{"id":39525,"date":"2021-11-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/?p=39525"},"modified":"2025-12-11T12:25:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:25:50","slug":"email-client-market-share-october-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021","title":{"rendered":"Email Client Market Share in October 2021: Updates and More"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t
\n
\n \t
\n \t\t
\n \t\t\t
\n \t\t\t\t

Welcome back! It\u2019s time for us to recap the previous month and see what shifts happened with email client market share.<\/p>\n

This time, we\u2019ve got an exciting update to share: We recently launched our new and improved email client market share<\/a> site to include Apple\u2019s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) data, pre- and post-MPP launch.<\/p>\n

Read on to learn about the updates, how you can use email client market share, and what shifts we saw in October 2021.<\/p>\n

What changed with Litmus\u2019 email client market share site?<\/h2>\n

Over the years, Litmus has reported on email client market share to help marketers make better decisions when it comes to strategy and prioritization for design, coding, and overall email program focus\u2014both on our email client market share<\/a> site and this blog series, which looks at the data on a month-to-month basis.<\/p>\n

On September 20, 2021, Apple\u2019s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)<\/a> went into effect, impacting Apple Mail users on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey devices, regardless of email services. This meant marketers would no longer be able to see reliable open rates, open times, geolocation, or device usage for users who opt into MPP\u2014impacting the way Apple market share is analyzed.<\/p>\n

As a result, we\u2019ve updated our email client market share site to include post-MPP data as well as historic, pre-MPP data (you can check it out here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Is email client market share still useful?<\/h2>\n

You might be thinking: Is email client market share useful, if a significant portion is impacted by MPP?<\/p>\n

The answer: Yes! Although MPP is impacting (and will continue to impact) the way Apple market share is analyzed, we\u2019re still able to glean valuable insights with the data we pull from Litmus Email Analytics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, although these are powerful insights on the industry as a whole, the real power lies within your<\/i> analytics\u2014that is, your audience. Use email client market share as a macro-level resource but also a tool to you help you better understand your subscribers\u2019 behaviors.<\/p>\n

Top email clients<\/h2>\n

With the introduction of MPP, we\u2019re now grouping Apple iPhone (iOS Mail), Apple Mail (macOS Mail), Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail), and Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP-impacted opens) under \u201cApple.\u201d Why?<\/p>\n

These three Apple email clients\u2014iOS, iPadOS, and macOS\u2014are historically in the top 10 email clients. Now with Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP-impacted opens) in the mix, it will eventually show a significant increase in its market share as adoption increases, which is not necessarily an accurate reflection as those opens are inflated due to MPP.<\/p>\n

So, to help with consistency moving forward, we\u2019re grouping all Apple email clients together, including Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP-impacted opens) since we know that overall, Apple remains to possess the greatest market share.<\/p>\n

As we shared last month in our September 2021 email client market share<\/a> blog, there two key things to note: 1) MPP hides device data so we can\u2019t differentiate between iOS, iPadOS, or macOS, and 2) the new OSes also don\u2019t differentiate between MPP and non-MPP in the user agent data it passes.<\/p>\n\"Top\n

Now that we\u2019re grouping Apple email clients into one category, the top 3 email clients look a bit different. Previously in fourth place was Outlook, which has been the case from the first quarter of 2021<\/a>, but it now joins the rank as one of the top 3 email clients.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Apple: 51.4%<\/li>\n
  2. Gmail: 33.7%<\/li>\n
  3. Outlook: 5.3%<\/li>\n
  4. Yahoo Mail: 2.8%<\/li>\n
  5. Google Android: 2.3%<\/li>\n
  6. Outlook.com: 1.2%<\/li>\n
  7. Samsung Mail: 0.6%<\/li>\n
  8. Windows Live Mail: 0.1%<\/li>\n
  9. Web.de: 0.05%<\/li>\n
  10. GMX: 0.04%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here\u2019s a breakdown of Apple email clients:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Apple iPhone (iOS Mail): 27.36%<\/li>\n
    2. Apple Mail Privacy Protection: 14.35%<\/li>\n
    3. Apple Mail (macOS Mail): 8.78%<\/li>\n
    4. Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail): 0.91%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Opens by environment<\/h2>\n

      As we\u2019ve mentioned, MPP prevents marketers from seeing device usage (aka, where<\/i> opens are coming from), so we aren\u2019t able to differentiate between reading environments. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve created a separate category for Apple Mail Privacy Protection.<\/p>\n\"Opens\n

      Since its launch in September, MPP adoption has increased as people upgraded their Apple OS. Compared to September, Apple Mail Privacy Protection\u2019s share jumped from 6.6% to 14.2% in October.<\/p>\n

      As a result, market share across all other reading environments have decreased. Webmail saw a slight drop from 40% to 39.8%, while mobile fell from 36.6% to 30.7%. Desktop decreased from 15.8% to 14.0%.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Webmail: 39.8%<\/li>\n
      2. Mobile: 30.7%<\/li>\n
      3. Apple Mail Privacy Protection: 14.2%<\/li>\n
      4. Desktop: 14.0%<\/li>\n
      5. Other: 1.3%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Most popular mobile opens<\/h2>\n

        When looking at mobile, the top 3 most popular clients are Apple iPhone (iOS Mail), Google Android, Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail), as expected.<\/p>\n

        Apple iPhone (iOS Mail) still holds a majority of the market share, though it did see a decline from 89.9% to 87.9%. Google Android increased from 5.6% to 7.3%, while Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail) stayed the same at 2.9%.<\/p>\n\"Most\n

          \n
        1. Apple iPhone (iOS Mail): 87.9%<\/li>\n
        2. Google Android: 7.3%<\/li>\n
        3. Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail): 2.9%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Most popular webmail opens<\/h2>\n

