Slow iOS 26 Adoption
Usage data published by StatCounter (via Cult of Mac) for January 2026 indicates that only around 15 to 16% of active iPhones worldwide are running any version of iOS 26 . The breakdown shows iOS 26.1 accounting for approximately 10.6% of devices, iOS 26.2 for about 4.6%, and the original iOS 26.0 release at roughly 1.1%. In contrast, more than 60% of iPhones tracked by StatCounter remain on iOS 18, with iOS 18.7 and iOS 18.6 alone representing a majority of active devices.
Historical comparisons highlight how atypical this adoption curve appears. StatCounter data from January 2025 shows that roughly 63% of iPhones were running some version of iOS 18 about four months after its release. In January 2024, iOS 17 had reached approximately 54% adoption over a similar timeframe, while iOS 16 surpassed 60% adoption by January 2023.
[…]
In the first week of January last year, 89.3% of MacRumors visitors used a version of iOS 18. This year, during the same time period, only 25.7% of MacRumors readers are running a version of iOS 26 . In the absence of official numbers from Apple, the true adoption rate remains unknown, but the data suggests a level of hesitation toward iOS 26 that has not been seen in recent years.
I want to believe this is because people are choosing to avoid Liquid Glass, but the difference in curves is so stark that I assume it must be due to a measurement problem or a change in how strongly iOS’s Software Update is pushing new versions.
This, even given that Apple has made the 18.7.3 installer [and its security fixes] unavailable for anyone not an Apple Developer and in the beta program.
Previously:
Update (2026-01-12): Jeff Johnson (Mastodon):
The MacRumors stats appeared to provide some independent support for the StatCounter data. I made the mistake of starting to believe the story based on this, without checking the facts myself. In my defense, I’m not a news media outlet, so that’s not my job, and moreover I didn’t publish an article about iOS 26 adoption, until now.
The only site that got it right, eventually, is Pixel Envy by Nick Heer, who pointed out that the Safari browser User-Agent was partially frozen on iOS 26, as discussed in a September WebKit blog post[…]
[…]
Although Apple forces all web browsers on iOS to use WebKit, the User-Agent OS version is frozen only with Safari, not with other browsers, so third-party browsers still accurately report the iOS version.
[…]
By the way, I’m a bit puzzled by Apple’s partial freezing of the Safari User-Agent on iOS, because Safari is always inseparable from the OS, so it’s possible to derive the iOS version from the Safari version, which continues to be incremented in the User-Agent.
I was curious about iOS 26 adoption for NetNewsWire. I looked at the 30-day-active-users numbers, separated by iOS version.
Current adoption is 84% for iOS 26.
I’m slowly getting to the point where I realize that it’s close to impossible to have an app that works reliably both on iOS 18 and 26. Something is always broken. You fix one thing, it breaks something else. Apple’s solution is obviously to support 26 only, but I’m not doing them this favor.
Update (2026-01-14): Nick Heer:
Even though third-party browsers are available on iOS, most users browse the web through Safari. And that means StatCounter is almost certainly counting the vast majority of people on iOS 26 as iOS 18.7 users. I retrieved those user agent strings using StatCounter’s detection utility, which is how it says you can validate the accuracy of its statistics. And it seems they are not. (I asked StatCounter to confirm this but have not heard back.)
The actual rate of iOS 26 adoption is difficult to know right now. Web traffic to generalist websites, like the type collected by StatCounter, seems to me like it would be a good proxy had its measurement capabilities kept up with changes to iOS. Other sources, like TelemetryDeck, indicate a far higher market share — 55% as I am writing this — but its own stats reported nearly 78% adoption of iOS 18 at this time last year, far higher than StatCounter’s 63%. TelemetryDeck’s numbers are based on aggregate data from its in-app analytics product, so they should be more accurate, but that also depends on which apps integrate TelemetryDeck and who uses them. What we can see, though, is the difference between last year and this year at the same time, around 23 percentage points. For comparison, in January 2024, TelemetryDeck reported around 74% had updated to iOS 17 — iOS 26 is 19 points less.
