Windows 10 now on 600 million actively used devices

At a shareholder meeting, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed Windows 10 now has 600 million monthly active users. That's 100 million more since May of this year, but it should be noted that this figure includes all Windows 10 based devices, including phones and the Xbox.

This number counts all Windows 10 devices used over a 28-day period. While most of these will be PCs, there are other things in the mix there: a few million Xbox Ones, a few million Windows 10 Mobile phones, and special hardware like the HoloLens and Surface Hub. The exact mix between these categories isn't known, because Microsoft doesn't say.

At the current growth rate, Microsoft may achieve over 700 million active users by the time that Windows 10 celebrates its third anniversary. That's well under the original, self-imposed target of 1 billion users.

But Microsoft already acknowledged in July 2016 that it wouldn't be able to hit that target. One of the reasons is that Windows 10 smartphone sales turned out to be a dud, Microsoft counted on 50 million more phone sales a year, but that's now a pipe dream.