Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is ranked number one in market share in the IDC Worldwide Corporate Endpoint Security Market Shares report, 2022

Microsoft security researchers tracked a 130.4 percent increase in organizations that have encountered ransomware over the last year. Endpoints are an important attack vector and ensuring that organizations have modern endpoint security as part of a broader extended detection and response strategy, is top of mind for chief information security officers (CISOs). In line with these trends, IDC reports that the endpoint security market grew by 29.2 percent in 2022, reaching an all-time high of USD13.1 billion.1

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a comprehensive endpoint security platform that provides extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities, and much more with support across Windows, Linux, macOS, as well as iOS and Android devices. If your organization has less than 300 users, Microsoft launched Microsoft Defender for Business for small and medium businesses, which brings many of the enterprise capabilities in an easy to use and affordable solution.

Today, we are proud to share that Microsoft is ranked number one in market share in the IDC Worldwide Corporate Endpoint Security Market Shares report, 2022.1 More customers choose and trust Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to defend their multiplatform devices than any other vendor. We are grateful to our customers and partners for choosing Microsoft as the most trusted endpoint security provider worldwide.

a person sitting on the seat of a car

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Discover and secure endpoint devices across your multiplatform enterprise.

As shown in Figure 1, IDC estimates that Microsoft has the highest market share of 18.9 percent in 2022 with an increase of 7.2 percentage points over 2021, making it the market share leader in endpoint security for 2022.

Microsoft believes that offering customers tailored endpoint security offerings and product experiences to meet their unique needs is critical in empowering defenders. That is why our portfolio spans from offerings for enterprise to small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Graph showing Microsoft having a majority of the market share in endpoint security solutions.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is an enterprise endpoint protection platform that enables security teams to gain a holistic view into their device estate across multiplatform endpoints, servers, as well as enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and mitigates threats with key capabilities including:

  • Endpoint detection and response (EDR).
  • Vulnerability management.
  • Attack surface reduction.
  • Next-generation protection.
  • Auto investigation and response.

While prevention capabilities and vulnerability management are critical for endpoint security solutions, protection capabilities are key for defenders to help keep their organization safe. That’s why Defender for Endpoint protection goes far beyond traditional antivirus technologies. Our next-generation protection combines machine learning models trained on cloud-scale data and behavior-based detection to protect in real-time against malware, polymorphic threats, and other malicious activity. 

Defender for Endpoint is available through two plans, with Plan 1 (P1) delivering endpoint protection focused on prevention and Plan 2 (P2) adding EDR capabilities and more.

Along with larger customers, SMBs are facing an increasing volume and sophistication of cyberattacks, with 82 percent of ransomware attacks now targeted at small businesses.2 However, SMBs often lack access to the right resources and tools—with advanced solutions being either too complex, too expensive, or both. With the launch of Microsoft Defender for Business in 2022, Microsoft brought many of the enterprise-grade capabilities from Defender for Endpoint in an easy-to-use and affordable solution to SMB customers and their partners. The full set of capabilities maps to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework as well as several cyber insurance frameworks. Over the last year, we have also introduced several new innovations in Defender for Business and Business Premium including server protection and mobile threat defense for standalone customers who may not have a mobile device management solution.  

Microsoft leads the way in EDR

Endpoint detection and response capabilities are critical in keeping up with the quickly evolving threat landscape. They empower defenders to continuously monitor their environments, and automatically correlate related signals and alerts while helping automate the response for an effective defense, where AV protection is no longer sufficient. Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Business provide advanced attack detections that are near real-time and actionable, so security analysts can prioritize alerts effectively and take response actions to remediate threats. The effectiveness of the Microsoft solution is validated by MITRE in the latest attack evaluations that showcased:

  • Industry-leading protection: Microsoft’s industry-leading capabilities quickly identified suspicious activity and offered real-time containment to rapidly stop the attack.
  • Superior detection and protection on Linux: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint blocked everything on Linux, providing exceptional detection, protection, and visibility that comprehensively captured Linux file server activity.
  • Excellent detection and visibility across the attack chain: Our world-class security operations experience and Microsoft 365 Defender capabilities showed the full attack story across domains and quickly correlated all activity down to two incidents.

Go beyond EDR with extended detection and response

While endpoint security remains critical, email and identity remain the prevalent entry points for attackers. So while endpoint security is essential to any security strategy, XDR enables organizations to build a holistic approach with full visibility and signal correlation across security domains.

Microsoft 365 Defender is a leading XDR solution that delivers a unified investigation and response experience and provides native protection across endpoints, hybrid identities, email, collaboration tools, and cloud applications with centralized visibility, powerful analytics, and automatic attack disruption. With Microsoft 365 Defender, organizations can gain a broader set of protections including email security and identity and access management as critical preventative solutions, benefit from auto-healing capabilities for common issues, and scale security operations center teams with XDR-automated disruption to protect against ransomware and other advanced attacks more effectively while safeguarding organizations’ business continuity.

Learn more

If you are not yet using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, learn more on our website or start a free trial today.

If your organization has less than 300 users, we also encourage you to explore Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Defender for Business.  

Learn how to supercharge your security operations with XDR.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and Twitter (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.


1IDC, Worldwide Corporate Endpoint Security Market Shares, 2022: Pace of Growth Accelerated Through 2022, doc #US49349323. June 2023.

2The Devastating Impact of Ransomware Attacks on Small Businesses, Quinn Cleary. April 4, 2023.

READ MORE HERE