New iOS 26 adoption data shows surprising results months after release

But that doesn't appear that way with iOS 26 at all, according to data from third-party sources like StatCounter. StatCounter's analytics company released its global market share numbers for different iOS versions earlier in the month. The data revealed that iOS 26 is a combination market share of about 15 percent. This includes iOS 26.1 (10.59 percent) in addition to iOS 26.2 (4.48 percent).

This is a significant reduction from the previous year, when the iOS 26 market share 18 update was hovering at 63 percent by the end of January. Apple's own data on device usage on iOS 18 also corroborated these findings, showing that Apple iOS 26 adoption rate was installed in 67 per cent of available devices in that same period.

iOS 26 is distinct from previous updates because of the Liquid Glass design language. The major redesign of the company in recent years has been made available to every operating system.

Liquid Glass is a fresh coat of paint on its UI, which brings transparent and glass-like elements that behave the way they would when placed over various materials. Liquid Glass did not end in being a cult favorite and was met with mixed feedback from users, which could be the reason why it has a lower rate of popularity. The company has made improvements to Liquid Glass over its incremental improvements.