If its reporting for this year is similarly representative, it likely indicates a 20-point slide in iOS 26 adoption. Not nearly as terrible as the misleading StatCounter dashboard suggests, but still a huge slide compared to prior years. Apple will likely update its own figures in the coming weeks for a further point of comparison.
I don’t think 15% is remarkably high for third-party browsers on iOS 26. Heer pointed me toward the Cloudflare statistics for market share by OS, which put Safari at 78%, leaving 22% for other browsers, led by Chrome. If 68% of those users have updated to iOS 26, that would amount to a 15% market share for third-party browsers on iOS 26.
Update (2026-01-23): Nick Heer:
On Friday, I received an email from Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, confirming iOS 26 users had been incorrectly counted as iOS 18.x in its analytics software and, accordingly, in its public trends. Cullen said the company was working on a patch. According to a note pinned today to the top of its iOS version chart, corrected reporting only began rolling out yesterday. However, because this chart represents a version share breakdown for a month that is mostly behind us, more accurate figures will start becoming noticeable in February.
[…]
The second is by way of Timo Tijhof, principal engineer at Wikimedia, who points me to Wikimedia’s network-wide stats showing, as of 11 January, around 50% of “Mobile Safari” visitors were using iOS 26, compared to 41% using iOS 18. […] In the week of 12 January 2025, for example, nearly 72% of visitors were using some version of iOS 18, then the most recent. The week of 14 January 2024, over 65% were using iOS 17.
Update (2026-01-26): John Gruber (Mastodon):
Statcounter completely dropped the ball on this change, and it explains the entirety of this false narrative that iOS 26 adoption is incredibly low.
[…]
iOS 26 adoption isn’t at just 15 percent, which only a dope would believe, but it’s not as high as previous iOS versions in previous years at this point on the calendar. Something, obviously, is going on.
[…]
What’s going on, quite obviously, is that Apple itself is slow-rolling the automatic updates to iOS 26. For years now Apple has steered users, via default suggestions during device setup, to adopt settings to allow OS updates to happen automatically, including updates to major new versions. Apple tends not to push these automatic updates to major new versions of iOS until two months after the .0 release in September. This year that second wave was delayed by about two weeks, and there’s now a third wave starting midway through January. It’s a different pattern from previous years — but it’s a pattern Apple controls. A large majority of users of all Apple devices get major OS updates when, and only when, their devices automatically update. Apple has been slower to push those updates to iOS 26 than they have been for previous iOS updates in recent years. With good reason! iOS 26 is a more significant — and buggier — update than iOS 18 and 17 were.
Apple already intentionally discontinued iOS 18 security updates for devices that support iOS 26, so if Gruber’s claim is true, then Apple is also slow-rolling the security updates included in iOS 26, thereby 0daying its own customer base.
In the last week or so, I’ve been getting pop-ups to upgrade to iOS 26 with nearly every interaction with my iPhone. Pick it up: pop-up. Swipe up to go to the home screen: pop-up. […] It really was quite importunate, to the point that it felt like spam. I can’t recall that happening before. Maybe in the past it would have popped up once a day, or every two days, but not with every single interaction.
This is the first time I can remember that I’ve heard multiple non-technical people complain to me about the iOS upgrade. Top complaints are, my battery life sucks now, it’s really slow, they moved everything around and it looks weird.
Update (2026-02-02): John Gruber:
A year prior in early 2024, Apple updated the numbers at some point between 23 January and 6 February. I presume, or at least hope, that they’ll update these numbers for iOS 26 any day now.
Update (2026-02-19): Joe Rossignol:
Apple has shared updated iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 adoption figures, revealing how many iPhones and iPads are running those software versions.
