We used to regularly keep tabs on Android version distribution numbers as a way to see how quickly (or slowly) phone makers were adopting the latest version of Google’s mobile OS. But then from the end of 2018 into 2019, Google mostly cut off public access to that info and instead only released it to developers and in not-so-regular intervals. Now, this info pops up in developer dashboards from time to time, like we saw this week to at least keep us somewhat in the loop.
According to the latest data, as of October 1, Android 13 is the new king of Android versions with almost a quarter of phones running it. Android 13 jumped from at around 15% of the Android pie to 22.4% since May 2023. Granted, we reached this point over a year since it first launched, but it’s a noteworthy move even if Android 14 is now available and should start to scrape away at it.
The other top Android version at the moment is Android 11 (21.6%), followed by Android 10 (16.1%), Android 12 (15.8%), and Android 9 (10.5%). You might be wondering why older versions of Android like Android 11 or Android 10 or 9 still hold such a large chunk, and well, that just means there are a whole bunch of people still using phones with those versions. Don’t let anyone tell you that folks don’t hold onto phones far beyond a year or two.
Here’s the full list of Android version shares from May 2023 to October 2023 that was shared to reddit:
- Android 13: 15% -> 22.4%
- Android 12: 16.3% -> 15.8%
- Android 11: 23.1% -> 21.6%
- Android 10: 17.8% -> 16.1%
- Android 9: 11.9% -> 10.5%
- Android 8.1: 6.1% -> 5.4%
- Android 8: 2.2% -> 1.9%
- Android 7.1: 1.5% -> 1.3%
- Android 7: 1.5% -> 1.3%
- Android 6: 2.3% -> 1.9%
- Android 5.1: 1.5% -> 1.2%
- Android 5: 0.3% -> 0.2%
- Android 4.4: 0.5% -> 0.4%
I know that there will still be folks who respond to this with, “This is bad – Apple is better!” after all these years. That’s…unfortunate. Folks, Android and iOS are not the same. Apple is a single company who controls everything within a single phone line. Android is an operating system used (and customized) by dozens and dozens of different companies who also sometimes make dozens and dozens of different devices. They update some at a decent pace, but not all. Some manufacturers are better at it than others, that’s for sure. If you want to make a comparison to Apple, it would be Google’s Pixel line, which is updated the minute new versions of Android are released to all of their still-supported phones. Make that comparison and things probably line-up pretty well.
Anyways, new version distribution numbers! It has been a while.
