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Windows 10 ousts Windows 7 as most popular with Steam gamers

by Mark Tyson on 4 April 2016, 09:31

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Valve

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As one month ends and another has begun we are again treated to the Steam Hardware & Software Survey. Often there are interesting trends to be seen in this survey concerning OS market shares, and what tech spec configurations and component brands are in the ascendency.

In the latest survey, covering the month ending March 31st, there are a few key milestones passed. The most important milestone is, of course, the one you can see in the headline. Windows 10 (64-bit) is now more popular among Steam users than the old favourite Windows 7 (64-bit). Yes, this milestone is 64-bit only, as you can see from the screenshot of the OS charts below. Going forward, it looks like a very large percentage of AAA PC games will be 64-bit, with only a few 32-bit exceptions to that rule.

Steam users often crave newer hardware and software than the average PC user, as modern action games popular on the platform benefit from the newest, latest and greatest spec components you can afford. This means that trends shown in the Steam surveys are a little ahead of the general PC market but a good sign of things to come.

While on the topic of Steam platform OS market shares, the various flavours of Windows hold 95.7 per cent of the market, Mac OS X users are next with 3.32 per cent and Linux grabs just 0.85 per cent of the share. As reported by Phoronix, Linux is down from 0.95 per cent in January. The Linux share is likely more to do with the growth of Steam in general, with most new users having Windows PCs, rather than Linux users switching platform. The same source also notes that SteamOS/Steam Big Picture Mode users aren't currently prompted to sign up and take part in the Steam survey.



HEXUS Forums :: 39 Comments

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Not surprising, for all the hate often directed at MS, nothing comes close to Windows. No desktop linux OS with it's design cues taken from the 90's is ever going to be popular.

Win10 is basically MS version of OSX, last version of Windows to be made so just updates to that from now on.

Steam OS is a dud (coming from someone who was a big supported for it initially) Valve's laissez faire approach means development meanders along, big name AAA titles are rare and the ones that even are have serious bugs and performance issues even on Nvidia GPU's. No key “console” titles from publishers like sports or lego games, it's mostly just a large pile of indie trash.

Ironically the biggest thing that could help Steam Machines would be if MS ported the Xbox UI to Win10 so the Xbox app could turn into Xbox Media Centre. That would give PC makers a more appealing way to sell HTPC's, instead of bolting on modded UI's to Windows or using SteamOS. Then just use any of the UWP apps which can pin Steam games to Xbox UI or run Steam UI itself.
Kato-2
No desktop linux OS with it's design cues taken from the 90's is ever going to be popular.

I think Linux has a much bigger obstacle than that: Linux is made by programmers for programmers. This is not a bad thing, but it does mean that Linux will never have mass market appeal. The Linux cultist who believe that Linux has not achieved mainstream status due to a conspiracy by Microsoft or, indeed, any other reason, are simply ignorant of how regular people interact with their computers.
Dont underestimate the avarage gamer, if linux would work even remotely as good as windows then people would find ways to migrate… The problem is that linux performance is so far off windows even for games that work natively that its not worth a look. valves own games have much (by as much as 20-30%) lower fps than on windows
Lies, damned lies, and statistics…

Nice completely misleading article headline with a correction below. I'm not sure why it was chosen to be written that way? Windows 10 at 38.28%, Windows 7 at 39.96%, it's getting close but it's simply not true that “Windows 10 ousts Windows 7 as most popular with Steam gamers”.

Please please please don't start going the way to Toms Hardware with cringe worthy click-bait headlines. Please remain better than the average internet site. We are not here yet:

valhar2000
Kato-2
No desktop linux OS with it's design cues taken from the 90's is ever going to be popular.

I think Linux has a much bigger obstacle than that: Linux is made by programmers for programmers. This is not a bad thing, but it does mean that Linux will never have mass market appeal. The Linux cultist who believe that Linux has not achieved mainstream status due to a conspiracy by Microsoft or, indeed, any other reason, are simply ignorant of how regular people interact with their computers.

+1 for that comment.