[jacobolus]

> Mechanical keyboards almost universally

You’re going to have to be more precise than this. Most “mechanical” keyboards from the 80s–90s do not (the Model M is not at all exceptional in this sense). I would guess most of the more recent ones (marketed to ordinary typists) don’t either.

For enthusiast-/gamer-targeted keyboards from the past few years you could be right.

[thfuran]

Surely 30 year old keyboards constitute a tiny niche of extant keyboards.

[jacobolus]

The majority of extant keyboards at this point are probably laptop keyboards, followed by cheap rubber membrane boards. “Mechanical” keyboards are a small niche. I would guess desktop mechanical keyboards for commercial/office use are probably still bigger than the consumer market, but I’m not really sure.

I don’t have any data about the number of keyboards still in active use / still in working order, but the number of mechanical keyboards produced 2–3 decades ago was probably an order of magnitude larger than the number produced today. And while most have been scrapped by now, keyboards are pretty durable.

The past few years has seen significant growth in the number of people buying mechanical keyboards though, so you could be right that new devices make the majority.