Apple Updates Its Own iOS Version Figures ⇥ macrumors.com

Apple has updated its own iOS usage figures (Internet Archive link for posterity). These figures measure “devices that transacted on the App Store on February 12, 2026” — but what “transacted” means is not entirely clear.

Even so, of transacting iPhones introduced in the last four years, 74% are running iOS 26; overall, 66% of iPhones measured are on iOS 26. This compares to year-ago figures of 76% and 68%, respectively, on iOS 18 — except it is not exactly a perfect comparison.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

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. In other words, iOS 26 was available for around three weeks longer by comparison.

As was suspected, this means that iOS 26 adoption has officially been slower than iOS 18 adoption, but not to the extent that some earlier, unofficial estimates had claimed. There is no way of knowing exactly why iOS 26 adoption has been slower, but some users have opted to avoid the new Liquid Glass design for now.

The most likely explanation is that Apple began pushing users to update to iOS 26 later than it did for iOS 18. What this does not indicate is a mass or even medium-scale rejection of Liquid Glass, and I question whether a large number of users are actively avoiding the iOS 26 update. I am sure some are but, given the scale at which Apple operates and defaulting to automatic updates, I cannot imagine this has as much of an effect as Apple’s decision of when to aggressively push an update.

I thought there was a 20-point gap between adoption last year and this year, and I thought that might be user-motivated. I got that wrong. 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. What I think I got right, though, is my comparison with iOS 7, which achieved rapid uptake in just a few months. If iOS 26’s design or features were exciting to enough people, they would clamour to manually update. Instead, they seem perfectly happy for Apple to make that choice for them.