PC gamers are finally moving on from Windows 10, the threat of end-of-life is real
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The Steam Hardware survey for June has been released, giving us the latest on what Steam users are running in their PC builds. One of the biggest changes we’ve noticed is the adoption of newer operating systems, particularly among users finally upgrading their version of Windows.
Last month, Windows 11 was already the most used OS on Steam, but a growing number of PC gamers are starting to upgrade, perhaps reluctantly. With a sizeable increase of 1.54% users, Windows 11 usage now sits at 59.84%. Windows 10 has lost 1.31% of its user base, down to 35.69%, and even Windows 7 has dropped by the tiniest of margins.
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This is likely since Windows 10 is going to lose support by the end of the year, and you’ll want to upgrade to keep receiving updates, especially if you want security updates for free. We also have to keep in mind that the Steam survey doesn’t cover every system, and it might just be that the group of users surveyed this time has adopted the OS more compared to the previous months’ group.
Windows should be getting better for gaming, too
Although this time around Linux didn’t make any gains, it still has a good 2.57% of the OS adoption, higher than Apple OSX. Mainly thanks to handhelds like the Steam Deck that use the platform to create their gaming experience. With SteamOS being a prominent option, its benchmarks show much better performance for handhelds than Windows; Microsoft was at risk of losing out to it in that area.
That’s why it has set a target for making Windows the number one platform for gaming, which Xbox announced alongside its AMD partnership. Doing so for its ROG Xbox Ally release, making the platform a lot leaner and more unified, much like SteamOS, and making these handhelds a viable option compared to SteamOS.
With Xbox’s unified game library being tested, it’s already showing what Windows 11 can look like for handhelds. So once those heavy process overheads are cut down, we might finally see improved battery life and higher framerates from the platform.
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