported on earlier versions of Windows, and if ray tracing takes off the way Nvidia hopes it will, that could provide further incentive for gamers on older OSes to upgrade. It's worth noting that Microsoft's DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API is an extension of DX12.

The latest figures from Steam's monthly hardware and software survey show that Windows 10 is still making headway among gamers. As of the end of August, over 60 percent of Steam gamers are running Windows 10 64-bit, versus around 31 percent of Windows 7 users (32-bit and 64-bit combined). That's up from 54 percent a month prior.

We don't expect ray tracing to have an immediate impact on these figures. It's just too early—developers have to embrace ray tracing, and we still don't know how Nvidia's GeForce RTX cards will perform when they do. Pile on high asking prices (compared to GTX cards), and it's just not likely to be an overnight sensation.

Still, Nvidia and Microsoft are laying the groundwork, and it remains to be seen how AMD and even Intel, which is aiming to launch its first discrete GPU in 2020, will approach ray tracing. It's probably not a question of whether Windows 10 will hit 1 billion devices, but when.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

Latest in Windows
Microsoft Copilot
A rather pleasing Windows 11 update bug automatically uninstalls Copilot and unpins it from the taskbar, which is jolly nice of it
Microsoft's Task Manager in Windows 11
After years of complaints about Windows Task Manager displaying CPU utilization incorrectly, a fix is finally on its way
Microsoft Windows 11
The latest Windows 11 dev build gives you the ability to snap together commonly paired apps for access in a single click, and I'm already sold
Windows 11's new emoji button in the taskbar.
You might mock Microsoft's new emoji button in Windows 11 but as someone that's explained how to quickly access emojis and special characters too many times, I get it
Windows 10 operating system logo is displayed on a laptop screen for illustration photo. Gliwice, Poland on January 23, 2022.
Valve's monthly survey reveals that almost 45% of Steam users on PC are still using Windows 10 even with the sword of Damocles hanging over them
Microsoft Windows 11
If you installed Windows 11 with certain security updates and a USB stick, you may not get any more security updates warns Microsoft
Latest in News
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
As layoffs and studio closures continue to deathroll the western AAA industry, analyst points out 5 of 8 major Japanese companies hit all-time share prices this year