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Windows 10 passes 50 per cent adoption - among Steam users

by Mark Tyson on 3 January 2017, 12:31

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), AMD (NYSE:AMD), Valve

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As one month ends and another begins the Steam Hardware and Software Survey is updated. As we reach 2017 it is interesting to note Microsoft's latest OS has reached a new milestone. Now, according to these latest figures, Windows 10 is the OS of choice for greater than half of all Steam users.

Microsoft might be happy to learn that Windows 10 is now the most popular OS among all Steam users. Microsoft's OSes overall account for 95.6 per cent of all Steam users, and versions of Windows 10 in use now tally to 50.35 per cent. Have a look below for a full multi-platform OS summary ranking table:

  • Windows 10: 50.35 percent
  • Windows 8.1: 8.76 percent
  • Windows 8: 1.25 percent
  • Windows 7: 33.87 percent
  • Windows Vista: 0.19 percent
  • Windows XP: 1.15 percent
  • Mac OS X: 3.44 percent
  • Linux: 0.87 percent

As might be expected, all other versions of Windows lost market share in the most recent recorded month. Windows 10 gained 0.75 percentage points in December. Considering it has been 16+ months since its launch the sub percentage point monthly increase isn't to be sniffed at.

Sifting through the Steam data it's interesting to see the graphics card trends playing out. The biggest winners in December were Nvidia's GeForce 10 series, particularly the GTX 1060. AMD's Radeon RX 460, 470, and 480 did OK too, climbing 0.16, 0.16, and 0.11 percentage points respectively.

Gamers are often seen as early adopters of new hardware and software technologies, and the Steam survey shows that theory holds some water. Elsewhere, in general OS usage surveys, Microsoft's Windows 10 is having a hard time cracking the 25 per cent milestone (see below).

Looking forward there are signs that Microsoft is going to cater even more for gamers, with the impending Windows 10 Creators Update. Last week we noticed new Windows 10 'game mode' settings in an insider release of the OS.



HEXUS Forums :: 45 Comments

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Windows 10 is utter crap. I thought they'd do a better job after 8 and 8.1 but no…
fend_oblivion
Windows 10 is utter crap. I thought they'd do a better job after 8 and 8.1 but no…
I think that's over-stating it. There are large parts of it I really like.

Sadly, there are several critical issues that, for me, are red-lines. So while I have test systems (that aren't, and never have been on my network) I won't ever be using Win10, or descendants thereof, as part of my network, unless MS reverse-course on my red lines. And as I can see that ever happening, Win10 is a non-starter for me.
Thats sad the AMD 400 series are so low. The 480 has made very good gains with recent driver updates (up to 10% in some cases). Its sad how gaming is becoming so Nvidia/Intel focussed… Just hoping Rizen will allow AMD to shake it up some more.
Don't mind Win 10. For the majority of people it's fine
Only issue I've discovered with 10 is an annoying habit of dropping out of full screen mode (to minimised) at random intervals. To be fair this might be fixed now (hasn't happened much recently) and might also occur in Win7 (although I never experienced it).

Win 8 was an abomination. I have absolutely no idea what MSFT were thinking about. 8.1 made 8 barely usable. Barely.

Perhaps 8 was only created to make 10 look better ?