14 DAY TRIAL // It’s no surprise that Windows 10 is increasing its share around the world, but as far as Steam is concerned, the new operating system has impressive performance and is now very close to reaching 50 percent.
Whether it’s DirectX 12 or the other improvements that Microsoft made improve gaming in Windows 10 and Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the company’s strategy is definitely working, and these statistics provided by Valve come to confirm it.
The 64-bit version of Windows 10 has reached a share of 47.44 percent last month, up 2.77 percent since July, while the 32-bit flavor dropped 0.07 percent to 1.51 percent. This leads to a combined share of 48.95 percent for Windows 10, which means that nearly 1 in 2 PCs used for playing games on Steam are running Microsoft’s new operating system.
Buh-bye, Windows 7!
Windows 7, on the other hand, is collapsing, just like all the other versions of Windows that are still being used by Steam gamers. The 64-bit version lost 1.29 percent of its users to drop to 28.74 percent while the 32-bit is now at 5.92 percent, down 0.38 percent.
Windows 8.1 64-bit continues to be the third choice for Steam gamers, but it’s very far behind with just 8.57 percent, while Windows XP (yes, Windows XP!) is now at 1.56 percent, down only 0.14 percent.
If you’re looking beyond Windows in Steam’s share data, there’s not much to see. Mac OS X has a combined share of 3.34 percent, versus Windows’, which is now at 95.71 percent. Linux is almost nowhere to be seen with a share of 0.83 percent, up only 0.02 percent from the month before.
Judging from the performance of Windows 10 in the last few months, the new OS is bound to surpass the 50 percent milestone this month, so expect it to grow bigger in the next stats. Windows 7, on the other hand, is likely to drop even more, but it’ll undoubtedly continue to be the second most-popular choice for many gamers.