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Could it be that former Apple designer Alan Dye’s swan song, Liquid Glass, has failed? Statcounter data seems to show that iOS 26 adoption lags that of previous operating system releases at this stage of the release cycle. It indicates that around 64.6% of users are still running iOS 18 — with just 16.3% on iOS 26.
This data suggests adoption to be far, far slower than we’ve seen before. In January 2025, more than 60% of users were already running some version of iOS 18; iOS 17 had surpassed 50% at the same point a year earlier. There’s such a huge divergence between the claimed iOS 26 adoption data and historical patterns, it’s hard to accept the figures.
Update: As it turns out, the Statcounter data is off — likely because WebKit no longer shares current OS version data in part of the user agent string Statcounter might be surfacing for this information.
So, is the data accurate?
Anecdotally, given the record iPhone 17 sales we’ve seen since the new iFamily launched, the latest claims feel somewhat counter-intuitive. As an alternative take, TelemetryDeck data sees 60% iOS 26 adoption, far more in keeping with Apple’s historical adoption patterns.