[…]
At first glance, the iOS 26 and iOS 18 adoption figures appear to be similar, but this is only because Apple released the iOS 26 statistics later than usual. iOS 26's statistics are based on devices that transacted with the App Store approximately 150 days after the update was released to the public, compared to 127 days for iOS 18.
At least according to Apple’s own numbers from the App Store, iOS 26 adoption is pretty much exactly in line with the rates for iOS 18 and 17. There’s no conclusion that should be drawn from this about the general opinion of the Liquid Glass UI design or iOS 26 overall. People may love it, hate it, be ambivalent about it, or not even notice — but most of them let their iPhones (and iPads) update via automatic upgrades pushed by Apple. Their opinions about iOS 26 form after they install it.
These figures measure “devices that transacted on the App Store on February 12, 2026” — but what “transacted” means is not entirely clear.
[…]
The most likely explanation is that Apple began pushing users to update to iOS 26 later than it did for iOS 18.
[…]
I still have a mindset of someone who grew up with elective software updates, when we are now in a software-as-a-service model.
28 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
I've found it surprisingly easy to stay on iOS 18.
Regular people are already sick of AI hype and, understandably, believe they'll be less annoyed by it by staying on an older OS.
Even non-nerds are at a stage of their lives where their phone does what they need it to do and they also actually really need it to work.
In your digital life, putting security concerns aside, when was the last time something really great came from an update? On any platform?
An update is now simply an invitation to make your working phone not work anymore.
Nick Heer earlier today at Pixel Envy:
-- One post links to a possible reason: https://webkit.org/blog/17333/webkit-features-in-safari-26-0/#:~:text=Update%20to%20UA%20String
-- Next post goes a bit further:
"UPDATE: My iPhone running iOS 26.3 is detected by StatCounter’s user agent detection tool as an iOS 18.7 device. This reflects how StatCounter says is how it collects its figures. Two other devices running iOS 26 were also detected by StatCounter as iOS 18.7 devices; however, on one of them in the Chrome browser, StatCounter correctly detected it as iOS 26.1. I also see this effect in my own limited analytics, where the only reports of iOS 26 versions are non-Safari browsers. If an analytics package relies on the OS version string in the user agent, it will also misreport iOS 26 Safari users."
I wonder if all of this comes back to bite indie devs in particular. For the past years it’s been fine to just support the latest two iOS versions. Is this about to change with iOS 27, if a significant number of holdouts stay on iOS 18, and we’ll have to keep supporting that for years to come?
I usually wait to upgrade until the third major update. Will wait longer this time. Possibly to 27.
Also just realized we have had a preview of iOS 26 extreme corner radius all along in iOS 18 Shortcuts dialogues. Ugly.
@Nicholas Piasecki: indeed. worse yet, iOS 26 is a degradation so from a user's point of view upgrading makes no sense. The same can be said for a hardware point of view, there is no upgrade path from my iPhone 13 mini, nor do I -battery aside- need one.
I subscribe to Michael's desire to believe in rebellion, but it has to be a measurement error.
I am waiting to upgrage for that migration to Android feature they are working on jointly with Google.
This is because Stat Counter use browser User Agent for thes stats, but iOS 26 user agent is frozen to display iOS 18.6 just like macOS and iPadOS were already doing. https://51degrees.com/blog/apple-ios26-safari26-user-agent-string-device-detection
I find out HIGHLY unlikely that people are intentionally avoiding an upgrade. It must be something else.
I bet most people either don't know about glass, or that it's supposed to suck ass.
I don't believe the data is correct. In my mainstream entertainment app with about 250k MAU I'm seeing around 56% users with iOS 26.
I'm surprised by the lack of commentary and criticism (in tech circles and the press in general) on Apple withholding the 18.7.3 update from iOS 18 users on newer phones (I know it's available for those who can't update to 26).
It feels to me like the darkest dark pattern, plainly manipulative, and harmful for users who may not be ready or willing to update to 26. I find it outrageous. We shouldn't accept and normalize malicious platform stewardship from Apple, or any other tech giant for that matter.
