by Valve has released its monthly report on Steam market share broken down by each OS on the market, and there’s some surprising news for Windows 10 and 11.
According to the latest Steam hardware and software survey results, Windows 11 Steam market share decreased by 0.11%, going from 21.23% to 21.12%. This effectively marks the first time that Windows 11 has lost rather than gained gamers on Steam.
And judging from the same data set, Windows 10 increased its Steam market share by 1.91% in the same month. That suggests the OS managed to scoop up those who jumped from Windows 11, as they certainly didn’t jump to Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, both of which lost market share last month, along with Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit). Losing a full percentage point (1.03%, to be exact), the 64-bit version of the aged OS accounted for a full 0.97% on its own.
Analysis: What does it all mean?
If Steam gamers are willing to go back to Windows 10 despite the older OS, there’s a good chance it’s because they were unhappy with the Windows 11 experience. Considering how many issues Windows 11 has faced in the months since release, between the UI design itself and updates that keep breaking various functionalities, we can sympathize.
Microsoft is also looking at Steam’s overall market share Problem convincing gamers To switch to Windows 11. The monthly increase in market share has been modest at best, and only 21.12% of gamers are even using it overall, compared to 73.17% using Windows 10.
Considering that in a month’s time we did Break in Microsoft OutlookAn update which is a Endless reboot loopand running Problems with printing With those still not fully fixed, it’s no wonder gamers would rather stick with a more stable OS. And as far as we can tell from the July 2022 survey results, there are people who gave Windows 11 a chance and decided to go back to Windows 10.
Just as interesting, perhaps, are the large number of Windows 7 users who decided to upgrade, but who seem to have upgraded to Windows 10 rather than Windows 11. Despite Microsoft’s best efforts to move everyone, Windows 10 continues to put up a surprisingly stubborn fight. In its new OS.
Over time, that change will happen, mostly as Windows 11 matures and becomes more stable. Lest we forget, the suddenly beloved Windows 10 was a buggy, unstable flusterclock when it launched, so there’s no reason to think that Windows 11 won’t follow the same trajectory in the future.
