Apple unveils features of iOS 18 in 2024 — image credit: Apple
Apple’s reported adoption rate for iOS 18 is slightly below the average of the past decade’s releases, despite expectations for enhanced popularity driven by Apple Intelligence.
As of January 2025, iOS 18 is already at 76% adoption among compatible iPhones, surpassing the rate of iOS 17 from the previous year. This is surprising given Tim Cook’s earlier announcement in October 2024 of expectedly faster upgrades.
“This is a preliminary figure based on just three days of data,” he stated, “but users are adopting iOS 18.1 at double the rate of 17.1 during the same period last year.”
He elaborated, “The strength of iOS 15 over 14, and iOS 16 over 15, played a role, while the 15 Pro and Pro Max also utilize Apple Intelligence.”
Apple has now released what is likely its final report on iOS 18 adoption, indicating that it is currently installed on 82% of compatible iPhones.
A Decade of iOS Adoption Rates
According to Apple, this adoption rate is attributed to increased user awareness of update benefits and the simplicity of the process.
However, when comparing figures from the last ten years, iOS 18 stands at just under the average of 83.2%. Here are the specific rates from iOS 8 in 2015 to iOS 18 in 2025 for all compatible iPhones:
- 2015 iOS 8: 84%
- 2016 iOS 9: 84%
- 2017 iOS 10: 86%
- 2018 iOS 11: 81%
- 2019 iOS 12: 87%
- 2020 iOS 13: 81%
- 2021 iOS 14: 90%
- 2022 iOS 15: 82%
- 2023 iOS 16: 81%
- 2024 iOS 17: 77%
- 2025 iOS 18: 82%
Over the past decade, iOS 14 achieved the highest adoption rate at 90%, while iOS 17 had the lowest at 77%.
These statistics were sourced from Apple’s developer website, which periodically measures adoption rates based on user access to the App Store, typically within a timeframe from late May to mid-June.
Apple’s Adoption Rate Metrics
Apple does not provide detailed statistics on point releases such as 18.1, 18.2, etc. However, since 2019, it has tracked iOS adoption rates for devices released in the last four years.
The reasoning behind this four-year segmentation is unclear, but it does not significantly bolster the position of iOS 18.
Using this four-year data, the average adoption rate stands at 87.9%, placing iOS 18’s rate of 88% just slightly above average. The minimum adoption rate during this span was 85%, seen with both iOS 12 and 14, while iOS 13 peaked at 92%.
Interestingly, in certain years, the latest iPhones did not experience higher adoption rates compared to the overall iPhone population. For instance, in 2021, the adoption rate for iOS 14 among these newer models was 5% lower than the average for all iPhones, at 85%. Similarly, in 2019, iOS 12 trailed by 2% at 85%.
Here’s the complete list of Apple’s figures for “all devices introduced in the last four years” since the tracking began:
- 2019 iOS 12: 85%
- 2020 iOS 13: 92%
- 2021 iOS 14: 85%
- 2022 iOS 15: 89%
- 2023 iOS 16: 90%
- 2024 iOS 17: 86%
- 2025 iOS 18: 88%
Overall, the adoption rate for iOS across compatible devices remains relatively stable, never dipping below 77% nor exceeding 90% in the last decade.
In contrast, a report from Talk Android in May 2025 indicated that only 4.5% of Android devices were utilizing the latest operating system.