According to Surfshark Antivirus, Windows devices continue to attract significantly more malware than Macs, with recent data revealing a sixfold difference in threats per user and diverse attack methods affecting both platforms.
Surfshark Antivirus says Windows devices continue to attract far more malware than Macs, with the latest figures suggesting that Windows users encounter almost six times as many threats per person as macOS users. The company’s research, which drew on its antivirus user base, found that Windows customers made up 66% of active users but accounted for 92% of detections, while macOS users represented 34% of the base and just 8% of detections. Surfshark said that challenge is not limited to conventional malware, because Mac users can be more exposed to phishing and other forms of social engineering when they assume Apple devices are inherently safer.
The threat mix also differed sharply by platform. On Windows, trojans were the dominant category and made up 46% of detections, compared with 25% on macOS. Phishing was much more prominent on Apple’s desktop system, ranking third with 15% of detections, while it accounted for just 3% on Windows. Riskware, a broad label for software that can create security or privacy problems without always being outright malicious, accounted for 19% of Windows detections and 17% on Macs. Adware was a smaller share on both systems, at 4% on Windows and 3% on macOS.
The findings build on earlier Surfshark data published on its research site, which said its antivirus logged 479,000 malware cases in 2025, with 419,000 on Windows and 60,000 on macOS. That worked out at nearly seven times more detections per user on Windows than on Macs. Other security research has complicated the simple idea that one platform is safe by default. Kaspersky has reported that macOS users said they experienced more malware, phishing, fraud and data theft than Windows users over the past year, yet they were less likely to use security tools. Microsoft, meanwhile, has warned that infostealer malware is increasingly moving beyond Windows and is being adapted for Macs through social engineering tactics and malicious installers. Taken together, the reports suggest that while Windows still faces the larger overall malware burden, Mac users are not insulated from a fast-evolving threat environment.
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