Six months in, Windows 8 is selling at the same rate that Windows 7 did

Windows 8 has come under criticism from many quarters since its launch, yet consumers are still buying it, for better or for worse. At six months, the same number of licenses were sold for both Windows 7 and Windows 8, according to Microsoft’s own sales figures.

Microsoft on Tuesday revealed that its latest and greatest operating system had passed the 100 million mark. This means that the two grew at the same rate during their respective first six months:

Windows 7 launched on October 22, 2009. In April 2010, Microsoft revealed that through the third quarter (ended March 31, 2010), the company had sold over 100 million Windows 7 licenses, keeping its crown as “the fastest selling operating system in history.” That means 100 million licenses were sold in just over six months, or 160 days to be exact.

Windows 8 launched on October 26, 2012. On May 7, Microsoft revealed that it has sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses so far. Again, that means 100 million licenses sold in over six months, or somewhere under 193 days.

Unfortunately, these numbers aren’t directly comparable because we don’t know when exactly Microsoft saw Windows 8 pass the 100 million mark. Officially, the company only says that it “sold more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses in the product’s first six months.”

We do know, however, that this latest Windows 8 figure was not revealed as part of the company’s last earnings report (the quarter ended March 31, 2013). If the company did, Windows 8 sales would have been across 156 days, less than for Windows 7, and thus it would have seen a higher number of average licenses sold per day.

It’s quite likely that Windows 8 hit 100 million sales closer to 193 days than 156, otherwise Microsoft would have released the news sooner. All that we know for sure is that on a monthly basis, Windows 8 is keeping up with Windows 7.

What’s next? Well, given that after one month, Windows 8 was outselling Windows 7, and now it seems to be on par, we wouldn’t be surprised if its future growth fell behind that of its predecessor. Yet Microsoft isn’t waiting around to see if that proves true; the company is already starting to talk about Blue and will reveal more next month.