          Over in webmail, the three most popular webmail clients are Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook\u2014similar to previous months.<\/p>\n\"Most\n

          Although Gmail holds steady in the #1 spot, it did see a decrease, dropping from 89.6% in September to 89.1% in October. Yahoo Mail increased its share slightly from 7.2% to 7.5% as did Outlook.com, from 3% to 3.2%.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Gmail: 89.1%<\/li>\n
          2. Yahoo Mail: 7.5%<\/li>\n
          3. Outlook.com: 3.2%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Wondering why we categorize Gmail as webmail? Learn how Gmail opens are reported in Email Analytics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

            Most popular desktop opens<\/h2>\n

            The top 3 most popular desktop opens remain the same: Apple Mail (macOS Mail) in first with a majority of the share, Outlook in second, and Windows Live Mail in third.<\/p>\n\"Most\n

            Apple Mail (macOS Mail) went down a few percentage points, from 64.5% to 61.8%. In contrast, Outlook\u2019s market share increased from 34.6% to 37.2%, as did Windows Live Mail, growing slightly from 0.7% to 0.8%.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Apple Mail (macOS Mail): 61.8%<\/li>\n
            2. Outlook: 37.2%<\/li>\n
            3. Windows Live Mail: 0.8%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Light Mode vs. Dark Mode opens<\/h2>\n

              As of September 2021, we were able to start tracking Dark Mode usage on a more regular basis.<\/p>\n\"Light\n

              Light mode is the most popular setting, which was the case last month too, but with minor shifts: Light mode usage increased slightly, from 73.7% to 74.4%, and in turn Dark Mode decreased from 26.3% to 25.6%.<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. Light Mode: 74.4%<\/li>\n
              2. Dark Mode: 25.6%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                As a reminder: Our Dark Mode data is based only on the Apple Mail app for iOS 13, macOS 13, iOS 14, macOS 14, iPadOS 14, iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and Apple Mail privacy-impacted devices.<\/p>\n

                Now look at your<\/i> audience<\/h2>\n

                Though email client market share provides powerful insights on the industry as a whole, the real value lies within, with your<\/i> audience. The key is getting to know your<\/i> subscribers\u2014and one of the tools to help you do that is email client market share.<\/p>\n

                Small shifts over time can lead to big changes. Stay tuned next month as we share our findings and continue to track the impact of MPP.<\/p>\n

                Where did we get all this data?<\/b> Our email client market share stats are pulled from over a billion email opens, anonymously collected and aggregated with Litmus Email Analytics<\/a> from October 1-31, 2021. It highlights global trends across all industries and verticals. Some email clients may be over- or under-represented, particularly with mobile and webmail. This is due to image blocking or image caching, most notably with Gmail. Still curious? Learn how we get this data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

                \n\n\n\n
                <\/td>\n\n

                Get insights into your<\/em> audience\u2014with Litmus Email Analytics<\/strong><\/p>\n

                Get visibility into your audience\u2014Apple Mail and otherwise\u2014so you can see how much your program is being impacted by MPP, adapt for the future, and continue to create more effective campaigns, faster.<\/p>\n

                Book a demo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

                 <\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n \t\t<\/div>\n \t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                View the top email clients by email opens from October 2021. And find out how it\u2019s changed and how that affects your email marketing program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":39526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[10251,681],"blog_category":[57,118],"class_list":["post-39525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-email-client","tag-email-client-market-share","blog_category-observations","blog_category-stats"],"yoast_head":"\nEmail Client Market Share in October 2021: Updates and More - Litmus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"View the top email clients by email opens from October 2021. And find out how it\u2019s changed and how that affects your email marketing program.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Email Client Market Share in October 2021: Updates and More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"View the top email clients by email opens from October 2021. And find out how it\u2019s changed and how that affects your email marketing program.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Litmus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-22T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-11T17:25:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/October-2021-Email-Client-Market-Share-Blog-Banner.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@litmusapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@litmusapp\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Email Client Market Share in October 2021: Updates and More - Litmus","description":"View the top email clients by email opens from October 2021. And find out how it\u2019s changed and how that affects your email marketing program.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Email Client Market Share in October 2021: Updates and More","og_description":"View the top email clients by email opens from October 2021. And find out how it\u2019s changed and how that affects your email marketing program.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021","og_site_name":"Litmus","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp","article_published_time":"2021-11-22T15:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-11T17:25:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1380,"height":725,"url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/October-2021-Email-Client-Market-Share-Blog-Banner.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@litmusapp","twitter_site":"@litmusapp","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Email Client Market Share in October 2021: Updates and More","datePublished":"2021-11-22T15:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-11T17:25:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021"},"wordCount":9,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/October-2021-Email-Client-Market-Share-Blog-Banner.png","keywords":["Email Client","Email Client Market Share"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021","name":"Email Client Market Share in October 2021: Updates and More - Litmus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/October-2021-Email-Client-Market-Share-Blog-Banner.png","datePublished":"2021-11-22T15:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-11T17:25:50+00:00","description":"View the top email clients by email opens from October 2021. And find out how it\u2019s changed and how that affects your email marketing program.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/October-2021-Email-Client-Market-Share-Blog-Banner.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/October-2021-Email-Client-Market-Share-Blog-Banner.png","width":1380,"height":725},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-client-market-share-october-2021#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Email Client Market Share in October 2021: Updates and More"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/","name":"Litmus","description":"Are you getting the most out of your email marketing?","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization","name":"Litmus Software","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/featured-image.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/featured-image.png","width":600,"height":314,"caption":"Litmus Software"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp","https:\/\/x.com\/litmusapp"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121620,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39525\/revisions\/121620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39525"},{"taxonomy":"blog_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_category?post=39525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}