"I find out HIGHLY unlikely that people are intentionally avoiding an upgrade"
The weird thing is that, in my experience, most people *do* intentionally avoid upgrading their phones. They use their phones to do actual things, like doomscroll on TikTok or write angry complaints about imaginary problems on Facebook, and they hate it when anything changes. They don't care about new multitasking features or AI or anything else; they just want their TikTok or Facebook icons to be in the same place and look the same and do the same every day.
I think these numbers are wrong, but I suspect they're closer to reality than any of the previous stats that showed super-fast OS update rates.
Apple is still pushing upgrades as hard as ever on my IPad. I just chose not to upgrade, and it's the first time I've seen a lot of my friends complain about the upgrade, too. (After upgrading, though.)
> I'm surprised by the lack of commentary and criticism (in tech circles and the press in general) on Apple withholding the 18.7.3 update from iOS 18 users on newer phones (I know it's available for those who can't update to 26).
> It feels to me like the darkest dark pattern, plainly manipulative, and harmful for users who may not be ready or willing to update to 26. I find it outrageous. We shouldn't accept and normalize malicious platform stewardship from Apple, or any other tech giant for that matter.
I had to switch to beta updates to get it.
@Plume and others above are right. These days average users see a badge on settings and just say “ugh” and ignore it. Who even knows if it’s an update or just yet another ad for iCloud or Apple Music or whatever.
Users have been trained to ignore what the computer tells them because 99% of the time it’s an upsell/scam/combination of both.
And @Kristoffer that’s a great link and a good point far beyond design. Far too many people today completely ignore fundamentals and the hard learned lessons of the past. Especially in software and government.
I just bought a refurbished iPhone SE 3rd generation, and was distraught to see that it came with iOS 26. Oh how I wish I had the foresight to buy this phone before iOS 26 came out. And oh do I hate Apple for making it impossible for me to downgrade to iOS 18. I want to be part of that "slow adoption" statistic.
On the Mac side, I bought a new Mac Studio in early September expressly to avoid one with Tahoe installed.
The latest pxlnv post naively equates official App Store numbers with all devices in use.
https://pxlnv.com/linklog/macrumors-ios-26-stats/
“In the absence of official numbers from Apple”
“Apple itself said it was 68% of all iPhone users”
Those are marked “As measured by devices that transacted on the App Store” on Apple's page. Obviously people that want or need to fetch apps are more likely to run a more recent OS.
@pidgy_stardust Odd. Everyone in my family has gotten notifications, and some were tricked into updating when they didn’t mean to.
@Alexandre Thanks for pointing that out. I am curious about how Apple measures “transactions” with the App Store (do they include updates?). I will make a correction for clarity regardless.
So if I’m sticking with 18.x on all of my iOS devices, and not visiting the App Store, because all it serves up are versions which have been broken to “look right with 26,” am I counted in the stats or not?
@Nick Heer: Cool. You and everyone else being confused by the term is what Apple wants so they can push a nicer number. My best guess is that “transacting” is the act of getting an app whether free or paid, and “ON the App Store” makes me believe it’s not about IAPs. It’s doubtful the term includes updates because nearly every active device get updates and that page’s numbers were always much nicer than other public third-party numbers.
I got recently, and unwillingly, trapped into installing iOS 26:
I opened Safari, and at the bottom there was a small prompt view. I could not read it well as I didn't have my glasses on, but I could see that the right button said something like "continue". So I tapped that because I was in the middle of opening a web page and had no time to go thru whatever it wanted from me. But that was apparently the prompt for accepting to install iOS 26. There was no further confirmation. Just this one tap - I mean, one could even accidentally tap it while trying to go somewhere, and it just pops up where you don't expect it. Once it showed that it was in the middle of installing iOS 26, there was also no way to cancel it, not even able to turn it off to stop it. I'm quite angry with Apple for this but what can I do.
