Valve: Over 44% of Steam users run Windows 11

The recently published data from Statcounter showed that Windows 11 is getting more popular among users, even though the nine-year-old Windows 10 still massively outperforms it. However, Windows 11 is doing much better among gamers, where it is about to catch up with its predecessor.

Valve's latest Hardware & Software Survey results revealed a notable increase in Windows 11 machines accessing Steam every month. It was the only Windows version that increased its market share in January 2024. Right now, it holds roughly 44.23%, which is a 2.29 gain over December 2023. With that change, Windows 10 is less than 8% away.

1. Windows 10 64-bit - 51.43% (-2.02 points)
2. Windows 11 - 44.24% (+2.29 points)
3. Windows 7 64-bit - 0.59% (-0.09 points)
4. Windows 8.1 64-bit - 0.13% (-0.02 points)
5. Windows 7 32-bit - 0.05% (-0.01 points)

As you can see, pre-Windows 10 releases still have enough users to show up in monthly reports, even though participation is optional. That will soon change since Valve ended Steam support on Windows 7 and 8/8.1 in January 2024, citing the end of Chromium support on those operating systems. Even though unsupported Windows versions can still access Steam, the app might stop working at any moment due to changes that require a minimum of Windows 10 or newer.

Here is what was happening on the hardware side in January 2024. The most notable change is that the laptop variant of the RTX 3060 graphics card is now the third most popular GPU on Steam. The GTX 1060 is now in fourth place

You can find more information on the official Steam website.